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Racism: Episode III (the last one)
Here’s the third and final excerpt (and WMB post) from Richard Thomas Ford’s The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse. The first excerpt/post considered the word racism and its many abuses, the second excerpt/post considered the Jay-Z/Cristal controversy, and the third excerpt/post considers Hurricane Katrina and who, precisely, was being racist during those terrible days.
Topic: Issues, WorldMagBlog
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back to top51 Comments to “Racism: Episode III (the last one)”
Most accusations of racism are false. It’s about time someone finally starts writing about it.
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Wow, I just watched the news last night about white seperatists marching in Jena. I guess they were making a bolder statement. The trucks that passed by the other march weren’t enough. What’s a few dangling nooses to a crowd of blacks?
Then there was the District Attorney who thanked Jesus for stepping in and controlling the blacks because if Jesus hadn’t stepped in, they surely would have rioted. Blacks have so little self control, obviously.
Yea, racism is dead. However, it is our duty to control the blacks who don’t have the same restrictions and self control that white people do. They can’t help it. Oh, and uh, thanks Jesus. We really apreciate your intervention.
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I like that Night Train isn’t just a racist, he also clearly doesn’t read the passages in question. I have serious reason to doubt Ford’s motivations and a lot of his quotes seem flat out wrong (see below) but his book is far from saying “most accusations of racism are false.”
“The person who assumes the best of others and offers plausible alternatives to the verdict of racism is typically dismissed as naïve or even complicit in racial injustice.”
I think that is flat out wrong. Most people are willing to admit for example (and I think Ford bocks this up in places) that the majority of “racism” is inadvertent. Minorities like Night Train and Nick Peters aside, the task at hand isn’t to condemn evil racist dictators, but to make white people AWARE of their whiteness.
White people chronically don’t take their race into consideration in their day-to-day interactions with police officers, store clerics, bank attendants, women they pass on the street, Chinese shop owners (I’m in SF), etc. So people of color get frustrated when white people demur and make excuses for what most people are willing to concede is inadvertent. The effect is people of color getting pissed off because they see a white person, never themselves having been pulled over on a DWB (driving while brown), telling them that there is no racism in the police force.
“People who are regularly at risk of suffering from concealed racism can’t afford to take Pollyanna’s perspective. A marked man had better always look for hidden assassins; a black person—marked by race for social contempt—had better always look for hidden bigotry.”
To his credit, Ford even gives a rational explanation for “reactive race cards.” But this kind of highlights my point. White people don’t have the burden of constantly analyzing their interactions for ways that race might be disadvantaging them.
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I love it. A gay guy going around calling me a racist.
It’s hardly a secret that one of the most racist groups out there is the gay community. Most white gays despise blacks and want nothing to do with them.
But Luke (who I believe has said he’s a gay man) hasn’t got time to worry about cleaning up his own back yard. He’d rather hassle a guy who’s not a racist, but refuses to toe the PC line.
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“It’s hardly a secret that one of the most racist groups out there is the gay community.”
I wouldn’t say “most.” There are the afore mentioned SF old Chinese shop owners, and whatever demographics you’re in. It is true that their is some pretty prevalent racism in some gay communities. In fact, it’s why I don’t support the HRC. There is NO demographic free of racism.
Still, what does that have to do with me?
I have NOT called you are a racist because you are a white evangelical with poor reading comprehension skills. This is not about your demographic.
I have called you a racist because you routinely say racist things!
You haven’t witnessed me criticizing the gay community is because this is not a gay blog!
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“People who are regularly at risk of suffering from concealed racism can’t afford to take Pollyanna’s perspective. A marked man had better always look for hidden assassins; a black person—marked by race for social contempt—had better always look for hidden bigotry.”
It has been my experience that we find what we’re looking for in others. If we’re looking for a racist motive, we are almost always sure to find it whether one exists or not.
If we look for positives in people, regardless of race, there’s always something there to find too.
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You highlight an interesting point, Luke. When you’re in the majority you don’t always notice what happens to the every day life of the minority.
We learned this in Hawaii, where I was unable to buy clothes for four years and where people would be passed ahead of us at restaurants. Obviously not the same as being stopped and assumed guilty for driving irregularities, but it did heighten my awareness of minority life.
You become used to what you live with, however, even if it’s people whose skin color is different. I hadn’t realized that until we were home in LA for a visit and we went to a shopping mall with lots of black people. I started feeling uncomfortable and then more uncomfortable fearing I was feeling uncomfortable because maybe I was a closet racist and what did that say about me?
My true attitude became clearer when we got to the airport a couple days later to fly back to Hawaii. I immediately went over and stood next to an Asian family and relaxed. And that’s when it hit me–Asian faces, beautifully mixed ones in the Hawaiian fashion, had become my norm. That’s where I felt more comfortable even though it is not my personal racial mix.
And I also observed the first time we attended church on the mainland, I went and sat next to the only Asian family in the church–because that’s what I was used to.
A black colleague of my husband’s got a kick out of observing the Hawaiians they worked with put them both into the same haole category, and treated them both equally poorly.
So, I think mixing up the races in normal life the best innoculation against racism. And it doesn’t hurt to consciously spend time being a minority. Indeed, it’s healthy for everyone–especially in Hawaii.
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I have NOT called you are a racist because you are a white evangelical with poor reading comprehension skills. This is not about your demographic.
Poor reading skills? BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
You think I’m an evangelical, and I’m the one with the poor reading skills? You and Outkast should get married. Just don’t reproduce!
I have called you a racist because you routinely say racist things!
No, I don’t. I never say racist things. If I did, I’d have been banned a long time ago. Disagreeing with you does not equal racism.
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I got an idea, Luke. Instead of calling me rude names simply because I disagree with you on some things, why don’t you tell us all about what happened with a San Fran gay bar called Badlands a couple years ago?
And then you can tell us why lots of blacks in SF say that many bars are just like Badlands and it was not an aberration, but typical.
Then you can dig through all your old copies of The Advocate, Genre, Out, etc, and try to find one with a black man on the cover. Then you can dig through the stories and ads and tell us how many of them contain pictures of black men.
Or just go back to swooning over the Super Aryans in your Tom of Finland posters and leave me alone.
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Night Train, I can’t deal with this topic. It’s up to you.
Everyone goes to those who are “familiar.” Black people do it, asians do it, whites do it. It’s normal, it doesn’t mean a person is a racist. Why don’t you just look at people as people. When I go to the bank I see a teller, not an asian teller or a black teller. I just see a teller. Racism isn’t dead, but it isn’t lurking in every encounter either.
Perhaps, Luke, you need to start looking at the way YOU look at people and stop ASSUMING you know what they’re thinking and feeling. Remember that old saying: don’t judge a book by its cover. You might be surprised.
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What did you do, google “SF +racism +gay”?
Dude, I’ll admit i classified you wrong as an evangelical but you aren’t exactly scoring any reading comprehension points. You can’t even comprehend what you’re writing or stick to your own arguments!
What happened to “Most accusations of racism are false”?
Now you are accusing SF gay bars and media outlets racism?
So let me get this correct, Bush and FEMA ignoring 1000’s of drowning black people and the media representations of White vs Black “looters” are not examples of racism, yet a bar not playing hip-hop music and the covers of Genre Magazine are?
“And Castro For All” organized to call the business practices of the Badlands racist, and the group and bar’s owner reached a resolution in 2006. People of color work at the bar, frequent the bar (mostly tourists), and as far as I know like the bar.
The badlands issue was a good example of how exposing racism lead to positive moves forward in a community. Because accusations of racism were CORRECT, people saw material change not a backslide on race relations.
You’re self defeating.
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Klasko hits on an important point: if we’re looking for places to be offended, we’re going to find offense. This applies to race, and plenty of other areas of life. There are many Christians who take up offense over some perceived “anti-Christian” attitudes when in fact there’s no such malice intended.
We all need thicker skin, but by the same token, when the discrimination does become a legitimate encroachment on civil rights (like the Driving While Brown case), then everyone should rally around those who are being unfairly singled out.
FWIW, this was a pretty spot-on analysis of the Katrina situation and how the racial aspect of it was simultaneously far deeper (i.e. historical) and less real (i.e. state, local, and federal incompetence is not caused by racism) than the media zeitgeist would like it to be. But hey, if you can blame racism, you sell papers and the ratings for your talk show goes up!
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#12: There are many Christians who take up offense over some perceived “anti-Christian” attitudes when in fact there’s no such malice intended.
Or when you say, “I’m not into mysticism and I don’t believe in the occult”. But then they go on to say, “If you don’t believe the Bible, what’s to stop you from rape and murder”? Or, if two gay people are allowed to marry, what’s next, men and premies? Women and cats? A busload of six year olds? The malice may be unintended, but it’s still there. I suspect it’s intended. People that believe they are doing, “God’s work” will do anything. They have no limits. God is on their side. They are following “scripture”.
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We all need thicker skin, but by the same token, when the discrimination does become a legitimate encroachment on civil rights (like the Driving While Brown case), then everyone should rally around those who are being unfairly singled out.
Rob, name a few cops who pull people over for no other reason than the color of their skin.
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Actually, I was referring more to stuff like the embarassing “war on Christmas” phenomenon and that ilk. But I wouldn’t want to interupt your flaggelation of a deceased equine, so knock yourself out, donato.
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Rob, name a few cops who pull people over for no other reason than the color of their skin.
Well, there’s Richie Samuels down in Boca. And Will Chatham in Skokie. I heard that about Allan Rivers in Wichita but I don’t know that for sure. Oh, and Brian Halpern in Van Nuys. He’s the worst.
(The above has been a joke. No police officers were harmed in the creation of this joke. All characters are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.)
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Exactly, SteveG. Just as most allegations of being pulled over because of the color of your skin are jokes.
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NT,
I’ll grant that the DWB concept is based almost completely on annecdotal evidence. I don’t have any friends in local law enforcement, and I’ve never bothered to ask my black friends if they’ve ever been pulled over for dubious reasons. However, I doubt you’ve got any firm way of proving that it doesn’t happen, so we’re kinda at an impasse in terms of direct experience.
So personal experience notwithstanding, a simple Google search can find plenty of evidence that DWB is a legitimate phenomenon. Here’s one case that got some local attention where I’m at. http://tinyurl.com/ys93hp
Now back to claiming that the Gay Mafia is trying to paint you as a racist and that the entire WMB community is out to get you…
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Actually, Rob, if you’d bother to read the story, it makes it clear they pulled him over after an improper lane change. Which is illegal, last I knew.
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…after following him for blocks. If that isn’t waiting for an excuse, I don’t know what is. And what the story doesn’t tell (because it hadn’t happened yet) is that all the charges were later dropped. Even the lane change. Weary’s been pondering his legal options, and may sue the city.
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Of course he might. He’s a black man who was held accountable to the same laws we all follow, and there can only be one reason for that, racism, and so Our Horribly Racist Society has got to pay.
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You’ve never had a cop follow you for blocks or even a few miles? Then you’re in a very small minority of people. That happens to pretty much everyone from time to time. And since when does being followed by cops for a stretch give you Weary the right to ignore traffic laws, let alone make it a good idea?
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I’m curious as to how a possible illegal lane change violation (remember, the charges were dropped) justifies a Tasering, but whatever.
Arguing minutae with NT is like trying to explain to a teenager why they can’t go out on Friday night. Every detail is up for argument, and the teenager (in his own eyes) is always in the right regardless of the facts.
Am I part of the cadre who is out to get you, too?
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Actually, Rob, when a person is arrested (or ticketed) for a number of charges at the same time, the least serious one is usually dropped.
For example, if a person in Iowa gets pulled over for going the wrong way on a one-way street and is later found to be intoxicated, he/she will not be charged with the wrong-way violation.
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That said, your observations of NT are dead-on.
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Night Train, how many people do you know who have been pulled over for an improper lane change? Have you ever done one? (Full disclosure: I have, though I try not to.)
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Am I part of the cadre who is out to get you, too?
When have I ever said anyone is out to get me?
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And I’m quite sure there’s a whole lot more to the story between the pull over and the Tasering.
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Cheryl, I can’t say it’s ever happened to me, and yes, I’ve done illegal lane changes. But it has happened to friends who’ve bellyached to me about it later. No more than a handful. PD’s usually deny they have ticket quotas, but they often do, even if they’re unspoken. Or maybe a cop is in a bad mood. Whatever the reason, an illegal lane change is, in fact, illegal, and sufficeint cause to pull one over. And believe me, most cops don’t go out of their way to hassle blacks, as it can be a career ending move.
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Of course, I can’t argue with Outkast. That guy’s a genius!
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It doesn’t take a genius to do a little research and find out that PDs do NOT have ticket quotas. The police are bound to the laws of the land, and pulling people over discriminately would be a waste of their departmental budgets (since they would not hold up in a court of law).
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#4: It’s hardly a secret that one of the most racist groups out there is the gay community. Most white gays despise blacks and want nothing to do with them.
Do you have a lot of gay friends? How else would you know this to be true? Because of one bar somewhere?
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Never been to a gay bar. I do have some gay friends. And I read a lot.
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Seems black people have their own racial issues. More and more of them are speaking out against Hispnaics “taking over” what are “their” neighborhoods. This article says the Rainbow Coalition Is Evaporating.
http://snipurl.com/1y41p
“I’m melting! I’m melting!”
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Pundit, former Clinton strategist, and sucker of hooker’s toes Dick Morris says that Hillary is deliberately trying to lose SC. He says she wants SC blacks to turn out in droves and vote for Obama very lopsidedly, so that white Americans will start looking at the contest in racial terms, see that blacks are backing Obama out of racial loyalty, and move en masse to Hillary out of racial loyalty. Because, as Hillary and Obama and Bill and everyone else love to point out, Diversity Is Our Greatest Strength.
http://snipurl.com/1y465
I can’t wait until all these tens of millions of new Hispanics begin voting in large numbers. Elections should get real interesting.
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Hillary Clinton will undoubtedly lose the South Carolina primary as African-Americans line up to vote for Barack Obama.
That’s a far cry from saying that Hillary is “deliberately trying to lose SC,” Night Train.
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Outkast, did I ever tell you I think you’re a genius?
I guess you missed not only everything that came after the first sentences, but also Morris’s title for the article:
Hillary’s Plan to Lose South Carolina
Doggone it, I have to say it one more time.
Outkast, you’re a genius!
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This conversation is still going on? Sorry for my ego but I thought I ended it at post 11. Since NT seems he doesn’t want to respond, I’m going to go ahead an assume that we are in an entirely new conversation about cops and Hillary Clinton.
ps- Here is a scholarly article on DWB that NT won’t read:
http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/dwb01.htm
It gives some personal experience and supporting statistical data proving the phenomenon definitely NOT anecdotal. Not give those concessions away so easily, Rob. This was easy to find! It’s the first reference on the DWB wikipedia article.
But anyway, Cheryl, Rob, and Outcast, NT’s rejection of the existence of DWB (asking for names and offering justifications) is an example kind of white behavior I talk about in post 3. Black people see whites with admittedly no personal experience with police oppression “assuming the best” and making excuses. It’s alienating. More so because there privileged skin also makes them more credible in the media (something whites also often refuse to admit).
Accusations of racism should be given the benefit of the doubt NOT police practices. This is essential for reversing the historic trend of turning a blind eye to oppression and for rooting out the forms of racism that have become institutional. Ford (who I still don’t trust) also calls these historic.
It seems ridiculous to me that we can admit a population of American’s has been historically disadvantaged by unfair past socio-economic forces, and then not come to the conclusion that those who have been historically ADVANTAGED shouldn’t offer those populations support. Or that that shouldn’t be mandatory!
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Oops, I lost track of my negatives.
Read: “and then not come to the conclusion that those who have been historically ADVANTAGED should offer those populations support. Or that that should be mandatory!”
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Mandatory support? What would that entail?
Specifics, please.
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Luke,
Neither side should automatically get “the benefit of the doubt.” There’s some evidence that DWB occurs. I also know of “evidence” that it doesn’t–namely two white male family members who often drive in “bad parts of town” at iffy hours of the day (pizza delivery and living in “the bad part of town”), and they often get pulled over without reason. Also, middle-class blacks don’t seem to experience it (not sure about that one, but it seems to be true). In other words, it may be the part of town in which you drive that is more of a factor. And frankly, I’m not sure I blame a cop for being a little quicker to pull someone over in a high-crime area. (I’m not justifying “driving while black,” just saying there may be more to the story; we’re in an era when we jump to the assumption of racism, and that may not be the issue here.) We’re almost to a point where police are afraid to pull over a black man, which is extra dangerous.
Also, the law should be legally blind, not offering extra “support” to anybody. Individuals can offer support to people (I have done so in many ways in my own life), and institutions can voluntarily do so, but legal racism is still racism, even if it’s called “quotas.”
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I also know of “evidence” that it doesn’t–namely two white male family members who often drive in “bad parts of town” at iffy hours of the day (pizza delivery and living in “the bad part of town”), and they often get pulled over without reason.
It’s the same sort of profiling though. I used to live in a small town that had one predominantly poor black section. The police would watch the one road leading in or out of the section and would often find a reason to pull over white people who went there late at night. The assumption was that they were probably going there to buy drugs. (I knew one of the sheriff’s deputies pretty well, he was my neighbor, and he confirmed to me that was their thinking.)
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Check out this college newspaper column from a racist black lunatic. He says that blacks hating whites is understandable, and isn’t racism. Blacks can’t be racist. The title is Racism Is One Way Street.
http://snipurl.com/1y6z0
And guess what? Just like Dr. King, he’s a proud plagiarist. He’s just now coming off suspension for plagiarizing an ESPN columnist. And guess what he was plagiarizing about? Yep, ol’ debbil racism and the Evil White Man.
http://snipurl.com/1y6z9
Of course, expecting black people not to plagiarize is racist itself, according to many people. It imposes a “Eurocentric norm” on blacks and denigrates their history of a “shared oral tradition”, blah blah blah.
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Of course, I fully expect Luke or Outkast (that guy’s a genius!) to come on and declare comment #43 to be “racist”, blah blah blah.
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Feeling defensive, NT?
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And how!
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‘Mandatory support? What would that entail?’
Taxes and social programs, like subsidized community colleges.
‘We’re almost to a point where police are afraid to pull over a black man, which is extra dangerous.’
Ok, you knwo that’s just sill don’t you? Reflecting back on it, can you admit that is silly?
NT, if you didn’t want comment 43 to be called racist you shouldn’t have been disgusting racist, you racist! You think you can adopt the dialect of sambo and get praised for tolerance? This one isn’t a rhetorical question, I actually want to know if you thought that your choice of language was appropriate. Cause I though it was pretty racist.
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I agree, Luke, and NT does a pretty crappy job of hiding his racism. Sort of like Nick Peters, don’t you think?
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Luke, it was extremely appropriate. I think you’ve had enough Red Bull!
(Don’t mind Outkast; he thinks “niggardly” is a bad word.)
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Luke, I must say I’m shocked to see that you and Outkast are suddenly BFF.
How did that happen?
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One more thing, Luke. What’s your take on this Larry Sinclair guy who says that Obama is lying about not using drugs since he was a teenager? Surely you’ve seen the YouTube video where Sinclair says that in 1999 he and Obama shared cocaine and had gay sex, and is challenging Obama to take a polygraph test. Sinclair says he’s willing to take one.
What do you make of all this?
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