Hello again. To catch you up on events in light of my last posting, I am grateful to say the department has come through. I have been offered an additional $2400 in summer funding. This is great news! Summer and the next academic year are now set.
So, a blind man and the race issue. What are my credentials to be able to have anything to say about racism, you ask? Just one. I’m blind. Notice I didn’t say that I’m White or Black or of mixed heritage. I am blind, and that includes color blindness. Walking down Green Street, I can’t tell White pedestrians from Black pedestrians from Asian ones. Speech patterns, accents and dialects help, but they’re not foolproof. So for our purposes, remember that I am totally blind and keep that in mind as I take apart both sides in our current racial climate, if you would. Just a note, I’m going to focus mostly on the Black-White divides because they’re most pressing right now. Though what I say can and should be applied to everyone.
Everyone today holds up the Trayvon Martin case as an example of blatant racism, and no blog post about racism, it seems, would be complete without talking about it. Well, I’m not going to. The media is notoriously unreliable, I don’t have all the facts, and even if I did, building a case for rampant racism based on one incident which may or may not have been racially motivated demonstrates just the sort of logic I take points off for in student term papers. So for those reasons I am saying nothing about the unfortunate death of Trayvon Martin, the racial motivations of George Zimmerman or anything else related to that case. Moving on.
What is noteworthy to me is not the Trayvon Martin murder case per se, but rather the polemics that have emerged because of it. White republicans poopoo any notion that there could be race-based animosity springing up today. White democrats and liberal Black folks are ready to go to war over what they see as the continuing oppression of just about everyone in this country except White males. Moderates, it seems, are keeping their mouths firmly shut lest somebody get pissed off. And everyone wonders why I don’t align myself with a political party? As a dear friend would say, “hmph.”
My first encounter with racism on a large scale was the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles. More specifically, I’m referring to the riots that broke out in 1992 following the initial acquittal of the officers involved. I was nine years old when it happened. To put it plainly, I didn’t understand. You see, I grew up in demographically mixed army towns. At that time I lived in Killeen Texas. My best friends were a Black kid and a Hispanic. I was bullied by White kids and helped out by Black kids. I was bullied by Black kids and a Black bully got his ass kicked by a couple of Hispanic kids for messing with the little blind kid. Race just didn’t enter into it for me. Why should it have? So when the beating was reported and L.A. burned for two days, I asked why. Why did they beat the man? For being Black? Why did the people react and burn the city? My family had no good answers.
I continued to live in demographically mixed cities until I left for college. Memphis was the first predominantly Black city I lived in, and I lived there for five years. Knoxville Tennessee was the first predominantly White city I lived in as a graduate student, and I lived there for two years. Champaign Illinois is probably predominantly White, but what’s interesting is that I live in the campus community, which accounts for better than half the total population. Our Asian population is enormous, and this is my first time living in large Asian-populated areas. I have lived here for four years. Everywhere I have lived, I have observed both racial tension and racial cooperation. There are racists on both sides of any race line, and there are those on both sides of a race line who see beyond color. What have I inferred from this?
First, racism is not particularly White and not particularly American. Americans talk, both Blacks and Whites, as though America takes the prize for most racist, most racially divided and most racially this, that and the other. Just not most racially peaceful. Never that prize. The truth is that every nation and culture throughout history has had its culturally inculcated (and sometimes legally sponsored) racial prejudices. And within every culture, there have been those who accepted those prejudices unquestioningly, those who took those prejudices to extremes, and those who rejected them. It is the way of our history. I am not aware of a single culture that would prove to be an exception to what I said. I challenge anyone to find me one. This is not to say that I like the pattern. Racism is one of the deplorable aspects of a sinful humanity, one of many. America is no exception, probably neither better nor worse than half a hundred others I could name, that is, if qualitative comparisons like that were either possible or of any real value. I am not sure that they are, so I won’t try to make them.
Ok, so I’ve established that racism is definitely not just an American thing. So far, nobody would really argue me on that one. But is it a White issue? Are Whites the big, bad racists in this country? Let me tell you a couple stories from my undergrad days. I took both political science and philosophy my first semester at the University of Memphis. In my poli sci class, there was a fellow who once tried to tell me that, being White, I was automatically part of the entrenched empowered elite. He soon learned that he’d picked the wrong White man to pitch that argument to. I pointed out that I was blind, that statistically speaking, more of my demographic was out of work than his (about 70% presently) and finally, that being blind brought as much if not more crap down on my head than being Black brought down on his own. It was a friendly conversation, and while he didn’t particularly care for his idea being rejected, he couldn’t argue with me about it either. You see, I know exactly what I’m talking about when it comes to many types of discrimination. Again, “hmph.” But the philosophy class bears the more interesting tale.
I’ll never forget this. It was Phil. 1102, a modern issues course. We were talking about hate speech and racism. The instructor of that course, a doctoral student, was leading the discussion. I noticed that all the sample texts we were using that day talked about hate speech in one particular way. Anti-Black hate speech. More specifically, anti-Black hate speech delivered by White supremacists. As the talk went on, I found myself wondering why there was no racial diversity in the discussion of hate rhetoric. Finally, I raised my hand and asked whether anti-White hate speech shouldn’t be given equal consideration as we talked about the issues of the class period. The instructor asked me to explain what I meant by anti-White. When I did, she flatly asserted, “There’s no such thing as racism against Whites.” When I contested this, she responded, “I’m sorry, but you can’t enslave a people for three centuries and then expect them all to like you. I don’t think that just because someone resents the treatment of their race that that qualifies as hate speech.” My jaw dropped. In essence, what she seemed to be saying was that if Black folks like Louis Farrakhan went on anti-White blasting campaigns, what they said was justified and should be tolerated, if not accepted. Hmph. Now I ask you, was that, or was that not, a racist comment on the instructor’s part?
There are White racists. Many of them. Sadly, there have been White racists who used my faith to justify their twisted notions of race. Some still do. It saddens and angers me. There are Black racists. There are also some, yes, some, Black racists who use Islam to justify hatred of Whites. Thankfully, Louis Farrakhan does not speak for most Black people or even most Black Muslims who may or may not be part of his organization. The point is that it’s not your color that determines your ability or likelihood of being racist. Whites are not the “worst” or the “primary” racists in this country, and to say that they are, or that White people are the most racist ones out there is unfair in the extreme.
The law, unfortunately, is not a complete remedy. The Civil Rights Acts, the Affirmative Action Laws, and the myriad other statutes and orders designed to cement racial cooperation and fairness in America have often times been necessary when they were implemented and have since proven to be either not as effective as they meant to be, or to have unforeseen backlash consequences. For example, reverse discrimination. That’s the term for it, I suppose, but it’s simply discrimination. My viewpoint on this is quite simple. Not hiring a Black man because he is Black and you don’t think a Black man should work for you is wrong. No question, no exceptions. On the other hand, hiring a Black man because he is Black and you’re filling a quota is also wrong. Again, I make no exceptions. SO then the popular question gets asked, “Ok, Brad, if you have an equally qualified Black man and White man applying for the same job, which do you hire?” My answer is, “I don’t know. I’d make my decision on something other than race. That’s for damned sure. I’ll let you know.” There are books out there, shelves and shelves of them, dealing with discrimination, anti-discrimination laws, and so on and so forth. I’m not writing one. Suffice it to say that I am pleased we have been trying to find legal means to prevent discrimination on all fronts, and the Americans with Disabilities Act is just such a measure. I’m grateful for it. However, I don’t worship the law. The law is imperfect. It is made by human beings and is breakable by human beings. There is no law that doesn’t have both loopholes and those willing to find them. Finally, there is no law that doesn’t have those willing to overturn it or simply to break it. That is the truth.
Only when humanity is redeemed will racism disappear. So, here I go again, dragging a Christian theme into my discussions? Guilty. I make no apologies for it. Race or ethnicity or heritage (pick your word) is a gift, not a curse. God didn’t create us all alike in appearance, size, skin tone, background, innate talent etc. In fact, just about the one thing all of us have in common is the ability to communicate. Some would debate me on that point. But work with me here. We don’t look the same, think the same, walk the same, talk the same or anything else the same. Not here on Earth. So then, how do I know or how can I say that race is a gift?
Repeatedly in the New Testament, the writers make it clear again and again that God wants to call people from all tribes, nations and tongues. Every linguistic, geopolitical, cultural, racial and ethnic background will be represented in Heaven, I believe. If we were all intended to lose those portions of our identities, I’m not sure we’d have them to start with. C.S. Lewis, in his preamble to The Great Divorce wrote, “… The creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good.” I think we can make the application to the current discussion.
There is no shame in being what you were made. Being Black is to be what God made you, and you should rejoice in being so. Being White, contrary to the social conscience movement and what it would have you believe, is a gift of equal value. I am as proud of my heritage as anyone should be. As a linguist I draw your attention to the verb phrase “should be.” I did not use “could be” for a very good reason. I find no shame in being White. Nor do I want to be something else. This cherishing of our racial and ethnic identities doesn’t become wrong or sinful or lamentable until that moment when I, being White or Blue or Green, use my ethnicity as a club to beat you over the head because of yours. No matter who wields the club, that wielding of the racial club is wrong.
In closing, I just want to say that I know there are those out there who will label me a racist based on some comment or other I’ve made. I trust there will also be those who read carefully and consider what I’ve said. There are those who will dismiss what I’ve said because of these last two paragraphs, the ones containing the Christian angle. The truth is, I’m not necessarily trying to make any argument, call anyone to a course of action or denigrate any point of view except the racist ones. So there you have it.
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