Race Is Not A Black And White Issue

Barack Obama gave a speech on race yesterday. He pretty much had to, as the media pressure on him to do so was becoming overwhelming to his campaign. The media had already successfully pressured one candidate (Mitt Romney) to give a speech on his religion (since he is Mormon), and after the comments of his pastor were plastered on the news for days, Obama needed to address the issue. Which, from almost all accounts, he successfully did. But even if he had given the Sermon on the Mount on the issue, and even if every black and white American immediately got over their racial antipathy toward each other tomorrow, this should be seen as only the opening conversation in what could be a long discussion.

To his credit, Barack Obama did deliver a great speech on how he walks the minefield of race and racial politics in American life. As Jon Stewart said, he talked to Americans as if "they were adults." That alone is pretty rare in any campaign. But whether this speech is going to change anyone's mind in the voting booth remains to be seen. My guess is that Obama will gain a certain degree of respect from a wide swath of the American public on the issue, but it probably won't change many minds, one way or the other. Because how we see race in this country is pretty deeply ingrained. Which is the whole problem Barack's speech addressed, from the black and white side of the coin.

But it's not just a two-sided coin. I live in California now, but I grew up in the suburbs of the East Coast. This partially defines who I am, because of the experiences I have lived through in both places. And I am (just to be clear) a white guy, which also partially defines me. I have friends here in California, though, who have a different set of experiences with regards to race and racial identity.

A good friend of mine was born in California, grew up in the suburbs of a farm city in the Central Valley, and moved to the coast as an adult. She has traveled all over this country and the world, but she's never lived anywhere but here. She is extremely intelligent and very politically savvy. I bounce ideas off her all the time, since her reactions are original and insightful. I should also mention she's a Hillary Clinton supporter, but she's not anti-Obama or anything, she just likes Hillary better as a candidate.

But her experiences with race are just not the same as mine. She has never really seen or understood the black/white racial divide in this country. "Race problems" in her high school meant white/Hispanic, or white/Asian. That's the "racial" context she lives with, since that is what shaped her experiences. So while she's definitely not a stupid person, she is completely ignorant about black/white politics (stupidity, remember, is inherent and can't be changed; ignorance just means you haven't learned about something, and can be cured).

Here's an example of her ignorance: when driving in Mississippi (she was traveling for her work), she was given a speeding ticket. She's not used to dealing with the police, as she hasn't gotten many tickets in her life. And she was definitely not used to dealing with police outside of California. She disagreed with the policeman over whether she deserved a ticket or not (to put it mildly). At the end of a more-and-more heated exchange of words, she told the cop he was "racially profiling" her. The only problem is, she's white and the cop was a black man. Not exactly a classic case of "racial profiling" in the Deep South.

I say she is ignorant in no disrespect to her. When I moved to California, I was just as ignorant about Hispanic culture, and the racial and ethnic problems they faced. I didn't even know what a burrito was, if truth be told. Racial slurs against Mexicans had to actually be explained to me, because I just didn't understand what was being said or implied. I never took Spanish in school, so I mispronounced street names and town names with abandon, much to the amusement of California natives within earshot (I found out La Jolla, for instance, isn't pronounced "La Jolla" but "La Hoya").

But back to my friend. We were talking about Barack Obama when he first became a "frontrunner," and I wondered whether the country was ready for a black president. Her response shows her ignorance: "But why would that be an issue? He is half-white, after all." This is a woman who just didn't "get it," and was honestly and completely clueless. Rather than tell her to go look up something like "octoroon" in the dictionary (or to Google "one drop of black blood") I tried to explain to her how, to a lot of Americans, there really isn't a sliding scale of "blackness" -- you're either one or the other. Period.

But this was just after the mainstream media had just been asking "Is Obama black enough?" This question, interestingly enough, was mostly asked by white media folks. Black people being asked the question (to their credit) were almost universally astonished that they were even being asked such a stupid question. But the real question -- the question the media couldn't ask -- was (and remains): "Is Obama white enough?" In other words, was this mulatto (to dredge up another forgotten term) going to be acceptible enough to white voters?

But the media couldn't come out and ask that. Because you can ask some things, and other things you cannot. You can have a discussion on Barack's "blackness" but not on his "whiteness," for the same reason you can have a black-only fraternity or campus group, but you cannot have the same for whites-only. And while minstrel shows and "Little Black Sambo" are out, somehow the Cleveland Indians' "Chief Wahoo" remains acceptable (this one still confuses me, personally).

This is because America has progressed in our discussion on race, but only somewhat. And the words spoken in this discussion must negotiate a semantic minefield, which must be carefully traversed by anyone engaging in such a conversation about race. To talk about race, you have to know what not to say, in other words.

Barack Obama was right to point out that America isn't static, and has indeed been changing for the better. In my lifetime, blatantly racist statements have all but disappeared from "polite conversation." Such comments went from being acceptable (especially in the South), to completely unacceptable in public. However, this didn't happen overnight. When whites realized they had to change how they spoke of race, "code words" evolved. At first these were crude, and obvious (talking about "states' rights" for instance). But over time, they have become more subtle, so subtle in fact that people say things at times meaning absolutely no offence, and are still excoriated for "racist" statements.

The best recent example of this was Joe Biden's comment that he thought Barack Obama was "articulate." If you listened to the actual Biden quote, he was quite obviously just a clueless white guy praising Obama as a politician. I personally didn't think it was racial in any way -- until it was explained to me that "articulate" had a history of being a racial code word. "Why should white people be so astonished that a black man can form an English sentence?" sums up the reason why this could be considered offensive to blacks. Also, Biden did use the word "clean" as well, which certainly didn't help. But I still believe Biden was honestly trying to size up a rival and admit that Obama was a formidable candidate -- in other words, he meant everything he said in a positive way.

But that's the problem with code words. It's all about the speaker's intent -- in other words, what that person believes in their mind when saying them. And this is impossible to prove or disprove, making it a subjective thing as to whether it's offensive or not. This is why there was such an enormous debate over Hillary Clinton's comments on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon Baines Johnson, and over the various things Bill Clinton said in South Carolina. Because what could be an innocuous statement of historical fact can also be interpreted as having racial overtones. It's all in the ear of the listener sometimes, when it comes to such statements. It mostly boils down to: do you believe this person would say such a thing to stoke the racial divide, or do you believe they were unaware of how their speech would be interpreted?

One of the most impressive things in Barack's speech was that he admitted something which many people do not want to face: that, when in "mixed company," some people talk differently than when they are around "their own kind." Both white and black. This is something that is so obviously true that nobody needs it explained, but it's also true that it is a very-rarely mentioned fact.

Barack Obama is uniquely poised to begin this conversation with America. He's not only black, he's also white. He has a more multi-cultural background than anyone who has ever run for president before. He spent some formative years of his life living outside this country, with a stepfather who was neither black nor white, which makes him unique in a different way. He also spent time in Hawai'i, where race is a complex question -- due to Hawai'i having a more varied mix of race (and more casual mixing of those races) than on the mainland.

This history will likely help Obama if he does indeed become president. Because the future of our country is heading away from seeing race as a black/white, one-dimensional scale. This is something much of America (the East Coast in particular) has yet to really wake up to. The black/white racial divide has such a long history, and is so visible in everyday life, that when you speak of "race" or "racism" on the East Coast, the entire scope of the conversation is mostly on such a black/white scale.

But there are other racial divisions in this country, and they're becoming an issue in places that have never had to deal with them before. On the whole, American history has not shown us at our best when we are forced to confront new issues of "us" versus "them." This history is not merely racial, although the racial parts are easier to spot. But whenever a wave of "new" immigrants comes to this country, our initial reaction is, sadly, almost always the same. The Irish immigrants were greeted with signs such as "Help Wanted; No Irish Need Apply." Italians faced discrimination too, as well as Eastern Europeans, Jews, and plenty of other East Coast immigrant groups. On the West Coast, some of the most racist anti-immigration laws in our history were passed to limit the Chinese coming in (even though they built our railroads). The initial anti-immigration hysteria against Mexicans gave us the Drug War (research how marijuana became illegal if you don't believe this). Native Americans all over America got a mighty short end of the stick for many centuries as well, some of which still continues to this day (not all tribes have casinos).

It was interesting to hear Obama speak of white resentment of affirmative action; about white families with immigrant roots who felt that nobody helped them get where they were, so why should they help blacks? Because a lot of those families did indeed face bigotry and discrimination in a large way. But nothing trumps the fact that black people in America were owned at one time. Slavery is so evil that it really does deserve special recognition. And the history of civil rights in this country is so enormous a battle of right versus wrong that it cannot be diminished by pointing out lesser problems other groups have faced.

The problem is, as Obama pointed out, that there are plenty of Americans (black and white) who personally remember what life was like before the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. There are plenty of people alive today who were open racists back then, before it became unfashionable. The scars are deep.

But maybe, just maybe, they have healed more than they've remained. Maybe not. Affirmative Action, for instance, should not be seen as a permanent thing in American society. How could it be? It's purpose is to level the playing field, but at some date in the future when the field has been leveled, it will by definition become no longer necessary. This shouldn't be a shocking or controversial statement, but it still is to a lot of people, most of them Democrats.

What would shock much of America is how this is working out today in California. The most prestigious state schools here have to limit the number of Asians they admit, so that they can give a step up to white applicants as well as Hispanic and black applicants. Otherwise, Berkeley would be Asian-only. California will be the first state to have no majority racial makeup -- whites will be just "the biggest minority" as they slip below half of the population. There are blacks here, as well as Asians (which covers a lot -- Japanese, Chinese, South Koreans, Vietnamese, Indians, Pacific Islanders -- each with their own individual culture), Hispanics (once again, comprised of Mexicans, Central Americans, South Americans, and various others), Native Americans, and pretty much everything else you can think of. It's not a one-dimensional white/black issue, it is multifaceted and complex.

This is America's future, too. And when it comes to talking about racism, it's soon going to be a lot more complicated than the old black/white way of seeing things. So far, we haven't done a great job of even starting this conversation (see: recent hysteria over immigration). But it's becoming too big for even the East Coast to ignore. Because a few years ago something happened which most Americans still haven't even realized yet: blacks were surpassed as the largest minority in America by Hispanics. Blacks are now only the second biggest minority in this country. Many people are ignorant of this fact, but as time goes by they're going to be made more and more aware of it. Hispanics are beginning not only to find their political voice, but to become a stronger and stronger political force to be reckoned with.

So while Obama's speech was indeed impressive, for attempting to bridge the black/white divide in American thought, and while I hope it sparks a much more intelligent debate (avoiding, as always, the minefield of certain language), even if he succeeds in advancing America one step closer to putting such conversations behind us, this campaign season isn't the last time race is going to be an issue in America. But the next conversations we have may come from a completely unexpected direction.

My California friend admits she may be completely ignorant about the black/white racial divide. But she will not be ignorant of this upcoming discussion, while a lot of people who focus solely on black and white will need to get past their ignorance of the issue -- no matter which side of the debate they ultimately find themselves on.

Barack Obama has taken a big step on the road to talking about and solving these lingering racial problems, and he should be commended for that. But it's going to be a long road until we get there, which is something everyone should realize.

 

Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com

 

Comments

[cybersense]

HuffPost's Pick

Obama's speeches are always good.

It was good that he spoke. I am not voting for a black man, or a white woman. I am voting on who can get the job done. Always have.

[CindyKay]

Exactly!!!!

[Chris Weigant - Huffpost Blogger]

To everyone who has commented:

I have to say, for a white boy like me, it's always risky to write about race. There's that perpetual minefield waiting all of us when we venture to say anything meaningful at all about it. I was disillusioned somewhat by reading the comments to other articles posted about Barack Obama's speech, because so many of them seemed to devolve pretty quickly into a hate-fest between Hillary-haters and Barack-haters. This is somewhat sad, considering what the man actually said.

The original Ku Klux Klan was mostly made up of poor whites. They resented blacks, in part, because they saw emancipated blacks as a threat to their prospects in the labor market. Would these blacks, who had worked all their lives for nothing, drive wages down and steal jobs from white men? Now, the hatred and racism of the KKK cannot be denied, but I mention this because it might sound familiar to today's discussion of both race and immigration.

Partly, these fears are always stoked intentionally by the people who profit from cheap labor. If the bottom rung of the job market is in fear of being undercut in wages by another group, they certainly won't be asking for raises or anything. This has happened in other societies than America, it's just that in America it happened to get tied up in the racial issue as well. I was pleased by Obama's attempt in his speech to point this out -- how it's really a class issue, not a racial issue at all. And if white and black banded together, maybe something positive could get done about it. I say this not as a partisan supporter of Obama (I am and remain officially neutral between Obama and Clinton), but just as an admirer of the words he spoke in this speech.

And I have to say, I'm proud of you guys. I have heard some heartstring-tugging replies, and some replies from people who fervently believe one thing or another. But I have not seen racism in any reply, and almost universally, I have seen an honest discussion about race in America from many viewpoints, transcending the politics du jour of the issue.

This isn't just Barack's problem. It isn't just Hillary's problem. This is America's problem. And if everyone could talk about it as we have here, I think the conversation would be a lot more productive overall.

My ego breaks out of its cage now and again, and tells me that I may not get the most comments here at HuffPost, but I think I certainly do get the most intelligent. Again, you have all made me proud. So I'm awarding everyone "HuffPost Picks" all around. You've earned it.

Thanks, as always, to everyone for commenting. And let's keep the conversation going, and on this level. We need it as a country. There is hope in America, and it rests with people like you.

-CW

[websmith]

HuffPost's Pick

Freedom is such an illusive thing in America. As soon as you begin to unite and do something for the good of your country and all of the human beings in it, MSM special interest groups lock you back up in your white, black, Asian, Hispanic, and gender cells. They do this for their owners who want to keep you collectively chained so they can control you.

In this case, Hillary has been made to believe that she is one of them and they want to get her elected. She has been stroked for years and invited to elite meetings. They know that Hillary can be controlled with promises of power, money and elitism. She will get some money and believe that she actually has the power but, she will never be a member of the elite. Bush, Cheney, and Bill think they are members but, like most politicians, they are just being used. No politician actually becomes a member. They offer a taste to people like McCain, Pelosi, and Feinstein.

So now, thanks to the MSM special interest groups, instead of the failing economy, illegal immigration, war, a destructive foreign policy, and loss of freedom, you have been manipulated into fighting over race. This is a battle that cannot be won and they are watching and laughing as you spit into the wind. You will never be able to change people from white to black or black to white. The other things can be changed.

[nypoet22]

HuffPost's Pick

this issue is very personal to me. i have a few very close childhood friends who have stood by me, always treated me kindly and in my experience have been the most wonderful, upstanding people ever (regardless of race), and yet are also prone to making highly racist and offensive comments. they have proven through their actions that they are not truly racist, but the things they say sometimes are very hurtful. my best friend in this world, and the woman i love more than any other, is african-american. does this mean i need to stop being friends with my friends? does it mean they can never meet the love of my life? one can already see the republican wagons circling around this issue. they're already starting to imply that barack is a racist for keeping a friend in spite of his failings. from bill clinton's oval-office trysts way back to the days of socrates and plato, human relationships have always been far more complicated than the narrow lens of politics can capture. i can only hope the human race will start to finally grow up.

[Poboy]

HuffPost's Pick

Oh but race is a black and white issue.

One of the best ways to view race in America is by looking at the history of the Immigration Laws.

One of the first laws after the enactment of the U S Constitution was:

The Naturalization Act of 1790 establishes a uniform rule of naturalization and a two-year residency requirement for aliens who are "free white persons" of "good moral character" (March 26, 1790).

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/dates.html

The United States was INTENTIONALLY populated with WHITE PEOPLE from Europe.

What's more were the laws distinguishing indentured servants (white) from chattel slaves (Africans).

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/slavery.html

This White caste system was crafted by Whites, and as we all know what's past is prologue.

[cynara]

HuffPost's Pick

"The United States was INTENTIONALLY populated with WHITE PEOPLE from Europe."

On that your correct, though I disagree that it was black and white. Chinese were not allowed citzenship despite building our railroads, and were not allowed to intermarry with whites until around 1940... There was plenty of exclusion to go around.

And honestly, we were pretty darn particular about Europeans as well. Western Europeans were fine (as long as they weren't Irish). A friend of mine said that her parents caused a scandal when they married, since her father was Italian and her mother was of Irish descent. My family has been in the US and been Catholic since the late 1600's, yet somehow I don't have a drop of Italian or Spanish Catholic blood in me.

But, this happens everywhere. Anytime there is a large group of immigrants with a culture distinct from your own there is backlash. In Germany, Turkish are treated pretty shabbily, and many German elementary schools today have majority Turkish students. In the Netherlands, Muslims are treated shabbily, and citizenship laws have been changed to deliberately challenge Islamic teachings. Switzerland was very liberal and had a fairly open refuge policy, until African refugees flooded in.

Backlash is a sad side of human nature when confronted with new people. The question is how the government responds to this backlash. If the government helps to integrate the newcomers and prosecutes abuses of minorities, the resentment will fade as they are integrated into society. (Take the Irish, for example, they integrated quickly and climbed the economic ladder, and today there is little if any anti-Irish prejudice). Unfortunately, as you correctly pointed out, the government can also institutionalize anti-minority sentiment in exclusionary laws, and in doing so, further segregate the minority population, effectively blocking the integration and economic achievement, that would allow the resentment to subside. Our government, was very effective at blocking African American integration, probably more so than any other minority group, leading us to the sad state of race relations we face today.

[Poboy]

HuffPost's Pick

"Our government, was very effective at blocking African American integration, probably more so than any other minority group, leading us to the sad state of race relations we face today. "

You hit the nail on the head, and you also contradicted your opposition to the black/white paradigm.

But more importantly, you wisely addressed all those people who, say when the focus is on historical discrimination of African Americans, complain that they weren't the culprit.

Of course they weren't responsible, but the government was.

[cynara]

HuffPost's Pick

I'll be honest - I am also from California, and the black/white divide is probably as foreign to me as it is your friend (though I hope I'd at least be aware enough not to accuse a black cop in the deep south of racial profiling). I grew up around Mexicans, whites and Asians, I can easily ramble off common stereotypes for individual Asian ethnic group (Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Laotian, Philipino, etc..) And I probably have a fuzzier idea of black American culture than I do Mexican American, Chinese American, Vietnamese American,etc.. I have friends that are black, but most of their friends and peers are white/Mexican/Asian as well. Actual African American culture? Thats hard to find out here, if your not in Oakland, South Central Los Angeles, or smaller pockets in other major cities. I actually have more friends that are mixed race, but here in California there really is no 1/10th rule and mixed race white/black are often perceived as white, especially when their physical appearance is closer to European than African. (Would Harold Ford be perceived as "African American" in California? I have my doubts; when I first saw him (with zero frame of reference mind you) I assumed he was of Algerian descent..)

Familiarity is necessary for resentment, and cultures need to interact (and inevitably clash) before deep set resentment/prejudice can take hold. So, while the black/white divide seems a bit silly/pointless to me, I've seen enough other culture clashes (as you mention, white/Mexican, Mexican/Korean, white/Laotian etc..) to realize that its unfortunate human nature that the majority will always feel threatened by the minority, and that , often wildly abstract, lines will always be drawn between who is minority and majority.

That said, I really want to share Obama's speech with my husband. He's Mexican and his English is a bit limited. But I know that the words of that speech would touch him. Feeling stereotyped, feeling resented, and resentment, wanting the media to focus on other things in this presidential race besides perceived slights and prejudice, is universal and I know he would relate to every word of that speech. Maybe this speech was written for racial divisions in African/European Americans in Pennsylvania, but it is just as relevant here in the mixing pot of the west.

[DemandTruth]

HuffPost's Pick

My circle of friends growing up on the edge of a ghetto in Florida:

a mixed girl - She has a black dad and a german mom who barely spoke english (dad met mom while in the military). She has two brothers - one snow white like her, and one black as night - go figure! She was my best friend - the one who always made up dances with me for all the school talent shows.

another mixed girl - half phillipino and half caucasian (dad met mom while in the military). She was on the cheerleading squad, and we went to the basketball games together where I sung the National Anthem.

a jewish girl - She was in drama with me in highschool and we roomed together all through college.

a white lesbian - She was in drama and on the swim team with me in highschool, and we also hung out all through college.

And there was me, an accepting child of two hard working hippies. A blank slate who accepted everything from all these lovely ladies, and fit in perfectly with them - even when they didn't get along with eachother.

Human beings are all beautiful and all have something unique and fulfilling to offer this world and eachother. It's because of Obama (and I guess Rev. Wright) that we're even talking about these complex and daunting but important and pervasive issues right now! How refreshing to get some of this stuff out into the light. Even if he never wins another election in his lifetime, this is already a great accomplishment and a great start! Obama and yes, even Rev. Wright have done a great service to this country.

[GLBorchert]

HuffPost's Pick

Of course race in America is a lot more complicated than black and white. One of the things that many people seemed to miss in Barack's speech was that he tried to broaden the context. He framed the conversation in terms of his own black-white experience, but as I was listening I was also thinking of the Hispanics, Asians, Indians and Arabs within my own experience.

Since Texas is about 35% Hispanic, I couldn"t help but think of the present-day discrimination against Hispanics in this particular culture. We have in neighboring suburbs attempts to prevent illegal immigrants from renting apartments, receiving medical care and registering their kids in school. Though illegal immigration is an issue in itself, the way that trying to deal with it often plays out feels like the same old racial and cultural division, misunderstanding, prejudice, fear and hatred.

That's exactly why we have to come together and begin to have new, real, substantive conversations. There are no separate issues. Everything is tied together. The reason Barack's straightforward challenge to us is so crucial is that it transcends black and white. He challenged us to look beyond ourselves, to grasp the complexity of racial and cultural division that surrounds us, and to come together in conversation so that we can work to solve the vast problems that involve and concern all of us.

I read a couple of blog posts by Hispanics who didn't seem to think that what Obama had to say was relevant to their own experience. Those particular Hispanics saw both whites and blacks as focused on their own interests, and not legitimately concerned about Hispanic interests. I tried to tell them, just as I am telling the various Hispanics in my life face-to-face, that the tent Barack Obama envisions is a lot bigger than black and white.

[clevelandchick]

HuffPost's Pick

Well, as he said in his speech our society has not remained static and that change has come albeit slowly for many of the people that have suffered. And, he did mention other ethnic groups in his speech.

His speech was a landmark one, for the first time ever he brought up the concerns of both sides and I also think he put into perspective. That this divide is big business to the media and it is preventing the progress towards perfecting the union. For too many of us it is easier to blame some other group for our problems because the real instigators have all the money and power in the world. And those instigators are making billions from our divisions so they aren't going to stop any time soon.

At least he made one hell of an effort. That alone is more than any so-called leader in our midst has done.