If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I speak out against racism on a pretty regular basis. And you probably know I’ve made some people mas by doing so. “People like Helen Losse seem to me to drag us backwards with the way they approach the matter of racism.” said one writer.
Others have tried to define racism in a manner that makes it appear less unique than it actually is. Renaissance Guy wrote a blog entry to that effect recently to which I replied,
“1. Racism is alive and well in the US.
2. Racism is America’s original sin.
3. All white people are racists or recovering racists. The choice is up to the individual. Either you are a part of the problem (racist) or a part of the solution (recovering racist). You have to be “born again.” (Not as a Democrat or a Republican but as a recovering racist).”
and then,
“…let me explain one more time. Racism is about more than skin color, about more than ethnicity. It is about the white (male) position always being right–always having to be right. It is about refusing to consider that the way black people have lived (in this country) since the beginning of this country has anything to do with what’s going on now. It is about always putting the words of the founding fathers (Old, rich, white men) above the words of black people. It is about refusing to believe that what a black man says could be right, even if that man is the President of the US. It is about pretending you are talking about policy differences, when ever since the slaves were set free it has really been about “forty acres and a mule.” It is about the same “sharing the wealth” that has been spoken of by black leaders for years. It is about falling back on cries of “socialist” when we all know it’s about keeping the black and the poor down unless they play by white man rules.”
Today I came across two instances that help illustrate my point: White people cannot re-define racism and make it go away. I print both with permission.
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The first is a statement by Robert T. Canipe, “”I understand racism to be a subconscious indoctrination instead of a conscious choice.” Maybe that will help explain why I say white people are either racists or recovering racists. Being racist has nothing to do with our individual families being overly racist, which they may not have been, and everything to do with American society favoring whiteness, which is racism, over which we have no control. The only way to stop being racist is to become a recovering racist. I say that because I am one. The society in which I live still favors whiteness in ways that I can choose to overlook but that black people can’t. A recovering racist listens to what black people say about racism and acts accordingly.
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The second came in an e-mail from M. Quinn.
The Courage of a Former American President
While many Americans remain entirely apathetic with regard to engaging in any authentic discussion on the matter of racism, and for all intents and purposes are clearly petrified to embark upon a discourse on this alleged taboo subject; former President Jimmy Carter has presented himself as a unquestionably courageous guardian of the truth; as he cited that most of the vitriol, and utter contempt waged against President Obama has less to do with the president’s health care proposal, but is squarely rooted in racism.
In fact, there are some within the United States of America who truly believe that a black man does not have the intelligence, fortitude or the right to be the president of the United States.
Mr. Carter’s intrepid position has lead everyone from politicians to the mainstream media to attempt to dismiss his position as completely inaccurate. However, we must ask ourselves, that if the former president’s statements were patently off the mark, then why are terms such as “Afro-socialism” being employed in a utterly bigoted description of President Obama, coupled with signs depicting the president as Adolf Hitler; while others stating we want our country back. We must be very careful in attempting to assign these actions to merely a few extremist, while once again, missing a prime opportunity to have a genuine conversation on the legacy of racism within our nation.
It is undeniable that America has a protracted history of viewing African Americans as third class citizens at best, even when an individual has risen to the heights of an American president; and it is this contaminated mind-set which must be addressed in the 21st century. Unfortunately, many Americans continue their attempt to deny this fact, and proceed with their daily lives as if we can merely ignore the decadent history of racism in our society. The inability of most Americans to first wholly acknowledge America’s decadent past and similarly engage in an honest dialog on the subject of racism, presents the American populous as clearly apathetic at best, and utter cowards at worst in regards to genuinely addressing this social malady.
An authentic discourse regarding racism within American society has been a forbidden prospect for much too long. We must applaud former President Jimmy Carter for his courage, and not remain apathetic regarding engaging in a genuine dialog on racism in our society.
Moreover, courageous individuals such as former President Jimmy Carter must be celebrated for their undeniable valor. It is essential, that “We the People” become boldly unwavering in our pursuit to reverse the scourge of racism in our nation, and similarly commence a national campaign toward implementing sustainable solutions.
Equally, if we as a nation are ever going to achieve that status of true greatness, then we must be courageous enough to deal with matters pertaining to race and racism, without seeking the artificial cloak of denial as some sort of safe haven.
M. Quinn is the Founder of the Campaign to Remove the Veil, which advocates incorporating a comprehensive study of racism into the academic system of American society, and making it a prerequisite for graduation. He specializes in social, political, and historical analysis and commentary.
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emphasis mine
Windows Toward the World 
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September 24, 2009 at 2:49 am
renaissanceguy
You wrote: “Racism is alive and well in the US.”
I agree. However, it is no longer officially or legally sanctioned. And, thankfully, it is less pervasive and less intense than it used to be. I would be more likely to discuss our current race problems if people would simply ackowledge that. I wish that we could have a constructive dialog about fixing current race problems instead of still trying to end slavery and Jim Crow.
You also wrote: “Racism is America’s original sin.”
Perhaps. I would add a few things to it, such as greed and arrogance, but racism is certainly entwined with those two. Racism seems to me to be the excuse or rationale for using and abusing non-white people in order to amass more wealth, power, and glory.
And you wrote: “All white people are racists or recovering racists. The choice is up to the individual. Either you are a part of the problem (racist) or a part of the solution (recovering racist). You have to be ‘born again.'”
I understand why you think so, but I am not there yet. Something inside me resents having a burden of guilt foisted on me for things I never did, never condoned, and never supported. Especially when I am told it is because my ancestors perpetrated them, since my actual ancestors did not.
Am I a citizen of the country that did horrendous things to nonwhite people? Yes. But I wasn’t there when it happened, and I acknowledge that it was wrong. I cannot undo it. I can only do better and teach my children to do better.
If you want to claim that it is still officially and legally sanctioned, then you are just being dishonest to foster your cause. Obama’s life history and his election prove that it is not.
If you want to claim that it is inherent in white people, then I want to know why it is not also inherent in black people.
If you want to claim that it is entrenched in society, then I assert that I am an individual. I am not “society.” I barely even accept the concept of society, and I think that is one reason that we disagree so vociferously, you and I.
Then you wrote: “Racism is about more than skin color, about more than ethnicity. It is about the white (male) position always being right–always having to be right.”
Are you too much of a poet to see how those two statements contradict each other. You say it is not about skin color, and then you write about skin color. It’s not the first time that you have done so. In fact, count how many times skin color is mentioned in your post above.
If it were not about skin color, then you would not say that all white people are racists. In fact, the only “sin” that you can pin on me is being a white American. Unless you simply disbelieve my claims, I have given ample testimony that I have never mistreated people because of their race.
You wrote, interestingly, “It is about always putting the words of the founding fathers (Old, rich, white men) above the words of black people.”
If black people want to help write a new Constitution or to help amend the old one, I’d be happy with that. Until then, the Constitution brings order to our country, and I do not agree with simply ignoring it without due process. I’m not sure if you meant something else by your statement.
You wrote: “It is about pretending you are talking about policy differences. . .”
I think that it is very unwise to think that way. If one side is “pretending” than it is only fair to accuse the other side of doing so, too. I could, with the same glibness, say that people did not care about George Bush’s policies; they opposed him because he was white. That is a terribly rude and belittling thing to say about somebody, and I would not do so. I assume that people opposed the Iraq invasion because they thought it was wrong–not because the president at that time was white.
Here’s the simple proof. Do people oppose the same policies when white people propose them? With a completely clear conscience I can say that I do. Perhaps there are people out there who loved all the white Democratic presidents of the past but despise the current black one, but I doubt it. The same people who oppose Obama’s administration would have opposed Hillary Clinton’s, John Edwards’s (can you get more white than him?), or any other white Democrat’s.
“. . .American society favoring whiteness, which is racism, over which we have no control.”
It’s a mixed bag right now. In some ways our society still favors whiteness, but in some ways it doesn’t. Look at how white people are now stereotyped and demeaned, including by you. It is no longer socially acceptable to do that to black people, thankfully, but it is simply a given that you can stereotype and generalize about white people, as you do. White people are not eligible for certain grants and scholarships or for certain job placement programs, no matter how poor they are. I found that out when I tried to apply for a government-sponsored job with my city and when I applied for financial aid in college.
I’m not saying that affirmative action was not a necessary thing to right past wrongs, but it has turned things around so that in specific situations, blackness is more favored than whiteness.
“. . .former President Jimmy Carter has presented himself as a unquestionably courageous guardian of the truth; as he cited that most of the vitriol, and utter contempt waged against President Obama has less to do with the president’s health care proposal, but is squarely rooted in racism.”
Ah, he’s still stinging from his inadequacy as a president and his rejection by the majority of American people. To guard himself psychologically, he has to attribute it to race rather than policy, since Obama’s policies are simply extensions of his.
“. . .then why are terms such as “Afro-socialism” being employed in a utterly bigoted description of President Obama, coupled with signs depicting the president as Adolf Hitler; while others stating we want our country back.”
Why was George W. Bush called a fascist and depicted as Adolf Hitler? I’ll bet that you won’t answer sincerely. Or I’ll bet that your answer will be something like it’s okay when we do it but not when you do it.
For the record, I think that Obama is a socialist, but to give perspective, I thought that Bush was a semi-socialist. I don’t think Afro has anything to do with it. In fact, I would be say that it is Euro-socialism that Obama espouses, and it is too bad that he has allowed himself to swalow it.
As for wanting the country back, it means that people want “the people” to take it back from “the government.” Color has nothing to do with it. Libertarians and conservaties, including black libertarians and conservatives, have been saying that for two decades–since before Barack Obama was president.
September 24, 2009 at 11:11 am
helenl
Hi RG,
RE: “[Racism] is no longer officially or legally sanctioned. And, thankfully, it is less pervasive and less intense than it used to be. ”
You want that acknowledged. Okay. That is true. It was also true in 1963, when MLK wrote “Why We Can’t Wait: Chaos or Community?” He said white people are satisfied with “improvement” and black people will never be satisfied until we have “equality.” Not much has changes since 1963; but I will acknowledge that racism is no longer legal. And I don’t think we call blacks by insulting names as often, unless you think “socialist” is the new code word for wanting “equality” and a “redistribution of wealth.’ Did you think the idea had died with King? He was, after all, martyred, you know. And for what, if the sharing of wealth doesn’t happen?
And okay, greed and arrogance are right up there with the biggest sins in America. But are they as unique to America as racism?
RE: “Something inside me resents having a burden of guilt foisted on me for things I never did, never condoned, and never supported.”
Of course it does. It did in me. This has to do with the “subconscious indoctrination instead of a conscious choice” that Robert Canipe explained so clearly. Americans speak of the individual so often that we come to believe we make choices about everything. We do not. Some things are so much a part of American society that we falsely believe they are the only way to be human. The silent person condones racism just as the silent person condones any other wrong. The idea of covert sins and sins of omission helps here. At least, it helped me.
……
RE: “If you want to claim that it is still officially and legally sanctioned, then you are just being dishonest to foster your cause. Obama’s life history and his election prove that it is not.”
Well, first it is not “still officially and legally sanctioned”; it is condoned by American society. Condoning means ignoring not fighting to dismantle.
Second, the election of Obama, our first black President, does not “foster any cause.” In the minds of many, it simply proves that there have always been exceptions to the “rule.” There have been individual blacks who achieved greatness throughout American history, while the majority of blacks were stuck in poverty.
Claiming that Obama election proves that racism is a thing of the past is as silly as thinking Shelby Steele represents “black thought.” Both have to do with the failure to comprehend societal thought over individualism. (See “Something inside me resents having a burden of guilt foisted on me for things I never did, never condoned, and never supported.” above)
RE: “You say it is not about skin color, and then you write about skin color.”
Do what? You are missing the nuances. It is not about what melanin causes; it’s about what racism causes.
RE: “It’s a mixed bag right now. In some ways our society still favors whiteness, but in some ways it doesn’t. Look at how white people are now stereotyped and demeaned, including by you.”
RG, do you think Christians have a right and responsibility to each other? I do. And it’s in the same way that white people have a responsibility to each other. My message is to white Christians; we are the ones who must “get it” and change our ways. I speak to a group to which I belong. I do not try to tell blacks how they should view history and society. They know racism experientially. What can I possibly say to them? No, I shut up and listen when blacks speak.
RE: “I’m not saying that affirmative action was not a necessary thing to right past wrongs, but it has turned things around so that in specific situations, blackness is more favored than whiteness.”
Two things. People who are opposed to special favors to make up for past wrongs are afraid they will lose something. And equality is not yet here.
RE: “As for wanting the country back, it means that people want “the people” to take it back from “the government.” Who are “the people”? I don’t hear any poor blacks without insurance crying, “give back our country.” LOL
You still don’t get it, do you?
September 24, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Mike Lovell
“A recovering racist listens to what black people say about racism and acts accordingly”
Since the few blacks I have talked to personally have no idea how an honest conversation on racism would even start, much less progress in a civil and results based orientation….could you further define “act accordingly”?
As for affirmative action policies, I’m in the camp that they were set forth with good intentions, but the practice of them (up to this point), overall, is pretty much backwards, and hasn’t actually shown any signs of success, other than some blacks (or other minorities, genders, sexual orientations, et al) now have jobs where they didn’t before. Sure, its a step in the right direction, but human folly has still kept it from happening in the pure form we all wish to see the policy manifest itself.
And, like RG, I’m still not convinced on the racist v. recovering racist side of things. All my relatives came over on boats long after the official ending of slavery, and all lived up here in way north (yank territory for all you johnny rebs!). I’m not actively racist, in fact have spoken against racist statements made by people around me in the past. But I also don’t think
I can be a recovering from something I haven’t engaged in, other than being a member of the collective society that so happens to have been lucky enough to have been born on U.S. soil.
Such an argument would be akin to the fact that my late Grandfather on my mother’s side (german, who’s dad came over on the boat in the early 20th century) would be a recovering hater of the French, to include his wife (whom he brought over from then german soil in the 1940s)
““1. Racism is alive and well in the US.
2. Racism is America’s original sin.
3. All white people are racists or recovering racists. ”
You’re logical argument here, if that’s how you have it posed is slightly false. Premise 1 and Premise 2 can’t lead you to conclusion 3. you would have to break down your argument more to get from 1 to 3. Just because racism is alive and well in the U.S. and it is America’s original sin, that doesn’t mean that automatically all whites are racists. If anything, the only logically drawn conclusion is that “all people in america are racists or recovering racists” at best.
September 24, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Scott Erb
I think there is racism lingering in just about everyone. To me (and I know I wrote about this on RG’s page) Rwanda is the classic example. A progressive President, a believer in human rights as UN Ambassador, and the US worked to undermine Gen. Dallaire’s Rwanda mission (along with the UK and France). Yet we were very concerned about Yugoslavia. And it’s not just blaming Clinton, Albright (or Major and Mitterrand). The public was in an uproar over murdered Yugoslavs, and ignored the massive violence reported on TV, reported by UN peacekeepers on the scene who needed more. It wouldn’t have taken much either — Dallaire noted that the perpetrators were mostly kids, sometimes 100 with machetes were held at bay by one UN officer holding a gun up. No, Africa was black, dark, tribal, primitive, not truly human. The Yugoslavs were more like us.
It wasn’t overtly stated as such, and people could find rationalizations, but I can’t help but compare the reaction — both public and political — to the brutal but relatively minor atrocity in Yugoslavia with a genocide in Rwanda that killed 800,000. We still hold in our psyches a colonial/racist mentality, a kind of social darwinist outlook that we may think we’ve overcome, but still tugs at our subconscious.
September 24, 2009 at 1:14 pm
helenl
Mike,
1,2, and 3 were truisms I was pointing out . I was not talking about cause and effect with respect to these points. 1+2 was never intended to equal 3.
Now let me state the obvious. Your French grandfather was a white man. No one this applies to him, as far as keeping him down. This is about racism, which is a particular prejudice with the power to keep the status quo.
If you want to learn about black people, read what they are saying. Read “Before the Mayflower” by Lerone Bennett Jr., read John Blasingame, John Hope Franklin, Martin Luther King, Jr., Orlando Patterson, Cornel West, … go to Amazon.com and search for African American studies.
Neither you nor your ancestors are being accused of keeping slaves. But the same racism that made US slavery different from slavery worldwide is what operates in our country even today.
September 24, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Mike Lovell
I’ll look into some of those books! Thanks for the multiple suggestions 🙂
“Neither you nor your ancestors are being accused of keeping slaves. But the same racism that made US slavery different from slavery worldwide is what operates in our country even today.”
I think we’re on tracks that are side by side here, we’re ALMOST together here, but not quite. the same racism……operates in our country today. Fine, I get that. But, the question is here – and you really got to get detailitis with me, but in third grade terms here- How does my being born here in America make me guilty of being racist? It’s as though we’re worshipping two types of deities here, per se. God holds me guilty as a sinner because I’m born of sinner’s blood; His creation was imperfect, therefore genetically speakng I too am imperfect. I accept this concept.
And now those of you within the community of thought that preach the idea of all whites being racist or recovering from it, hold me guilty for my mere existence as well, as though the very DNA within me shows a chromosome labeled “Racism”, as though its automatic prior to birth. Is my new niece an almost 1 week old racist by default?
September 24, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Mike Lovell
Oh, and let me add, that I believe the overall system has a racial bias, and while the system is made up of the collective, it still doesn’t necessary include the exact qualities of every individual….some people always have and always will remain outside any box us humans try to compartmentalize everything into.
Afterall, the total system is often run and controlled by a minute percentage of individuals from day one on beyond the foreseeable future.