Recognizing the Race Chasm

The issue of race makes a lot of folks uncomfortable -- and that's especially true right now when the nation is closer than ever to electing the first black President of the United States. As my new newspaper column this week shows, many serious people who dominate our political debate have reacted to this historic election and their own queasiness about race by exposing their prejudices.

On one side, you have the ostriches -- the political "thinkers" like Reihan Salam and Michael Lind who look at the Race Chasm and pretend it doesn't exist. These people look at a racially polarized election map, and explain it away with either flippant fact-free stories about Hillary Clinton's "waitress-mom
sensibility," or wild theories about Northern European migration trends from a century ago. They expect us to forget that most often the simplest explanation is the most obvious -- especially when it comes to a black-white racial divide that has been a defining characteristic of American culture since our country's inception.

On the other side you have the minstrel show producers -- the media and politicians who are more than thrilled to exploit race and treat African-Americans as less than human. My column offers up all sorts of specific examples of this, but I think Keith Woods of the Poynter Institute summed it up best. Appearing on PBS this week, he said:

"You see a full vocabulary for talking about white Americans in this debate, from blue-collar, a euphemism for white blue-collar workers. We talk about lunch-bucket Democrats. We talk about the soccer mom and the NASCAR dad, all of which are euphemisms in the national discourse for white Americans. And then we talk about black people, as though they are all the same, with pretty much all the same views."

Each side is expressing a form of bigotry. In denying the racial divide exists, the ostriches are telling African-Americans that racism is just their imagination. In other words, the whitewashing (no pun intended) legitimizes racism by pretending it doesn't exist.

The minstrel show producers are more honest than the ostriches -- they are overtly telling African-Americans that they are unimportant, even though that's positively false in both the human and political sense.

The silver lining in all of this is the fact that -- despite the ostriches -- we may start to have a much-needed national conversation about race, to the great consternation of wealthy white pundits like Bill Kristol. As all of this racism oozes out of the political establishment for all to see, we can recognize just how bigoted American culture is and recognition is the first step towards addressing a problem.

You can read the whole column at the San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, Ft. Collins Coloradoan, In These Times, TruthDig, Credo Action, or Creators. The column relies on grassroots support, so if you'd like to see my column regularly in your local paper, use this directory to find the contact info for your local editorial page editors. Get get in touch with them and point them to my Creators Syndicate site. Thanks, as always, for your ongoing readership and help contacting local editors. This column couldn't be what it is without your help.

Comments

[zebra3]

The more the media focuses on the existence of tnis supposed "racial chasm," the more real it actually becomes. I'm not saying there is no racism left in America. Clearly there is. But by the same token, this whole "hard working white male" demographic that supposedly won't vote for Obama seems to have voted for him in certain states other than West Virginia.

Yes, racism still exists. So does sexism. These are truths. But it is equally true that one can "inflame" hot-button issues so that in the short term they look like they are a whole lot more prevalent and powerful than they really are. That's the thing that Karl Rove exploits.

Isn't it quite easy to imagine if Obama had chosen to portray Hillary Clinton as a "conniving, manipulative prima-donna" (the way she was portrayed during Travelgate, e.g.), it might have an effect (in the short term) on the votes of "working class white males"? And then the media would be blaring headlines about how the gender divide was so much BIGGER than we had realized!

If we really believe that poor white people won't vote for a black man, then maybe it's time for the democratic party to jettison this supposedly hopelessly racist demographic and try to replace it with a group that is equally numerous, but more amenable to a big tent.

Please everybody, it's time to pull it together, grit your teeth and take one for the team.

[Marrob]

The media, NOT HILLARY OR BILL CLINTON, has been dividing this country along racial lines for a long time. We have a white woman and a malatto man running for president and the media is doing it's old song and dance and trying to shift the blame onto the Clinton's. Sad part, african americans are buying it!!! Something to remember:

1) Calling Obama and african american is racist to the core. Is mother is white. What about her? where is she represented in that title? Are we saying Obama is black because he has that "one ounce of black blood" in his viens?

2) The media has been placing the american electorate in these nice little boxes throughout this whole primary season and especially since the race boiled down to Obama and Clinton. The media has been saying things like: Obama can't, get the Hispanic vote, get the over sixty white vote, get the blue collar white vote, get the middle american white voter, get the Southern white male vote, get less educated whites and on and on. Hillary quotes an "AP" article and the media and liberal talk show host want to brand her a racist. Remember this Black america, during the Clinton years tons of African Americans went from poverty to the middle class. Look at what's being felt in the black community as a result of eight years of Bush. You think Bill and Hillary Clinton would have left those black people to suffer when Katrina hit??

[OldBlackVet]

We've been here before. I remember when cities were aflame due to injustice. It started over a kid being arrested in Los Angeles, and any number of other reasons in other cities. What started those riots now occurs far too often these days in America. Academia has talked, books have been written, documentaries have been made, and talk shows have talked. The problem has been discussed since before Reconstruction. Remember a war supposedly fought about this subject. The problem is its been mostly a one sided conversation. What I mean by this comment is that it has been mostly for the Black Americans consumption. For their history books, for their Afro-American studies classes, for the Afro-American clubs, and might even have a museum tucked away in the corner somewhere off the beaten track. It is my opinion that there has been enough talk. We need action, we need for America to step up and become the place that it says it is. Show that this country is for all Americans, and that Justice is really Justice and not the same old JUST US mentality that has predominated this country since the end of slavery.

[PTTY]

Hillary Clinton touting that THE KKK STATES OF WV AND KENTUCKY are RACIST has given Rev. Wright's statement that America is still a Racist Country credibility.
She touts those states actions of LYNCHING, CASTRATING, RAPES ETC. AGAINST Blacks as they were OK.

Clinton has now told the World yes America is still Racist and will not Vote against a Black Man. Hillary was not just talking to those two States, she was trying to influence the rest of the Country, remember we do not VOTE for Black People.

Hillary has proven her self to be a person who cannot MANAGE AND RUN her own Campaign, but will instill HATE into America.

If Obama was in debt and had run A PISS POOR CAMPAIGN, THE WAY HILLARY HAS. The MSM would be saying how in the World can he run the Country, but yet again they are giving Hillary a pass for her RACIST STATEMENTS AND HER MANAGERIAL TALENTS.

Any time Rev. Wright is mentioned, all we have to do is point to WEST VIRGINIA AND KENTUCKY and say YES, RACISM IS ALIVE AND LIVING IN WV AND KENTUCKY. HOW SAD.

[Marrob]

And Obama won a large portion of those KKK State. Remember, it's part of Obama's "50 State" plan.

[Poboy]

David,

First off, let me commend you for consistently and openly addressing the issue of race. We are not now nor have we ever been a "post racial" society. Unfortunately, here in America race will always be an issue. It is as much a part of the American fabric as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the flag or stars and stripes, baseball, football and apple pie.

The American way to deal with race will be to openly acknowledge it, embrace it and include it into our well being.

But White people will have to come to terms with the position that their psychological deficiencies have had on Black people. It's called justice.

And the only way to move the country forward on race is to bring justice for Blacks people by White people's acknowledging and apologizing for their role in slavery and segregation and instituting reparations for Blacks to repair the damage of centuries of White people's "lawbreaki­ng."

In other words, $5 million for every Black person who can trace his lineage to slavery/se­gregation.

I know, White people will yell that they were not the culprits. But, the government was. The claim will be made upon and paid by the government of the United States.

[Researchguy66]

As an Edwards supprter that has moved on to Hillary and now McCain, I'm really looking forward to a good, old-fashioned shouting match between now and November focused on how all white people who don't vote for Obama are racists.

I really think Obama would rather not engage in such a spectacle, which makes it even funnier. His supporters will torpedo his campaign by zealously over-reaching on race. I think Democrats have become addicted to losing presidential elections.

[lwaxanatroi]

An Edwards supporter that has moved on to Hillary and now McCain???? Wow, you'll do anything to not vote for a black guy, won't you? How in God's name can you reconcile support for Edwards, who tells the truth about "two Americas" with support for McCain, who only sees one America, the America of the rich who love tax cuts and war--so long as their kids aren't draft-eligible? If you sincerely believed one word of Edwards' positions, you'd have to vote Democratic no matter who the nominee turned out to be. As you rightly point out, Obama isn't the one trading on race; it's those who oppose him who whisper in the voters' ears, "you do know he's black, don't you?"

[GrainOSand]

They cannot reconcile it and they tried a preemptive ploy to beat down any logic that might be thrown against the illogical by saying that anyone who disagrees with their position is calling them a racist. The circular logic of this nauseating platform of obvious malfunction in spirit, heart, and the ability to express enlightened thought is not worth responding to. I have pleaded with all not to get emotionally tied up in this race amongst men and women, for the process is flawed by the inclusion of men and women. We will never be a perfect union because people are imperfect. So all one can do is vote their conscience and then live their lives no matter what happens. But know there is justice, --eventually and absolutely, for the unjust.

[tbone99]

I see Obama , a man confident in himsef and his abilities, not needing to resort to saying racism every two sentences.­I see too many of his supporters , not capable of seeing the difference between racism and a adversarial campaign, painting him into the corner of black candidate, ironically, the very thing they accused the Clintons of doing, by these ongoing accusations of racism.

This is a free giveaway to the Repugs, can't you see ahead?

[GrainOSand]

When is it ok to say water is wet then?

[SethBLiNK]

Overt racism is a thing of the past, replaced by the subtle racism that has been on display this campaign season.

When Geraldine Ferraro said that Obama's race was helping him to do so well (dismissing his remarkable accomplishment) it touched a chord in many people who, like Ferraro, would strongly resist the racist label. They're liberal democrats. They fought for civil rights. They celebrate Martin Luther King Day, but still, with minds that grew up in the latter day of Jim Crow, and that silently tolerated what they saw as the excesses of Affirmative Action, the thought of a young black man earning the Presidency just seems difficult to fathom.

Her statement was ludicrous. How is it easier for a man who is seen as different than 90% of the voters and 100% of the all the previous Presidents, VPs and candidates for both slots helped by this difference? But voters looking for a reason NOT to support to Obama grabbed onto that one. Ferraro's liberal bone fides gave them permission.

All of which makes it all the more remarkable that a candidate in the middle of a heated campaign, chose to make a speech that discussed all the nuances of Americas racial discomfort, and in so doing proved that you can talk about the real issues and still win.

[BigMike75]

The reason why this country never has consistent, constructive dialogue on race is because it forces whites to confront some very troubling issues. This country was founded and built upon racist and seperatist ideology, regardless of how far we've come, it's easy for many whites to brush aside the fact that the founding ideology has had a cumalative effect on America and where African AMericans are today. It's hard for whites to understand what Slavery and institutional racism did to the African American psyche, so you have the "get over it already" whites, and the black "race baiters" like Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who come out of the woodwork for every issue, while never proposing concrete solutions that will help to solve severe problems in the Black community(like the utter lack of fathers). Only in America is a half black man running for president asked to transcend race, Bob Smith from small town USA would never be asked that, therin lies some of the roots of where we still are. A dialogue on race has to start with whites confronting what has been done to African Americans in this country, and has to end with African Americans accepting responsibilty for their communities and helping to heal the still open wounds.

[Researchguy66]

Correction, everyone has a father.

[Melkor]

Precisely. Obama has to be the patient, benevolent black who loves America to death. Its the only path he can take. And in fact that's just what he was doing quite successfully until two things happened. Geraldine Ferraro employed her kamikaze attack (killing her reputation) and the Rev Wright story broke. The first came from the Clinton campaign, and frankly, looking at how ABC (through former Clinton operative George Stephanopolus) hammered Obama in the debate, I wouldn't be surprised if the second came from it as well.

Obama has consistently downplayed the issue of race until Wright forced him to make a statement. And it was an incredible statement that treated Americans like adults.

[tbone99]

In my opinion the reactionary stuff started after S.carolina­, when H.C and Bill were called racist fort he usual campaign remarks that candidates make.Every week after that it was some new accusation of racism.It seems that Obama must be protected like a little boy by minions of attack supporters­...

yes, Obama has downplayed the issue of race ,but his supporters have played it up.it seems like 1.) they lack confidence for him to win on his own merits or .2) they are trying to settle old scores, in which case his election is lost.

[Benton]

The problem is some people have a problem seeing people that they perceive as different as human. Therefore hundreds of thousands of women, children and men can die in Iraq and it have less effect on people then animal cruelty.

[adavis08]

As a black person I know blacks have always been aware of the facts that you talk about in your post. One thing that is good is that we are all finally talking about the 900 pound elephant in the room (race) Now I think that whites understand even more what minorities have gone through and still endure in America. They see the hoops that Barack Obama must jump through in his bid to become the first African American president. They also see and hear the opposing campaign's racial coding and sometime openly racist comments about him and minorites. To ignore the divide in our country is wrong. We must face this head on, and by doing so we can solve it or at least come to terms with it.

[timothe]

There's yet another component to racism...t­he vitriolic cries of liberals claiming that "all conservatives" are racist without any proof. I just came from another thread where multiple Huff-Posters flippantly accused conservatives of racism.

Then, there's the complete (and deliberate) overreaction to innoculous comments such as Bill O'Reilly's "lynching" comment. Arguing over vocabulary and squelching anyone trying to talk about race who isn't black is yet another way to fan the flame of racism. We need to stop being so intolerant for political gain and start having an honest discussion about race.

Will it happen in an Obama White House? I don't know...but the dynamic will be very interesting.

[Benton]

So you think that is the only comment that Bill O'Reilly has made that may or may not have had racial implications. Fox traffics in racism. Fox exists to serve those that are inclined to be racist. They attracted people that go to black restaurants and are supprised that people are not saying were is my mother effing ice tea.

[tbone99]

Bush, Reagan, Alan Keyes, Bob Dole and Dan Quayle, have visited Bob Jones University giving sppeches from its campus , a school notorious for its policy that forbade interracial relationships.
In 1982, Reagan intervened on the side of Bob Jones University, which was on the verge of losing its tax-exempt status because of its ban on interracial dating,

.Reagan went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980, the town where three civil rights workers had been murdered, and declared that "I believe in states' rights".

Similarly, when Reagan declared in 1980 that the Voting Rights Act had been 'humiliating to the South,' he signaled sympathy with segregationists.

1981 Reagan fired three members of the Civil Rights Commission, as a gesture of support to Southern whites.

McCain ,Reagan and most all Repugs opposed making Martin Luther King Day a national holiday."

New Orleans

Bush's refusal to speak at the NAACP meeting for 6 years.!

Deliberate disenfranchisement of minority voters in Florida 2000.

[GrainOSand]

The unmistakable fumes of arrogant hatred need no further substantiation than their funky and vile presence and the toxins of divide and despair that flow and emanate from them! Bigots know who they are and I have no time to explain why masks do not work or why those in denial refuse to see. If I filled a library with evidence those who do not want to see will find a reason not to. You can lead an unwilling horse to water maybe, but if that horse does not want to drink, trying to make it drink would require drowning the horse. A thirsty horse will die of thirst eventually or they will get with the program. Validation of the truth on the subject of race is personal by definition. A society can claim anything it wants, but quality of life is an individual metric best read by individuals who live the lives. A sociologist cannot speak to me on the question of the existence of racism because anything that runs counter to what I personally know to be fact is suspect at best. It has been said that the shame of the situation is not that the lie is told but that people believe it. To me if only one person believes there is racism that’s one too many --no matter if what they are saying is real or an abstraction for even abstractions are based on something real.

[1pappy]

"And then we talk about black people, as though they are all the same, with pretty much all the same views."
Uh, if the voting patterns are to be believed this statement is true.

[Zanti]

Blacks are all the same? Wow. Glad to know.

[Benton]

So all whites that vote Republican are the same and all whites that vote Democratic are the same.

[B1uBall00n]

Are you serious with this statement? First off, all black people are not the same. Each person is an individual. Do you think all black people are voting for Obama because he is black? Or could it be that they feel that he will represent them and they agree with his policies. His stance on the Iraq war perhaps. Or maybe his energy policy. Or maybe his choice in supreme court appointees. No, of course not because all black people are robots right, and they just see a black man and vote for him. How was Jesse Jackson's nomination and presidency? Oh wait there wasn't one, because black people didn't vote overwhelming for him. But he's black, so they should have right? Wake up and grow up.

[GunnyJ]

We are America, but America under control. Control of the corporations, the media, the banks, the job banks, the health benefits, the police, the firemen and every other "frat" of power and control. The kings (whitemen) and the queens (white women) are so conditioned from an early age they are indifferent to any other belief or behavior..­........an­d so it goes. There is hope however, and the new sharing and inclusive America is picking up steam.....­....one reason why the name Obama strikes fear in the old guard. Reformed whites and more educated and prepared people of color are on the edge of a new frontier and poised to make America the "melting pot" we claim to be. The rest of the world is poised as well for America to take the lead and look more like the world in doing so. We are finally coming to the end of the era of "aggressive control" and we should be proud to be a part of CHANGE.

[GrainOSand]

There are other political euphemisms for people of African ancestry who are multi generation American. There is Willie Horton, there is some bubble headed blond saying, “Call me Harold” as a campaign spot meant to be expressive of the hidden rage of the people concerning interracial love, there is crime is up, and employment is down and guess who is going to jail and poor --OJ and Africa? The political landscape is full of ethnic code speak. The term empty suit is racist and exclusionary in that it suggests the man in the suit, who can afford to buy the suit, is somehow missing or deficient in being able to fill out the suit and meet the demands that wearing the suit brings and implies. To this latter group I say, “Different is not deficient”. The Reverend Wright had some powerful things to say in the midst of his televised dialectic romp through the lily and begonia fields of his anguish. I totally understand his lapse to the more base aspects of being human, namely self defense skewed and tainted by ego and distorted by the glare of the bright lights and the working press.

Race in America, is the flat tire on this vehicle of nation. It is the busted shaft on this ship of state. It holds us in the pit stop of progress and the harbor or drydock of political paralysis when the times are demanding movement away from the current direction/location.

[knighthowl]

I hope that your comments are rooted in this country as it was in the '60's and 70's. I am a white male who grew up in the shadow of the era when black men stepped aside on the sidewalk. Racism was indeed a flat tire on the vehicle of the nation at that time. This country has come a very long way from where it was when I was a child. I think the shoreline is in sight.

[GrainOSand]

As the song goes...I'v­e seen fire and I've seen rain --and recently too!

Things have changed but America has yet to make that great leap. There have always been decent and fair minded people in America who understand brotherhood and sisterhood just as there has always been people in America who hate and fear based on skin color. This has not changed. The great leap America needs to take has nothing to do with civil rights but human recognition. The mindset that pervades racism is a claimed inevitability of superiority. This mentality leaves America marooned in policy and in being. The law says do not discriminate yet the heart still does’ thus the chasm that divides us presently. There are still those who do not want to walk on the same street as someone who has a different color. Yet the law and the thought that they may get shot prevent them from voicing that opinion as they used to, yet the feeling persists. This election process will show to what degree and ok with me, because hypocrisy revealed is a cure for the ill if they have the courage of acknowledgement and the will that creates real cures for what ails a nation.


I am a child of the 70s, when the things I am saying were being said loudly. Foreign SUVs, stock options, exotic getaways, and titled positions have caused some voices of dissent to fall silent though eyes and sensibilities still pick up the prevalent problem.

[newunderground]

I Love Obama, but I loathe Harold. The democrats really dodged a bullet when Harold Ford was defated. He is a loathsome LIEberman in blackface.

[GrainOSand]

I have been hearing rumblings that Harold may be compromised. What's the specific scuttlebutt? If he is a charlatan it still does not excuse the tactics used against him.

[robXdion]

Much of the racial animus has it's very genesis in the fact whites have issues and treat blacks badly to begin with. Blacks get called "racist" for reacting as if they should be thrilled and overjoyed with white contempt and dehumanization. The real question is WHY do whites hate and deride blacks so much to begin with??? Whites need to examine themselves and ask why does seeing blacks excel bother them so badly? Why do they live in fear of black retribution if they honestly feel they shouldn't have to answer for their ancestors' sins? (((because they have benefited from these sins and yet compound them daily))).

I, as a black male, can walk into a public gathering with a full beard and see white males look visibly nervous and scared. I can wear a suit in California and get complemented. Get on a plane and fly to the East Coast and see hundreds of hateful stares with that same suit. I can even go to store and see white children barely 2 years old look at me with utter hatred, no doubt taught passively by their parents. Go to Texas and get pulled over by Rangers eager to shoot me, just because. Serve in Iraq and have my citizenship and patriotism questioned. That's the America I know.

[GrainOSand]

That's the one I know as well rob, and as far as why Martin gave the answer --perversion and distortion of the drum major instinct.

I must be first, I must rule the world....a­nd I am saddened to say the nation in which I live is the supreme culprit...­.God did not call America to do what she is doing in Iraq today...We are criminals in that war...We have committed more war crimes almost than any nation...a­nd I am going to continue to say it...Becau­se I love this country to much to see the drift that it has taken...Bu­t we won't stop it because of our pride and arrogance as a nation.

Actual speech: http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire/DA.cfm?ArticleID=513


When you seek to rule rather than serve, tendencies of evil and hate result. The lowest is the highest and the highest tends to be a distortion of the lowest possibilities of the truly lofty.

BTW: I gave apology for a misfire (erroneous comment) on my part a while back --be cool Rob.

[robXdion]

Peace G....

[SwampeastMike]

robXdion:

Get over it man! When you see hatred in the eyes of innocents (2 year-olds) I think it's time for you to look into your own eyes and see that you're angry at yourself for being black. Get cool with yourself and you'll realize that the vast majority of people are not bigots.

[robXdion]

SwampeastMike:

WTF are you talking about? Really?

I'm just describing my experiences with American racism and how white PARENTS teach their kids the same dysfunction. I'm very proud of my blackness. *Read my profile's previous posts.* Are YOU even black???? You may have the liberty to "get over it" as a white person but you don't deal with a fraction of the life I speak. Self-hate?­........ma­n, if this site wasn't so strict, I'll hurt your self-righteous feelings.

Seriously, read my posts in the profile before you jump in with a lecture about something you just heard about but never experienced. I quite aware many people aren't racist. But I'm willing to bet you haven't traveled much and seen what I have to even refute my views. So run away before you get really get told.

[robXdion]

SwampeastMike:

WTF are you talking about? Really?

I'm just describing my experiences with American racism and how white PARENTS teach their kids the same dysfunction. I'm very proud of my blackness. *Read my profile's previous posts.* Are YOU even black? You may have the liberty to "get over it" as a white person but you don't deal with a fraction of the life I speak. Self-hate?­......man, if this site wasn't so strict, I'll hurt your self-righteous feelings.

Seriously, read my profile before you jump in with a lecture about something you just heard about but never experienced. I quite aware many people aren't racist. But I'm willing to bet you haven't traveled much and seen what I have to even refute my views.