Racism

A simple explanation of what racism is:

It is racist to blame an entire race for the actions of individual members of that race. It is racist to be afraid of people because of the way they worship god. It is really racist to decide you know what's in a person's heart because of the way they look. It is fantastically, extraordinarily racist to believe that people should not be allowed to hold elected office because they are Muslim.

It is racist to blame members of a race for your own prejudice against that race.

It is worse to be racist than it is to point out racism.

The only defense against racism is awareness of it.

I got preachy there. Things are getting ugly. Stop being racist.

Tricky Tricky Tricky

I was reading a blogpost by the great and wonderful and wise Ta'Nehisi Coates over at Atlantic and in the course of writing about something else he had this great line about how all his black friends have loads of white friends and all his white friends have one black friend. Outside of just being kind of witty, I thought how true it was.

Think about when you're watching some mainstream sitcom on the TV, it's not at all unusual to have one black guy hanging out with a bunch of white people, but how often is it the opposite? I mean, it struck me watching Pysch last night (shut up, I love that show and both those boys are super cute), that Shawn has been the lone white guy with Gus's friends and family on a few occasions. And it's notable, I think, that this struck me as something unusual.

So, I'm a white lady and can only extrapolate, but I imagine it can be a total drag to be the one black friend. I mean, how often do you get called upon to arbitrate: "racism sucks, but I'm cool, right?" One of the many cool things about having Barack Obama as our president, is that he flat out refuses to be that guy. You say to him "racism is everywhere! but I'm cool right?" And he says "Um, yeah, so, how 'bout them Sox?" In other words, "I am not Morgan Freeman in any of those movies. Work it out yourself."

So, in the interest of working it out let's take a look at a couple of virals and you can tell me if I'm right or if I'm cuckoo for cocoa puffs or not. Actually, these things may not be mutually exclusive, but still.

Viral One:



As soon as I'm off the phone with a great deal of my customers I'm prone to turning to a colleague, cussing a blue streak and gesticulating wildly. But I doubt a youtube of me doing that would ever go viral.

How about if we switch it up and look at this:



Now, let's swap out the race there and does this still seem like the a hilarious, joyful way to kick off a wedding? Or would it then be, you know, "ghetto?"

In a phrase, I'm not saying, I'm just sayin...

HL Gates, Some Other Thoughts

Anyone want to talk about Henry Louis Gates? It's eerie how SILENT the media has been on the whole thing, isn't it? Here's my take: from witness accounts and police reports, I think we can all agree that Skip Gates was acting like an asshole. He did handle the situation poorly. He was obstreperous, rude, entitled, an asshole. But it is not, as Atrios would say, illegal to act like an asshole in your own house [can't find link....] .

Personally, I try to avoid acting like an asshole. I am often acted like an asshole TO. Most of us are. We get yelled at, berated, condescended to. And usually, we're grown ups about it. We accept that assholery happens and move on. I do software support, which is a career that really lends itself to asshole behavior. But no matter how much of an asshole my customer is being, I don't think I have the right to tell them that the only fix is to erase their hard drive (and, y'all, I have customers doofy enough to believe that).

Once this cop assessed that it was the homeowner who was acting like an asshole, he should have walked away. Instead, he chose to haul Gates away in handcuffs largely to show Gates that he could. Stupid.

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That said, an anecdote: When I was about 19 I went out with a girlfriend to the local liquor store and bought a case of beer. On our way out, we walked past a young black man who was fiddling with something. As we walked past, he looked up and said "Can you help me? I'm going to my girl's house and I can't get this necklace on that she bought me. She's gonna kill me if I'm not wearing it." So, my girlfriend and I stopped and I did the clasp on the necklace for him and we carried on.

Seconds later a cop yelled in our direction "Hey, Tyrone!" When no one responded, he repeated, "Hey, Tyrone!" The necklace guy turned around and said "My name's not Tyrone." My girlfriend and I tucked our heads down and kept walking because we were carrying some seriously illegal beer. Also, we were chickenshit. As we walked away, the necklace guy was up against the cop car getting cuffed.

It's entirely possible that necklace guy was getting arrested for entirely good reasons. It's just as possible, though, that he wasn't. The cop started yelling for him after our exchange. He'd been there the whole time. I think there's a whole history of black men and police that cannot be discounted. Sometimes we act like assholes for cause.

Post Racial America

Yesterday, I bought some Crayola Sidewalk Paint at Target. I hate those damn plastic bags, so I eschewed it and walked out with just the toy in my hands. It occurred to me as I was strolling past the security guard and out to my car that if I didn't look like me, that guard probably would have asked me for a receipt.

This isn't, of course, a guarantee. But I really think he would have. As I said to my mother, I guess this is one of the benefits of being white in America.

Then I read this story. In a nutshell, Henry Louis Gates is this really famous (famous enough that I'd heard of him) middle-aged black professor. The door to his house is jammed and he's banging his shoulder against the door trying to loosen it. He manages to get into his house at which point the police show up, verify that he lives there and then arrest him anyway, for "exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior."

There was a time when I would have read this and been one of those millions of Americans who, as they say at Pandagon, "think that this is just a black man screaming racism because he handled a situation poorly." But, honestly, it's hard for me to imagine a situation where my own door is jammed and I'm not exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior. The difference is, when the police show up at my house, they probably don't ask me for ID. And even if they do, I'll bet it's perfunctory. If they see a white lady in the house, they'll assume that I live here. I think this is the crux of the lie of "post racial America."

I've had this on my mind a lot, lately, having watched the Sotomayor confirmation hearings. We seem to have created this cultural discourse where "racist" means "cross burner" and nothing else. Thus, when you call someone out for racism, especially if you're a minority, then you're "playing the race card." It's a neat trick. It's how Pat Buchanan keeps getting booked on the teevee.

Racism comes in many forms and in many levels. None of it is right, but just because some of it is really obviously wrong, doesn't mean it's OK to ignore the insidious, culturally accepted kinds. I don't think Henry Louis Gates is wrong at all when he that this happened because he was a black man in America.