Over the last few weeks we've learned that many white people think anti-white racism is a bigger problem than anti-black racism and at the same time find out that African Americans are the new optimists.
As the United States struggles through its worst economic crisis in generations, gloom has seized much of the heartland. The optimism that came so easily to many Americans as the new century dawned is significantly harder to summon these days. There is, however, a conspicuous exception: African-Americans, long accustomed to frustration in their pursuit of opportunity and respect, are amazingly upbeat, consistently astounding pollsters with their hopefulness. Earlier this year, when a Washington Post–Kaiser–-Harvard poll asked respondents whether they expected their children’s standard of living to be better or worse than their own, 60 percent of blacks chose “better,” compared with only 36 percent of whites...
Over the past few years, pollsters repeatedly have corroborated the phenomenon. Whereas whites are glum, blacks are upbeat—which is remarkable since the economic crisis has hit African-Americans with particularly brutal force. Employment among black men, for instance, has dropped to an all-time low. When I asked Harvard Business School professor David Thomas about the CNN poll, he laughed. “It’s irrational exuberance,” he said.
That quote is from an adapted excerpt of Ellis Cose's new book The End of Anger: A New Generation’s Take on Race and Rage. I'm sure there are those who will skim what Cose is saying to reaffirm the idea that racism is no longer a problem (or twist the word as so many have done into its reverse-racism mode), but they'll not really be hearing what Cose is saying. Here is what he said in an interview with Teresa Cotsirilos at Salon:
What struck me is just the very different take they [different generations] had. Not on whether discrimination existed. They all agree that life is different for an African-American than it is for a white American. But what is different is the significance of that discrimination in terms of their life possibilities. The younger folks are just much more likely to believe that they can personally overcome it because there are ways to get around it that their parents didn't have, and that their grandparents could not even imagine...
But one of the interesting things is that even among that most privileged group, they're not saying that race no longer matters. Even the most privileged folk are aware that they are subject to being treated quite differently on the basis of race. If there's anything close to a universal experience among African-Americans, it's being treated with suspicion in a store, or being approached by a cop for no good reason -- they all shared this. I don't think that there is going to be a loss of a coherent black identity, but I do think it's gotten a lot more complicated, because people perceive their options in wildly different ways than they did before.
And when asked about the intense reaction to President Obama by some angry white voters, he said this:
I think it's part and parcel of the same thing. Because there has been this very obvious progress, there is a very boisterous minority that is upset about it, and of course they're going to make their voices heard. I mean clearly, as all the research data shows, the hardcore sort of Tea Partyers tend to be older. They tend to be conservative. They're not very comfortable with where this country's going now. Who would expect them to be? It's not because they're stupid. It's because they're stuck in a very old paradigm.
Exactly! He's linking the increased optimism among African Americans to the backlash many white people are expressing. That is the civil rights challenge of our times. Can people of color find the nuance of celebrating the achievements they have accomplished while letting go of past grievances and recognizing that the struggle goes on in new ways? And can white people begin to recognize their own racial identity apart from being propped up by a sense of privilege?
Taking on these new challenges will require different methods and strategies. They are no less significant than what occurred in the past. And it will always be important to listen to and honor the wisdom that was gained in those struggles. But its also important to clearly see the present as it is and continue to work towards the possibilities of the future.
I don't have all the answers as to what those methods should be. But in honoring the wisdom of the past, I think it all starts with some very profound words from Robert Kennedy.
When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.
We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force...
Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.
But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.
Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.
Mo'nin', Ms. Pants
ReplyDeleteTrustin' you and yours are well this day.
The post below on fathering/parenting and this one regarding our significant social challenge at hand are, imo, just solidly on point.
If there is to be resolution, it is most important to accurately present and define whatever the problem may be.
I've noted that, even as you do this at your blog spot, you continue to wrestle with and fine tune in the process.
And, encourage all of us who read you to enter in and do the same.
THIS is what you do.
And, I continue to be appreciative.
Mornin Blackman.
ReplyDeleteSomeone once told me that understanding racism in this country was like peeling an onion one layer at a time. That has certainly proved true in my experience. So the journey to wrestle and fine tune continues.