Though there has been much progress in the last forty, years, there is still racism in our
society. Most people realize this. They are not so ignorant as to believe that racism has been
completely eradicated in the thirty-five years scince the Civil Rights Bill was passed. However,
many people acknowledge this, but think that it is not their problem. They try and separate
themselves from the issue. They may not go as far as to say that "it can't happen here", but
they do say that "it doesn't happen here”. The fact of the matter is, not only is it our problem,
but our apathy makes us a part of the problem.
A common way of separating ourselves from racism is to say that it is isolated In hate
groups, and is not an institutionalized part of our society. I recently saw a extreme example of
this on the Jerry Springer show. One man was wearing Klan robes, and another was wearing a
Santa Claus suit decorated with swastikas. The host and audience assailed the white
supremacists with crude insults. At one point a man stood up and said that the white
supremacists could never win, because in the end all of us, black or white, are red white and
blue Americans. Granted, the situation was ludicrous. But I think his statement echoed the
beliefs of many people. But is this not the same red white and blue America that committed
genocide against the Indians, held human slaves, had legal racial segregation, and forced
Japanese citizens into internment camps? Civil rights activists, and later black nationalists and
Indian rights activists, faced as much repression from the FBI as from any hate group.
Numerous studies have found that It Is much harder for minorities to get loans from a bank
than It Is for whites 1. As Cornell West describes firsthand in the preface to his book, Race
Matters 2, police routinely make "profile stops", and it is hard for a black man to catch a cab in
New York City even when he is wearing a suit and tie. These are not the acts of individual
hate groups, but of our entire country, While it is important to fight these disgusting hate
groups, it is equally important to fight the racism that is built into our society.
Another way of separating ourselves from racism is to say that it doesn't occur where
we live, only in the south. It is true that slaves were only held in the south. It is also true that
the south has a history of segregation and lynching, and is still a pretty racist place today. But
to say that racism only exists in the south ignores the very real northern racism. Simplistic
teachings of the Civil War say that it was the pro-slavery South vs. the anti-slavery North.
But abolitionists were only a radical minority in the north. The north had no use for black
slaves, but also had no desire for black citizens. The rich predominately white suburbs, and
poor predominately black inner cities are basically a form of northern segregation that is still
partly intact. And in the north there were and still are hate crimes and such institutionalized
forms of racism as police harassment. But northerners, myself included I’m sorry to say, take
advantage of the north-south cultural rift and the legacy of slavery to use southerners as
scapegoats. (It is ironic that we need a scapegoat to blame for our scapegoating.) This is the
reason that teenagers react so violently to country music and make redneck jokes. It is a way
of distancing ourselves from who we view as racists, and therefore racism. And it is perhaps
for the reverse reason that white suburban teenage adopt speech, and dress that glorifies "life in
the ghetto". It is the American equivalent of German Philo-Judaism, in which young Germans
relish in all aspects of Jewish culture, obviously motivated by feelings of guilt for their
ancestors roles in the holocaust. Similar to the way that they distance themselves from who
they view as racists, they attach themselves to the victims of racism.
Refusing to acknowledge our own prejudices gives racism the guise of legitimacy. For
example, I was at the house of a kid who considers himself to be an anti-racist. The phone
rang and when he picked it up a woman asked if his parents were home, and when he said that
they were not she promptly hung up. He half jokingly said that perhaps she was a robber
casing the house to see if anybody was home. When I asked why he thought she was a robber,
and not just a telephone sales person, he mumbled "well she was black, and it's a fact that more
of them are criminals." I know this kid, and he does not seem to be a generally prejudiced
person. But he believed that because it is fact that there a disproportionate number of African
Americans in jail, that it was okay to assume that an African American was a criminal. My first
thought was that was an ignorant way to think, because historical racism has caused a
disproportionate number of African Americans to live in poverty, and poverty often breeds
crime. Branding African Americans as criminals is a form of racism, and merely perpetuates
the cycle. But the most disturbing part is that he thought his racism was okay as long as it was
backed by a statistic. And what racism needs to grow is the veil of legitimacy. Most
Americans view the neo-nazi Aryan Nation as a disgusting and backwards group. However,
these same people are ready to follow someone like Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who
has publicly shared his affection for the values of the good old Confederacy, because he is
aligned with a mainstream group, the Republican Party 3. It is for this reason that Morris
Dees, founder of The Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that tracks hate groups and
fights them in court, says that Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition is the most dangerous group
in America. He says that it is more dangerous than right wing paramilitary groups because it
carries these radical right wing beliefs into the political mainstream. Former racist skinhead
T.J. Leyden gave another example of this by explaining why racist skin heads love the book
The Bell Curve, which argues that intelligence is a result of class and race 4. The book said
many of the same thing’s that the white supremacists were saying. But the books authors,
Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray were both scholars, and Herrnstein was a Harvard
psychology professor, so unlike neo-Nazi literature the book gained recognition amongst the
mainstream.
The point is we can't keep ignoring racism and pretending that everything is all well and
good. We need to confront our own prejudices, and the prejudices within our society and the
media. We also need to create a dialogue on the issue. For example I've only written, and
only can write, from the point of view of a white/Jewish, northern, suburban boy. But by
talking to different people I can see there point of view, and they can see mine. In this article
I've focused mainly on anti-black white supremacy, but there are other forms of prejudice such
as anti-Semitism, xenophobia, homophobia, and sexism which need to be confronted as well. I
know this sounds like I'm preaching, but I'm speaking to myself as well. I’m ashamed to say
that I've passed an African American man on the street and been momentarily afraid for no
reason other than that of a stereotype. I quickly reprimanded myself, but that doesn't make it
OK. By writing this essay what I’m really trying to do is force myself to confront my
prejudices.
1 Race Matters
Cornell West, Vintage Books (Random House Inc.) 1993
2 Fair Lending: A Resource Guide
Fair Lending VIII: Research
http://home.att.net/-bdedman/falr/research.htmi
3 Dueling With the Heirs of Jeff Davis
Peter Applebome, The New York Times, December 27, 1998
4 Thomas James (T.J.) Leyden interviewed by Terry Gross
Fresh Air, NPR, December 15, 1998
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