Rachel’s Tavern- Shakesville Comment on Whiteness and Racial Awareness
- Arrested for BAHWB (Being at Home While Black)
- John Hope Franklin Has Died
- Bottles, Breasts, and Mothering “Choices”
- NAACP Class Action Lawsuit on Subprime Loans
- We Have a Future Blogger
- I’m Afraid President Obama, Himself, is a Bit of Coward on the Race Issue
- Highly Skilled US Immigrants are Emigrating: What’s the deal?
- Troll Comments Galore
- Mark’s Spinach Face
Jan
15
Teaching About Racism: My MLK Day Essay (Originally Posted 1/15/06)
Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Interracial Relationships, Politics, Race and Racism, Sociology, Uncategorized by Rachel
Jan 15, 2006 Teaching About Racism: My MLK Day Essay
My early college years really marked a shift in my thinking about race. After teaching college students for the past several years I realize that I am certainly not alone. For many young people this is the first time they are really forced to confront racism and actually engage in conversations across race. I had purposely chosen to attend a college that was racially mixed and was in a predominantly Black neighborhood, and I thought that I would be able to learn and put much of the racism behind me. Of course, I was 18, and I was wrong. However, most young adults are different from me. My experience is that they would prefer to go on living a largely segregated life just as long as there is no one else there to remind them of it. This is the difficulty teaching about racism in the colorblind era. Many students believe racism is over, or they believe that it is confined to Neo-Nazis, the KKK, or “Hicks.” I would say the vast majority of my White students and at least half of my students of color think racism is not a problem, and it is something they have no experience with. One of the reasons they think this way is because they do not have an understanding of institutionalized racism.
One of the problems is that prior to college, students learn almost nothing about racism. Many students learn about diversity and multiculturalism, but not racism. This distinction is significant because the terms diversity and multiculturalism, have become synonymous with the notion that “we are all a little different, but we should all like each other.” The problem with this way of teaching is that it ignores the fact that racism is not about how different we are or who we “love or hate.” The primary manifestation of racism is structural, which means that our social and economic opportunities are profoundly connected to race. If we all love each other and know that we are different, we will still have racism. People can love people and truly be racist towards them; moreover, racism isn’t just something located in individuals. Some times the rules themselves and their outcomes are racist. Take the education system as an example. Even the most nonracist teacher must contend with the fact that school districts are generally drawn based on town lines, and towns are often racially segregated. Certainly, racial attitudes shape neighborhood segregation, but these institutional arrangements take on a life of their own. Many of my students will say they don’t have many friends from different backgrounds because there were no people from different background in their neighborhoods. When I say that racism causes this, the immediate reaction is “I’m not racist. I just didn’t have the opportunity to meet people from other races.” Whether that individual person is racist or not doesn’t matter from my way of thinking. Racism has an impact because of the structure, and the individual person doesn’t much matter regardless of whether or not he or she is racist. I know this sounds defeatist, but it doesn’t have to be.
In my own experience the hardest thing to teach students about racism is that it exists in individuals, groups, and institutions. At the individual level, racism is about a particular persons attitudes and behaviors. At the group level racism is about collective attitudes and behaviors, and at the structural level racism is about the fundamental organization of society. One very good example of structural racism would be the electoral college. Superficially, the electoral college is a raceless policy, but in the end Whites’ votes for president count more because of it (not to mention the wholesale disenfranchisement of predominantly Black Washington, DC.). Bob Wing, former editor of Colorlines magazine details a few of the ways this works. He says:
The good news is that the influence of liberal and progressive voters of color is increasingly being felt in certain states. They have become decisive in the most populous states, all of which went to Gore except Ohio, Texas, and (maybe?) Florida. In California an optimist might even envision a rebirth of Democratic liberalism a couple of elections down the road, based largely on votes of people of color.
The bad news is that the two-party, winner-take-all, Electoral College system of this country ensures, even requires, that voters of color be marginalized or totally ignored.“The two-party, Electoral College system ensures that almost half of voters of color are marginalized or totally ignored.”
The Electoral College negates the votes of almost half of all people of color. For example, 53 percent of all blacks live in the Southern states, where this year, as usual, they voted over 90 percent Democratic. However, white Republicans out-voted them in every Southern state (and every border state except Maryland). As a result, every single Southern Electoral College vote was awarded to Bush. While nationally, whites voted 54-42 for Bush, Southern whites, as usual, gave over 70 percent of their votes to him. They thus completely erased the massive Southern black (and Latino and Native American) vote for Gore in that region.
Since Electoral College votes go entirely to whichever candidate wins the plurality in each state, whether that plurality be by one vote or one million votes, the result was the same as if blacks and other people of color in the South had not voted at all. Similarly negated were the votes of the millions of Native Americans and Latino voters who live in overwhelmingly white Republican states like Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah, the Dakotas, Montana, and Texas. The tyranny of the white majority prevails.
Wing goes on to detail how racism shaped the development of the electoral college,
The Constitution provided that slaves be counted as three-fifths of a person (but given no citizenship rights) for purposes of determining how many members each state would be granted in the House of Representatives. This provision vastly increased the representation of the slave states in Congress.
At the demand of James Madison and other Virginia slaveholders, this pro-slavery allocation of Congresspersons also became the basis for allocation of votes in the Electoral College. It is a dirty little secret that the Electoral College was rigged up for the express purpose of translating the disproportionate Congressional power of the slaveholders into undue influence over the election of the presidency. Virginia slaveholders proceeded to hold the presidency for 32 of the Constitution’s first 36 years.Since slavery was abolished, the new justification for the Electoral College is that it allows smaller states to retain some impact on elections. And so it does–to the benefit of conservative white Republican states. As Harvard law professor Lani Guinier reports, in Wyoming, one Electoral College vote corresponds to 71,000 voters, while in large-population states (where the votes of people of color are more numerous) the ratio is one electoral vote to over 200,000 voters. So much for one person, one vote.
This year the Electoral College will apparently enable the winner of the conservative white states to prevail over the winner of the national popular vote–a tyranny of the minority.
This election system continues until today, in spite of how open minded modern politicians, political parties, or racial groups may or may not be.
To some extent when people learn about institutional racism, it can be very defeating because institutional racism is much more difficult to challenge. But there are also advantages. One major advantage is that it removes some of the guilt students (especially White students) have about racism. Once young people realize racism is less about blaming individuals (not that there isn’t some blame to go around) and more about strucutral organization; their defensiveness goes down a little. However, discussions of structural racism must also include examples of how strucutral racism can be challenged. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950-1960s provides such an example.
Because racism is pervasive and institutional, it needs to be attacked at the individual, group, and structural levels. I think this is highly relevant when we discuss the legacy of Martin Luther King because Dr. King always understood the institutional nature of racism, particularly at the end of his career. People often forget that when he was assassinated in Memphis, he was trying to help low income predominantly African American workers organize. Certainly, we can work on changes our individual attitudes, but in order to challenge racism today we cannot forget the important of social movements as a means of changing the social structure. A movement to end the electoral college, DC disenfranchisement, and the structure of the criminal justice system would be a few areas where we can begin a modern Civil Rights Movement.
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35 Responses to “Teaching About Racism: My MLK Day Essay (Originally Posted 1/15/06)”
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Lets include color-blind social policies in the modern Civil Rights Movement.
University admissions standards that favor diversity over accomplishment create real resentment among those excluded from the experience based on their race. Diversity-based promotion in the workplace elevates potentially unqualified individuals to highly visible positions, and when they fail, real impressions are made.
The real victim of diversity programs is the talented minority. The establishment will always wonder if the Black Harvard grad is a diversity special, or is a truly gifted and hard working member of society that has succeeded in a rigorous academic environment.
The latter are the real victims of institutionalized racism, in my opinion. Equal standards for all.
“The real victim of diversity programs is the talented minority. The establishment will always wonder if the Black Harvard grad is a diversity special, or is a truly gifted and hard working member of society that has succeeded in a rigorous academic environment.”
And the “establishment” continues to insult the Black Harvard grad who put in long hours in school, excelled in class, did a little more than what was asked of them by their instructor, kept an excellent GPA, graduated, and went on to have a career in their chosen profession, by ASSuming that the black person they work with got by on race alone.
The majority of black people who work in so-called establishment jobs are excellent and very capable employees. To ASSume they got where they are because of AA (and yes, most black people working in America DID NOT get their jobs/careers via AA), is illogical and disrespectful.
Many black children who have attended college and gone on to work all across America were raised and taught by their black parents to always put in more than what was expected of them, whether in school or at work.
Black people still have to be TWICE as smart, TWICE as capable, TWICE as skilled than a white, Asian, Latino or any other non-black person in America.
And we still keep this uppermost in mind in all our endeavors.
As long as there are people in America who cannot, and will not look upon black people as having capabilities, even when those capabiltites are as plain as the nose on their face, black people will always have to be TWICE as good as the most mediocre of white people.
There are many “truly gifted and hard-working” black people working in various jobs all across America who “have succeeded in a rigorous academic environment.”
It’s just that many people refuse to see them and give them the credit for the long hard work in college, and on the job, that they do every day.
And any black person working at a company proves their worth and skills or the company would let them go. No company keeps an employee around just for the hell of it. Intelligently run companies keep the BEST person for the job around, no matter what that person’s race, gender, or college attended.
That is the proof of a good employee. Not someone’s prejudged, pre-supposed, ASSuming idea of what a black person has obviously brought to the table as a member of that company’s team.
Great post. I agree with pretty much all your points however I’ve never been able to express my feelings quite as well.
Learning about institutional racism does relieve some of the guilt from students but at the same time I think it could also make them more defensive. It’s been my experience that students (white students in particular) become defensive when you tell them that there is a system in place that gives them an advantage over people of color. I think it’s because they feel like you are saying that they did not have to work hard to get where they are in life.
Everyone has to work hard to succeed. Some people just have to work harder to get to the same place and for others the door is closed from the very beginning.
Great essay.
Bill, on those ‘diversity specials’, I am not sure how many of them really exist. I’ve been on more admissions, scholarship, hiring and tenure committees than I can shake the proverbial stick at. “Diverse” candidates still have to be qualified, and once they’re in, they have the same chance to pass or fail as everyone else has. What I notice is that even when there are minority slots available and so on, the white/straight/male/middle or higher socioeconomic class applicants still hold sway because committees warm most quickly to candidates who resemble themselves. It’s not that they mean to have this reaction, or that they are being intentionally exclusionary. It’s an aspect of the institutional/structural racism that sweeps us all up and in at times. AA helps to mitigate this. It’s no free ride.
Bill, there are also admissions policies that favor whites. For example, “legacies”, whose parents attended the school, are often admitted even when they aren’t as well-qualified as other candidates. I think we will need AA as long as there are such vast inequalities in the K-12 education system. Black students are far more likely to attend underfunded schools, have uncredentialed teachers, etc.
I am an interracially married Black man. My wife is White and we have two children, my son who is mixed and my daughter who is Black like me. My daughter is adopted and my son is biological. Our family is an example of how America is changing
to be better for African Americans.
Approximately 4000 Black children are adopted by non black families each year. This is a growing trend. Also Approximately 17 percent of all Black marriages are interracial. Interracial marriages are constantly increasing in number. Multiracial Black children number at about 1/2 million and their numbers are steadily rising.
Things are not perfect in America and Washington D.C. still is not a state (a definite sign of institutional racism) but African Americans have pushed racism out of the top enemy to Black people.
Self destruction is our main enemy. We need a Black president. We also need one state to be majority African American to help the Electoral College work for us. If Black folks just voted in larger numbers and or made more Black and mixed babies our political power would increase dramatically.
African Americans have made so much progress in this country. Even the poor black people in the ghettos of this country live like the rich in most of the countries of the world. We have the richest ghettos on the face of the earth. I have never made more than 10 dollars an hour and I have a home in California and an adopted child. Black people need to celebrate more how far we have come because of people like Martin Luther king instead of complaining about a lack of Affirmative Action. I believe in affirmative action but African Americans dont need it to be happy. We need more thankfulness for our progress in this wonderful country while we keep struggling for a world without racism.
Ann, I know and respect many black workers. And I agree with Rachel (N.R.) that legislation should be introduced to prevent wealthy parents from buying admissions for their kids with Legacy Scholarships. Regarding the having to work twice as hard as everybody else argument, all I can offer are my anecdotal observations and experiences:
1. My degree in college was technical and the class consisted largely of white men. The women and minorities were the first to get jobs and tended to get higher salaries. I strongly suspect that the early hires were quota-based.
2. After a few years, I was responsible for an organization. This organizations top manager was a minority who, in all fairness, was in over his head. He had run a very expensive piece of equipment without oil a few years earlier, destroying it. This would have ended most careers, but he kept being promoted. The men all mocked him, and in a very emotional moment he confided in me that he was not up to the job and was miserable. A very powerful man tried to get him a lateral transfer and was told it couldnt be done because of the color of the mans skin. Everybody lost in his well-intended social promotions, but none more than the man himself. It was one of the saddest things Ive witnessed.
3. A friend of mine is of Native American descent. He owns a technical company and is good at what he does. Government contracts in his line of work require a percent of the work (7%?) to be sublet to Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, which his company qualifies for because of his birthright. People beat a path to his door and he can name his price. In a perverse market twist, he can offer enormously expensive packages, because it helps general contractors get closer to the 7% target.
You will not be able to convince me that a young person, who plays by the rules, studies hard in a marketable field, and is a loyal worker cannot get ahead. Martin Luther King has laid the groundwork, its now up to individuals to take advantage of the opportunities. Its also time to set equal standards for all.
Bill said: “My degree in college was technical and the class consisted largely of white men. The women and minorities were the first to get jobs and tended to get higher salaries. I strongly suspect that the early hires were quota-based.”
Debbie: Or perhaps they were more qualified? Why do you assume they were quota-based? Furthermore studies show that men and whites earn more per hour.
Bill said: ” After a few years, I was responsible for an organization. This organizations top manager was a minority who, in all fairness, was in over his head. He had run a very expensive piece of equipment without oil a few years earlier, destroying it. This would have ended most careers, but he kept being promoted. The men all mocked him, and in a very emotional moment he confided in me that he was not up to the job and was miserable. A very powerful man tried to get him a lateral transfer and was told it couldnt be done because of the color of the mans skin. Everybody lost in his well-intended social promotions, but none more than the man himself. It was one of the saddest things Ive witnessed.”
Debbie: This is only one example I’m sure happens a few times. What about all the unqualified whites?
Bill said: “You will not be able to convince me that a young person, who plays by the rules, studies hard in a marketable field, and is a loyal worker cannot get ahead. Martin Luther King has laid the groundwork, its now up to individuals to take advantage of the opportunities. Its also time to set equal standards for all.”
Debbie: No one was trying to say otherwise… it was simply stated that minorities have to work twice as hard (unfair indeed). Yes we need equal standards for ALL. Unfortunately you’re naive enough to believe minorites gain the most advantage when in reality it is whites- that’s why AA is still neeed.
Mike Reynolds: I agree w/ your aims (reducing racism in all forms) but disagree w/ your tactics and assumptions:
>Our family is an example of how America is changing
to be better for African Americans.
I’m biracial (black/white), and my kids will be black, white, and Puerto Rican. But I dont’ think that IRs and multiethnic children are better (or worse) for African-Americans.
>Approximately 4000 Black children are adopted by non black families each year. This is a growing trend. Also Approximately 17 percent of all Black marriages are interracial. Interracial marriages are constantly increasing in number. Multiracial Black children number at about 1/2 million and their numbers are steadily rising.
True, but again, I don’t think that alone will reduce racism. It’s not FAIR to expect people in IRs and multiethnic folk to do it alone, and in fact, we can’t! Being in an IR or being multiethnic does not give you a free pass to understanding all race relations and being able to help them. It doesn’t even mean that you can’t be racist or biased. How many times has a public figure, politician, or even someone you personally know said something, been brought to task, and used the tired excuse or “I can’t be racist/biased/antiSemitic (etc.), my wife/husband/kid/uncle is XYZ”?
>Washington D.C. still is not a state (a definite sign of institutional racism)
I thought Wash DC was not a state because it was considered more fair (and safer) to not give one state the “capitol” city, esp. when the nation was more divided into North and South, Slave and Non-Slave (I dont’ say free, and South =/ Slave necessarily). Just because the current year-long population is predominantly black does not mean that keeping it a non-state is institutional racism.
>We need a Black president.
How would a black president dismantle one international drug cartel or the gangs that sell the products, or fix one decrepit public school or public housing facility, or provide health care and careers (not just jobs) to low-income workers?
>We also need one state to be majority African American to help the Electoral College work for us.
So you want voluntary segregation? That worked so well for Oklahoma… Really, I don’t think that’s how the Electoral College works.
>If Black folks just voted in larger numbers and or made more Black and mixed babies our political power would increase dramatically.
Wait, Blacks are NOT a monolith, we don’t all think the same, vote the same, etc. And multiethnic people identify in multiple ways, and would not necessarily identify with a black block, even if one existed. Again, please dont’ put unrealistic burdens on us!
[Side note: I believe our current President was one of those "legacy" admittees to Yale. One might compare his academic and other records to those of someone like Antonio Villaraigosa, the current mayor of Los Angeles, who went to school on a minority scholarship/through AA.]
“This organizations top manager was a minority who, in all fairness, was in over his head. He had run a very expensive piece of equipment without oil a few years earlier, destroying it. This would have ended most careers, but he kept being promoted. The men all mocked him, and in a very emotional moment he confided in me that he was not up to the job and was miserable. A very powerful man tried to get him a lateral transfer and was told it couldnt be done because of the color of the mans skin. Everybody lost in his well-intended social promotions, but none more than the man himself. It was one of the saddest things Ive witnessed.”
Only an incompetently run company would keep an employee who was incapable of doing his job properly and safely.
That this man was not given on the job training to further his knowledge of his job requirements, that his so-called co-workers laughed at him instead of working to help him correct his deficiencies, that his super attempted to do this man NO FAVORS by offering him a lateral change in position, that he kept being promoted, instead of being written up, and then terminated if he did not improve after one more mistake shows the callous disregard that this company had for this man.
He was not up to the job, and that this company let him make mistake, after mistake, was to add fire to the fuel to the belief that ALL black people who come onto the job cannot be trusted to know their job. That ALL black people who are hired onto a job OBVIOUSLY got there via AA. If this man’s supers and co-workers wanted to see him do his job right, they would have taken him from his position (it’s called demotion, you know, it’s still being done), and had him do another job he was more qualified for.
The people running this company wanted to see this man fail, else they would have not let him worsen in his lack of job skills.
And by allowing him to mess up, they would all be able to say, “See, I told you so. They (blacks) are all incompetent and unable to do the job.”
That is the message that this company has sent me via your anecdote.
If there were any REAL MEN running that company, they would have nipped this man’s incompetence in the bud. But, obiviously there weren’t any real men running that company.
And as to not being able to fire this man.
Unless he was a diplomat with diplomatic immunity, NO ONE cannot be fired unless the company wants to keep you around as a scapegoat to make yourself look bad.
Not to mention that this company made themselves look bad by keeping this man on.
I sure would not want to do business with a company that treats their employees as so much fodder to prove a point.
And yes, there are black students who STILL have to work twice as hard as non-blacks.
It comes with the territory, especially when there are people on jobs who can’t wait to see a black person fail, and if the black person does not fail bad enough, soon enough, then as your anecdote clearly shows, everyone who is in a position to curtail improperly, and dangerously ( “run a very expensive piece of equipment without oil a few years earlier, destroying it”) done work are more guilty than this man.
Bill said: You will not be able to convince me that a young person, who plays by the rules, studies hard in a marketable field, and is a loyal worker cannot get ahead. Martin Luther King has laid the groundwork, its now up to individuals to take advantage of the opportunities. Its also time to set equal standards for all.
And you will not convince me that those people who saw rack and ruin going on around them were right to stand by and not intervene in putting a stop to it.
” I strongly suspect that the early hires were quota-based.
Do you have documented proof that these hires were quota-based?
No proof of such, then do not present something you cannot back up if you do not have facts.
Dear Lyonside
Thank you for your reply
Every time a family is integrated by marriage, interracial children, and adopted children it has an exponential effect to decrease White power and racism. Think of all the cousins uncles and aunts grandparents and in-laws who come to be related intimately with African American people.
This can also lead to inheritances of White fortunes to Black children. The day when most White people can point to a Black relative in their family will lead to a great reduction in racism that holds African people down. Additionally it can lead to increased business and job opportunities for Black people because more Black people become part of the old boys networks to better jobs. More Black politicians and millionaires do the same.
In the future most people in this country will know that they are mixed with African and that will be a great day. Racism is in decline much to the dismay of the KKK and neo Nazis. Until then we have a lot of work to do. Every Black person counts for good who are not destroying the Black community with drugs or criminal violence against his own people. (The true sellouts) Every additional Black baby mixed or pure leads to the day when Blacks will truly be the power. So abort less and adopt more African American children.
Mike:
1) Do you really see the US as only white and black? Dude, look around. Your comments really sound obsessed.
2) My point still stands. Marrying, dating, etc. outside of one’s race does not make anyone automatically more understanding, sympathetic, aware, or willing to ACT upon any newfound awareness. That attitude also deflects the responsiblity of EVERYONE to treat EVERYONE with equality. Shouldn’t everyone be doing this, regardless of their family structure? Or is it the mixed-person’s burden?
3) Inheritance will change society? Maybe for a few lucky ones. In my family, we dont’ care about inheritance because, white or black, we have nothing that isn’t of sentimental value that anyone wants. Waiting for a few rich people to die is an awful way to change public policy and culture.
4) Racism is FAR beyond the KKK (slightly dangerous in large numbers, laughable in small ones) and NeoNazis. Most racism is subtle and clueless, not organized and violent. And it’s not all white-on-black crime either.
If there were any REAL MEN running that company, they would have nipped this mans incompetence in the bud. But, obiviously there werent any real men running that company.-Ann
Ann, I think we can agree on this one, it was a military issue that turned into a political hot potato in the Clinton administration. I dont want to belabor the point but the guy was a solid individual that was just not cut out to lead a division.
He had a stack of counciling sheets an inch high. He had been given management training until the Command was blue in the face. The top military Officers request to remove the man based on safety issues was personally delivered to a Flag Officer at headquarters (whites could be fired on the spot without request). In the military, you are not allowed to make the same request twice, although it was made three times in this mans case. It was denied each time because of the appearance that removing a minority from a position of power would create. I left the unit and, according to an acquaintance, the man was finally removed after he nearly killed 130 men and destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment. That is why I have strong feelings on the subject. I could go on point-by-point with the other items but I think we need to agree to disagree.
The bigger picture and the thing I am somewhat concerned about when reading some of the above comments is an us-vs.-them attitude. Terrible things happened in the South and, to a lesser extent, throughout the US to Blacks. Its is obvious that people still are bitter about it, and Im sure that there are still problems.
I guess my suggestion is to get over it and take advantage of the opportunities that are open in 2007. Learn a marketable skill and register yourself as a DBA. Youll be successful if you do good work. I personally believe that Affirmative Action programs are demeaning and counter-productive to minorities, but theyre there. Take advantage of them. Regards in any case;
“I guess my suggestion is to get over it and take advantage of the opportunities that are open in 2007. Learn a marketable skill and register yourself as a DBA. Youll be successful if you do good work. I personally believe that Affirmative Action programs are demeaning and counter-productive to minorities, but theyre there. Take advantage of them. Regards in any case; ”
And my suggestion to white America is to “get over it” as well.
As long as white-run America has an ‘us-against-black people’ attitude, she will always show little regard for her black citizens no matter how well educated and capable they are.
And black people get over it a lot better than many white people are capable of. But not being racially-profiled, judged as less than before you even open your mouth, considered as less than because you are not white, will always pit white people against black people.
And black people are more than willing to take advantage of opportunities that they seek out and are constantly learning maketable and sought after skills.
They do it everyday.
Have been doing it during segregation, and well into the present.
“Its is obvious that people still are bitter about it, and Im sure that there are still problems.”
No, black people are just wary of a race which has tried countless ways to wipe us off the face of the Earth. Black people are not bitter. We’ve just learned our lessons well. In the end, only a black person’s knowledge and skills will get them far in this life and in this country. Certainly not the good graces, if any, of most white people.
And as to AA supposedly being demeaning and counterproductive to black people, well AA obviously is not demeaning and counterproductive to whites (men and women) who are the overwhelming beneficiaries of AA.
Try telling them to let go of the AA programs that benefit many more whites than blacks.
I’m sure you won’t get any complaints from them, huh?
But, then again, eveyone knows that ONLY blacks benefit from AA, and not the other way around?
Dear Lyonside
Race issues are beyond white and family integration will not solve all racial issues I never stated the opposite. But I do not believe in a zero effect. Either family integration improves race relations most of the time or it makes things worse. My racist ex Mormon Father in law changed after I married his daughter we are now even more close as he has accepted my son and an adopted pure black child. Most grandparents are naturally biased toward their grandchildren and this bias often reduces racist bias. The same is true of family.
You were extreme in your point #2 and you probably dont mean that zero people are moved away from racist bias due to family integration if you did my family is an example of one.
Point #3 Inheritance is a huge issue if you think about it. Percent of America owns a substantial amount of wealth and power Think of the Bush, Clinton, Kennedy Gates and Walden families. These families and there are many others mixing with black families would not push race relations backwards. I believe the major issues of racism have been won already in this country. Slavery, Genocide of the Indians, and Government sponsored Jim Crow Segregation. Family integration is the nightmare and opposite of what hard core racist want so it probably makes race relations better most of the time.
4) I believe in a hierarchy of racial issues. Not all racial issues are as important.
Nepotism will be with humanity forever and it can have racist outcomes but I do not classify it as racism with a capitol R. Many forms of intuitional racism are progressed by people who are not racist. This also I call much of what is called intuitional racism accidental racist bias. These are little r racist issues. That kind is not very important. The slaves and Black people of the 50s would put these kinds on the bottom of their list of concerns.
Dangerous racism, racism with a capitol R is the kind which matters most. African Americans are the group that has been hardest to blend into the melting pot. As a highly visible minority we are most at risk from capitol R racism. When in the future everyone knows that they are mixed, and it is harder to distinguish between groups the false belief that one race needs to be destroyed will be more difficult to hold on to.
[...] Teaching About Racism: My MLK Day Essay (Originally Posted 1/15/06) – Rachels Tavern “The problem with this way of teaching is that it ignores the fact that racism is not about how different we are or who we love or hate. The primary manifestation of racism is structural, which means that our social and economic opportunities are pr (tags: race racism institutionalracism diversity) [...]
Mike:
>Race issues are beyond white and family integration will not solve all racial issues I never stated the opposite.
Um, yes, you kind of of did, with your initial rhetoric implying that black/white marriages and children are automatically a positive factor in African Americans and society at large forward. I say it is not a cause, and that one does not logically follow the other, but rather they both have similar root causes and influences.
Plus, all of your comments focus on black/white IRs, and an assumption of “White Power,” NeoNazis, KKK, and the like as the main symptoms of Racism. So I guess Hispanic/Asian families are SOL and contribute nothing? Or an Asian gang beating on a Hispanic or Black kid in the wrong neighborhood isn’t racism?
>You were extreme in your point #2 and you probably dont mean that zero people are moved away from racist bias due to family integration
No, I wasn’t extreme – I specifically indicated in my FIRST comment that a mixed family or mixed person is not automatically PRO or ANTI anything just by virtue of being mixed or in an IR, TRA, etc. And I personally resent the assumption made by many that “rainbow people” will “solve” racism… it’s EVERYONE’S responsibility, not just ours. Where did I ever say “zero?”
>Point #3 Inheritance is a huge issue if you think about it. Percent of America owns a substantial amount of wealth and power Think of the Bush, Clinton, Kennedy Gates and Walden families.
Wait, so the solution to racism is to wait until the upper 1% of the nation and the world’s wealthy intermarry? That’s unrealistic, idealistic, and passing the buck, to my POV.
>These families and there are many others mixing with black families would not push race relations backwards.
And again, you focus only on white/black… *sigh*
>Many forms of intuitional racism are progressed by people who are not racist.
Total agreement. But sorry, I think it is VERY important.
>The slaves and Black people of the 50s would put these kinds on the bottom of their list of concerns.
I agree… but WE’RE NOT LIVING IN THAT TIME ANYMORE. My father lived through both the 20th century civil rights movement and institutional racism. He’s now in his 60s. The problems facing American society and the AA population specifically are not all race-related, and cannot be blamed solely on one form of racism or another. But to imply that black people should think, “Well, I can sit in the front of the bus, at least” while riding through mini-Beirut (i.e. an urban neighborhood with severe socioeconomic and infrastructure issues) is ridiculous and, honestly, settling.
>As a highly visible minority we are most at risk from capitol R racism.
I’m assuming you mean the KKK and NeoNazis? Yes, hate groups are on the rise nationally and in areas can be a problem (BTW do you subscribe to SPLC’s Hatewatch newsletter? They report and monitory hate crimes of ANYONE on ANYONE, not just white on black). However, that is not the reality I see day to day, maybe because I live in Philadelphia, PA. I think wherever you live, it must be more of a problem.
Bill said, “The bigger picture and the thing I am somewhat concerned about when reading some of the above comments is an us-vs.-them attitude. Terrible things happened in the South and, to a lesser extent, throughout the US to Blacks. Its is obvious that people still are bitter about it, and Im sure that there are still problems.”
To be frank Bill, your first comment is the one that set the “us vs. them” tone. You proposed the idea that Blacks gains were Whites losses by using your personal definition of affirmative action (which is not quite accurate given the current affirmative action policies) to try to demonstrate that many whites think Blacks are less qualified. That kind of attitude alone is enough to upset many African Americans because you’re implying that somehow African Americans are less qualified because of affirmative action. If I was Black and I worked with you, knowing that you felt this way, I’d keep my distance unless I had no choice or you had some other very wonderful and endearing qualities that helped me to forget about the fact that you were assuming I was less qualified. Wouldn’t you be insulted if someone was looking at you and assuming you were less qualified based on nothing other than the color of your skin?
You’re looking at race through the zero sum game perspective (winner and a loser), but why not look at getting rid of racism as a way to improve the US’s standing in the world. The more opportunities we all have the better country we will be. Right now we don’t have equal opportunities; the deck is still stacked in favor of whites, but wouldn’t we be a much better country if the 30% of our population that is not white had the same chance to get ahead? If they were not stereotyped, not thought of as less cabable, not treated as less intelligent, not segregrgated into the poorest neighborhoods…………
All of this still goes on today, and whining about/getting rid of affirmative action, which is very weak, is not going to solve these problems. Why not try to come up with some real solutions? I frequently have people come to this site and talk about how oppressed Whites are. They acknowledge that racism against people of color exists, but they don’t want to do anything about it. On the other hand if someone, just calls a white person white, they go crazy. To me that’s completely insincere, so to that point Bill, what do you think can be done to eliminate discrimination against people of color?
Excellent post with excellent comments. I don’t have much to add. As an adult biracial person, I have heard about a change in the attitudes of the white side of my family in regard to race. Then again, my parents married in 76 and I’m sure a lot of people’s attitudes were still in the process of changing at that time. I do thikn it has made some diference in the people I have known in life and I see the growing number of biracial people slowly contributing to the end of racism in the US but it isn’t a black white thing. We need all groups to mix A LOT to see any true progress this way. Thank god that Black children are finaly getting adopted though.
Weve got Mezitos here, weve got Garifuna, Mayans, Chinese, and White people here. We all get along, its not like other places. Bill, weve got a Garifuna dance this weekend in my Village, you should come on by. Let me tell you about the history of the Garifuna paraphrasing part of a talk I had with a 22-yr old survey technician as we were working on a project together about seven weeks ago
Wonderful Lyonside
You are a great poster
Thank you for your great counter post
I am new to writing on the web so forgive my truncated arguments. Sometimes also my spell-check can lead to erasing things that I have written and muddling my arguments, but I forge ahead and post anyways.
I hear this line of thinking a lot among many people angry about racism:
Racism hasnt left, its just gone underground.
Many people who say similar stuff to this ignore the progress that has been made. They also fail to realize the victory that can be achieved by integration. Anti racist are mopping up and irradiating racist doctrines all over the world and especially in this country. Racial division is what racist want so a logical antidote to racism is family integration.
I focus on Black White family integration a lot because I perceive that those of African decent are the least integrated into American families. Blacks mixing with Hawaiians, Asians, Arabs Hispanics, East Indians, Gypsies Jews and any other race I believe is also very important. It helps to achieve my dream of a blended world. Blacks are the racial group of the world who suffer poverty almost wherever they are. Our entire Continent and in our dispersion across the world, we are primarily not the ones in power. I love all racial groups I did not make that clear but behind my previous writings. This is my message, racial mixing can help Africans the group that I believe need it most. Other ethnic groups already marry a lot into the first world class of Whites, Jews & Rich Asians. Hispanics and American Indians are steadily increasing in power and with it family integration. I desire to see much more Africans in the melting pot. Because race mixing is a solution to racism
Here is a hypothetical example to help explain my point.
Consider this: One of the reasons why I believe there is almost no large scale White starvation in the world today is because Whites, the group of the world with the most power and money, integrate their families with other Whites. White extreme poverty is rare in the modern world today. If there was a large scale starvation tomorrow of some White country, thousands of horny White men and or legitimate love seekers would scoop up as many blonde hungry brides as they could, overnight. White missionaries would risk danger to help stop this tragedy. Many affluent whites would move to this poor country. Also the faces of blonde blue eyed starving kids would be on TV and America and the rest of the first world, would adopt thousands. This is the power of family integration. People of African decent benefit least from this kind of compassion.
Racial family integration helps to change the definition of who to love and show compassion to.
Brown people benefit a little more in the family integration department. Think of how many white couples in this country pass up Black kids in foster care to adopt a baby from China even though they could get paid to adopt a Black child and international adoption cost thousands of dollars.
If the world could be seen as a racial caste system, Africans would be on the bottom of the world caste in this present time. Brown people would be in the middle and Whites would be on top. The distant future seems to be a brown future. Not a perfect world without racism, but an improvement. In reality everyone is a mixture of all races but because of cameras and good records nowadays the future of people knowing that they are mixed is coming.
A Black president of the United States is preferable to me than a White one because I believe in trickle down to a certain extent. It would also start a new trend of powerful black family names which really help in politics. We need more brand name black elite family names powerful in arts politics religion and economics. Every new one we get is a step in the right direction to elevate the Black part of the world caste to equality with the White and the brown.
Lyonside you outed me
I am highly bias towards mixed race relations. I do believe that race mixing is almost always a positive step towards diminishing racism so long as it is voluntary and done in love.
I do believe that Family racial integration is one solution to the problems of racial division. It is not the only solution but without it I see racial balkanization and increased conflict. I do not believe that mixed people should sit on there hands and wait believing that it is the only solution or that race mixing alone will cure everything. However I do believe that family integration is a powerful force not to be underestimated.
If Hispanics and Blacks mix will there not be less hostility between the two groups. The same could be said of Arabs & Jews. The same holds true I believe, for all ethnic groups
You are right about my bias I would rather see an interracial couple than a normal couple.
I do believe that race mixing begins to solve many problems all by itself to a certain extent.
Thank you for helping me sharpen what I write. I pray your family blessings, I am sure they are very beautiful.
Interracial power
Mike
so to that point Bill, what do you think can be done to eliminate discrimination against people of color?
Ill be very specific. Do exactly what is done is done in the Central American country where I work. Race relations are not perfect but are far better than in the US. There are only about a dozen murders annually, mostly from the drug trade. The Black and Hispanic leaders that very ably take care of the Countrys business fight their way to the top based on their reputations and hard work. The government is far more efficient than our own, and the Citizens have a level of pride and responsibility that seem higher than in the US.
Do you want to know the secret to this Countrys success? Ill give you a hint-it threatens those who make a living selling self-identity.
The government gives no consideration to the color of a persons skin.
Bill,
I rarely hear of whites who look at a black (man) and think they are “a truly gifted and hard working member of society that has succeeded in a rigorous academic environment.”
If all that money out in the white suburbs is not adequately preparing white kids to compete with students from most of the developed countries (and quite a few of the undeveloped ones), there is no way that blacks are being prepared either in their mostly underfunded schools. Whites education looks nice and pristine (great buildings, facilities, computers, qualified teachers) but its as inadequate as blacks is for today’s world and the competition we face and will be facing as a country.
I have given up being twice as smart, twice as capable, twice as skilled etc. The high blood pressure and diabetes makes it not worth it. Once I saw that bible preaching grandpa Ken Skilling could get to the head of a multi-billion dollar corporation and bilk it, I gave that up and am content to be as smart, as capable, as skilled, and as hard working.
I think that white people have to handle black’s/minorities incompetence better. I believe anyone who is not fully qualified for a job should not be doing it. You can’t be too PC SCARED and PC INTIMIDATED to call an idiot an idiot, no matter what color they are. Turning around and blaming the incompetent is a cop-out for those too PC scared to speak up. If the behavior is documented and proved, get them out of there.
I also know that business/the military is very competitive and most of that “inch of counciling sheets” was bogus. Most blacks/minorities can be destroyed/damaged by more than one white person believing the same lie and preaching it as gospel to the others. Its only a matter of time before the mob gets you. At least these days its a necktie applying the pressure.
Also, I’ve been told that the problem that faces white managers is “where to get another one” since there are not many of us black males out here free from the judicial industry much less going to Harvard. That is why those women and minorities were hired so quickly, because they are rare entities that (when hired to fill a quota) help white businesses to have instant access to wider markets. Instant access without any work.
What your Native American friend is doing as a Disadvantaged Businessman is in the finest tradition of capitalism. Nothing further. Don’t hate.
Mike R.
%70 of black households are headed by unmarried women. Lots and lots of black men belong or report to the judicial industry. There is a lot of grass-roots-family-community fixing that should go on before we see a black President.
If DC were to get statehood, property prices, taxes and the cost of living would sky-rocket in the District and there wouldn’t be a black face left in DC in 20 years! DC should be happy with the status it has.
I think whites don’t change their attitude towards blacks because there is one black person in their family. That black person is more likely to be given an “honorary white” label and be explained as being “different/better than most of them.” It changes that black person far more than it changes anyone else’s ingrained views.
I agree with your views on the current state of racism but think it has to do with the maturation of white society to the point where women, minorities, homosexuals, etc. are not “them” anymore and great efforts have been made/laws passed that force “us” to work with, play with, live with and, in the end, understand “them.”
No offence Natalie but saying
“I do thikn it has made some diference in the people I have known in life and I see the growing number of biracial people slowly contributing to the end of racism in the US but it isnt a black white thing.We need all groups to mix A LOT to see any true progress this way.”
is in essence placing the onus of change on people in interracial relationships and the children that come from these relationships. It also sounds like you’re encouraging people to engage in interracial relationships as a conduit for fighting racism. I’m sorry but this perspective is too simplistic and superficial a way to address racism. People should not have to go into interracial relationships to address racism because it reduces relationships to some sort of superficial activism.Think about it, how then would same race relationships be perceived if not being anti-healing racism? Additionally, being mixed does not absolve you from being racist because someone who is mixed may see her/his black parent as not as good as the other parent. I’m not even going to go into the racism that is exhibited by different multi-racial folks against other multi-racial folk.
Like Lyonside as said again and again, being multi-racial does not make you the messiah of racism because EVERYONE MUST FIGHT RACISM TO END IT.
Sammy
Thankyou for your reply
Ask a few interracial couples or interracial people about how
their presence helped to change some opinions. I bet that
in most cases someone in the family was moved away from
there old thinking. Most people have an effect on at least
about 7 people in there lives.
Interracial families do not move most people to increace racial division but in the direction of raical acceptance.
A zero effect is not logical.
You can think about it this way , If hardcore racist hate
it and put it as a primary enemy to their power,
Family intergration probably has a powerful effect for good,
for a multiracial society.
Every positive loving step matters
Interracial power
Mike
Bill said:
Bill I’ve worked in Nicaragua (Bluefields, Managua and Pearl Lagoon) and visited Costa Rica, and I’m sorry to say your perception of a racism in Central America is off base. Minorities (Miskito, Mayan and Black folks) face racism there too. From the public health perspective, the most devastated areas of post-civil war Nicaragua were rural areas heavily populated by minorities. In Costa Rica, blacks are immediately referred to as illegals because the assumption is that they came to Costa Rica illegaly (primarily from Nicaragua, but also from Panama and Belize) while their Mestizo counterparts are less likely to face the same questioning.
I should also state that there are varying degrees of the ways in which minorities are treated. The way my dread-lock wearing Euro-American colleague was treated at the airport was very different from the way I (dreadlock wearing Nigerian-American) was treated and quite different from the way our other colleagues (Mestizo, Creollo and Miskito) were treated.
Because your friend says everyone gets along doesn’t mean that institutional forms of racism no longer exist nor does it mean that EVERYONE does in fact get along.
When I was in Costa Rica, I heard the same thing. “We all get along here. There is no racism.”
Then I visited the Caribbean coast side where the black people live, and they had a very different story.
Costa Rican society has its strength and weaknesses like any other. I remember one white Costa Rican woman telling me once when she saw Richard Pryor on the television and changed the channel… “I don’t like black people. I don’t know why, I just don’t. My mother was the same way!” How do you argue with a statement like that? It’s a different kind of racism than that in the U.S. (e.g. no “one-drop” rule) but it’s racism nonetheless.
Mike,
I’m sure there is truth in your post. Acceptance is definitely better for society as a whole
Interracial families can also sharpen the racial divide within a family and cause lifelong ruptures in familial relationships. I’ve asked (and Admin has written at length on this blog) my friends who are in IR relationships. Most of them tell me that the relationship usually acts as a catalyst for bringing out deep seeded latent feelings in both families (good or bad).
For example, there could be a group of fellows who have a true or false reputation as sexual titans and predators who can’t wait to get their hands on females of the opposite race. A friend of mine told me that her IR relationship served to reinforce this to her family as that fellow had ruined their good little girl. You understand. I also think geography (what part of the country one is in) means a lot as well.
IRs are a tough row to hoe. Good luck and IR power to you too!
Well, Im outnumbered. Ill close with the suggestion that whatever the real degree of problem, dont hold your breath for the government to redress your grievances. People are people and there will never be rainbows for everybody to hold hands and dance upon. Study marketable skills and encourage your children to do the same. The words spoken by the Garifuna man from a Garifuna town were spoken with enthusiasm, and I should have also mentioned that he strongly associated himself as a proud Citizen of his Country. Maybe I just work with a good team. In any case, we all spend too much time on self-identification.
Regards to all;
Rachel, methinks you didn’t activate your spam filter yet
and BTW… “diaper spanking”? I feel oddly curious but I’m scared to click the link. Spanking WITH diapers? Diapered spankers? Diapered spankees? Both? I’m picturing a diaper on a table, with a stern person whacking it with a stick saying “Bad diaper! Bad diaper” but perhaps that’s a mistake… heh.
I don’t know how those bastards got through….Good lord. I go away for an hour and come back to 85,000 porn spams.
“Im picturing a diaper on a table, with a stern person whacking it with a stick saying Bad diaper! Bad diaper but perhaps thats a mistake heh.”
LOL!