Well, of course the first question is; Have you seen it?
You have? Good. What do you think? What are your opinions? Thoughts? Worries? Frustrations?
Undeniably Senator Obama’s speech on race yesterday is one of the most important speeches dealing with race that have ever hit the psyche of the country. I spent my evening scanning the airwaves listening to pundits break down the speech. Overall the talking heads received the speech very warmly and were ready to open a broader dialog about understanding. Everyone I know that has seen the speech or read its words seems to have a new mind about how sensitive issues about racial tension should be addressed. I want to talk a little about how it affected me, and where I’d like to move the conversation.
A little about myself:
Before 2004 I was a 23 year old white dude living in the college town I was born in — listless, no idea where I wanted to go in life, or what to do. About 3 major manufacturing plants in the town had closed down, so jobs were tight. VERY tight, it impacted the hourly service jobs around me, and I spent that year dependent on my parents. I didn’t demand much, and did yard work to get cash to go out to the bar or coffee shop.
When I was living at home, I was sympathetic to the plight of workers, I understood that social services were a good thing, and that overall the democratic agenda of equality and uplifting others was one that I agreed with. I however had never faced that in person, never been challenged in my views that if we’re all happy together we’ll all be uplifted together. I was a naive liberal whose heart was in the right place, but my convictions were passively formed.
In 2004, I joined AmeriCorps NCCC because there was nothing for me at home. I lived, worked, and traveled throughout the Southeast United States. I worked in elementary schools where the 5th graders showed off their gunshot scars, and the 3rd graders told stories about running drugs. I worked for Habitat for Humanity where families got emotional because our team was happy to work on their home over a weekend. I spent time in State Parks where if we hadn’t cleaned up after a storm things would be closed because the park didn’t have the internal labor to allocate.
I met many people that drove home how important fundamental liberal philosophies are, and how they can be actualized to make a difference. It drove home how someone can only understand something when they perceive themselves on the other side. It was, as one could say, a great awakening.
But it lacked. The contact and meetings were positive yet fleeting; we were doing the work, but we weren’t all there 100%. We often went home from work convinced that people had willfully placed themselves in these dire situations. I think it was a great start for many of us, and one that cannot be taken away, but it wasn’t the full trip.
Yesterday, the other ball dropped. Obama’s speech cut right to the core of hard and sensitive issues that make everyone angry and we’re afraid to talk about. He addressed how stereotypes are formed and propagated, and without being apologetic he emphasized that many of the wrong words used to express frustration and anger are still rooted in genuine problems and resentment. It left me wondering what I can do.
And I think the best service that I can provide is to try and surface some of those really bitter generalizations and keep their perceptions at the forefront of how people think for the next few days. Learning isn’t an overnight process, but one that must be worked at and constantly thought about. I don’t want it be: “Wow what a historic speech; when’s the new episode of The Office going to air?”
So for better or worse. Well worded or not. Here’s what I offer to the internet.
I will no longer subscribe to the idea of “The Great White Guilt”. I will not simply make empty gestures to minorities because I feel it is a worthwhile gesture. I will not consider acts of kindness a charity I perform to prove white people aren’t that bad.
I will accept that whether I was part of it or not whether my direct family was part of it or not; me, and my generation has been handed a burden of division that we must tackle and improve upon rather than insist it has nothing to do with us.
I will no longer talk in classifier terms about where I live, it’s not the difference between “suburban” and “inner-city” problems, they are all problems of my community.
I will know as a fact that there are more black men in college than in prison, and more importantly it’s numerically absurd to think otherwise.
I will understand that even if I see negative consequences to Affirmative Action I understand that it’s helped far more than it’s hurt.
I will provide equal personal criticisms of the Micheal Richard’s and Jerry Falwell’s out there, as I will any black comedian or artist. As in, I will not expect the white folks that fuck up to be held to a higher standard of apology and forgiveness. Racial stereotypes and negative language goes both ways, and I will weight the context equally and not let something roll past simply because “I don’t understand since I’m not black.”
I will, though, realize that my cultural upbringing, and personal history is as different as anyone else, and I will keep that in mind during all conversations and judgments that I make, and in the end, I probably can’t see everyone’s viewpoints.
But in discussing cultural perspectives with race, simply because I don’t see it someone else’s way, or even if I flatly disagree does not mean the other person is wrong or invalid. Instead it means that I didn’t have the lifetime of experiences the other has had to lead them to that conclusion.
If I see, hear, or perceive racism, I will know that being angry and trying to shout it gone, not only doesn’t work, it often can re-enforce those views. Instead I will try and engage conversation to understand the viewpoint, or at least try to reduce the rancor involved.
This is where I am starting, and where I am making a personal and measurable effort to create that “more perfect union”. This is what I bring to the table, but I also am asking for some things too.
Being a middle-class white guy with a comfortable life I understand that I may look like a real obvious symbol of White power, institutionalized racism, and a wealth/class/education divide that can be drawn along ethnic lines. I get that me walking down the street carrying my laptop talking on a cell phone can be a real easy and obvious magnet of racial resentment; please do not assume I personally have done anything to forward racism, or that I am okay with you taking it out on me. I haven’t and I’m not.
Understand that when someone is in fact making some kind of gesture, and you can tell with all your being that the “Great White Guilt” is guiding their hand please don’t get as upset as you probably feel. A lot of us are really trying to make things better, we just don’t really know how.
Comedic jokes about how white people are awkward, stiff, standoff-ish, stuck up, overly intellectual, arrogant, or overall resistant to change are offensive. I like comedians like Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, they’ve got some hilarious jokes and great comic timing, but really, the white humor is still pushing stereotypes more than a few that are harmful.
I think that overall White folks still need to do more to offer understanding, not because we’re better, but because we have done more wrong. I think that as a culture that started as white institutionalism our next great step is seeing things from the other side, without resentment or rancor, but honestly and with an open mind about how we are perceived by black culture and other minorities.
But please, when we step forward offering some gesture of understanding and try to make those reaches of apology and mutual acceptance it will be clumsy and awkward. People don’t really know how to handle this, and we’ll probably get it wrong, a lot.
All I ask, is that when we make these feeble and halting efforts, they’re seen not as some kind of act of charity, or arrogance but as a genuine reach forward for a better way of life. And I hope that it hasn’t gotten so bad that the hand is simply batted away in anger as yet another false gesture.
Thanks to Barack Obama, when people reach out this time, I think we all mean it in the best intent.
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Technorati Tags: barack obama, hope, change, america, jfk, racial divide, healing
(originally from my personal blog The Soapbox and The Bucket)
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