Bill and Barack and Blackness

Bill Clinton's recent interview with MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26009564/) demonstrates that he still feels hurt and angry that a number of his remarks during the campaign were properly taken as racist in tone. He and Geraldine Ferraro both felt they were done dirty by Obama supporters and pointed to their record. Bill Clinton angrily insists he's not a racist. Both Bill Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro do have honorable records on race. I believe they are generally people of good will and have at times sacrificed of themselves in the cause of racial equality. Nevertheless, their reaction points to the real problem Americans continue to have when the subject of race comes to the fore.

There is a real impulse to oversimplify. Either one is a KKK embracing David Duke or one is completely egalitarian and immune from the nation's long history of racial hostility and bias. Such a binary view misses that fact we are all tainted by our nation's history. It was only forty years ago that a politician could run on a segregationist platform and win a large number of votes. I was in grade school when the LDS Church recognized African Americans as fully human. I was older than that when the Southern Baptist acknowledged their wrong-doing in supporting slavery. I am part of the first generation not to attend segregated schools and not to have to drink from the colored drinking fountain. My point is this was not long ago. Do we really believe all those attitudes and biases have vanished? Are all the members of the previous generation dead? Was nothing passed down conscious or unconscious?

As an African American, I know my generation has traveled a long way. I am part of the first generation of blacks in my family to count whites among my friends. I believe the large majority of whites and blacks are people of good will who want to see reconciliation take place. Nevertheless, I can also admit that some of my thoughts,feelings, actions and reactions are tempered by suspicion, resentment and anger based on the past and present history of racial bias my family and I have encountered. I am not a conscious racist. But some of my thoughts and feelings come out of the heritage of racism that we all live with. When I as a black person operate out of that -- I need to acknowledge it, repent, figure out how it happened and try hard break the cycle of prejudice I have found myself in.

The problem with Clinton and so many others is that they seem unwilling to acknowledge that, though they be people of good will, some of their thoughts, actions, attitudes and behaviors have been influenced by the history of American racism. The dismissive attitudes toward Obama displayed by the Clintons, Ferraro and McCain reek of it. Bill's Jesse Jackson and fairy tale remarks, Hillary's hard working white people, Ferraro's lucky to be a black man and more of the McCain campaign that I have space to comment on are all racially tinged. Rather than showing some introspection and reflection on how and why they fell short of their desire to do what is right-- they resort to denials and attacks. This gets us nowhere.

We all, black and white, fall victim to racist attitudes and perceptions. We don't intend to. But we do. We can overcome it. In fact we have already come a long way as a society and as people. I am proud of America for that (and many other things). Yet, if we are to reach the place where race is no longer an issue, we have to acknowledge race is part of the subtext of all of our interactions and therefore is always a factor. It is seldom the factor but it is always part of the mix.

Think of welfare reform. Did it need to happen? Yes. Reform was needed. But can anyone honestly say that the emphasis placed on it in Clinton's first term really was in proportion to the most serious issues plaguing the nation (the need for an energy policy, health care reform, the need for oversight of the deregulated banking and energy sectors Remember the conditions were already in place for Enron and other large-scale fraud. Yet the nation focused on welfare reform. Can we all acknowledge there was an element of racism involved that made us obsess on a relatively small fiscal matter while ignoring the larger more significant fiscal matters? The war on drugs? Mandatory minimums for crack (a drug associated with urban poor blacks) well beyond the penalties for drugs associated with whites. Does anyone seriously think race played no part in this?

Bill, you are an honorable man. You have well served the country -- including its African American citizens. There is a reason you have been referred to as the first black president. Yet growing up where and when you did, you are not perfect on the issue of race. None of us are. Bill Clinton, you are a racist. We all are. But we can change. The first step to change is recognizing the need.

Comments

[readyfornewleadership]

I think it has less to do with whether or not he is a racist, rather his outrage at the suggestion that, for any reason, he is no longer entitled to adulation.

[Tayo]

I do agree with you that Bill and Hillary Clinton might not be racists, but it's hard to say the same thing about Geraldine Ferraro. Ferraro appears to suffer the racist stereotype of believing that any achivement of a capable black person is due to affirmative action. She said it of Jesse Jackson in 1984 and now of Barack Obama. It is the same kind of stereotype with which Jews used to be assailed whenever they excel in any endeavor. "Oh, they are just pulling strings for each other, bla,bla,bla".

But back to Bill and Hillary Clinton I think that the most racist attitude displayed by this honorable couple during the primaries was when after condemning Barack Obama as not ready to be commander- in-chief they then suddenly turned around to offer him (someone ahead in delegates count!) the vice-presidency slot. Of course there may be many ways to interprete this gesture, but no matter how one views it there is no escaping the fact that the Clintons think that this guy cannot or should not win. The question is why not? So I'm not at all surprised that Bill Clinton can still not bring himself to see Barack Obama as a possible commander-in-chief. Until Bill Clinton figures out why he feels that way he will not understand the gist of your piece.

[Horace McMillon - Huffpost Blogger]

I am trying really really hard to give Ferraro the benefit of the doubt. She is not making it easy...

[robXdion]

No. I think you're trying to codify and hold her by the hand so as not to offend similar attitudes. She represents the worst of public functional bigotry with a dose of delusional cognitive dissonance. Just call it what it is. Bill C. may be a white man born and raised in 1940s and 50s Arkansas and duly effected with a sense of white patriarchy, but he has NOTHING on the acid tongue defensively racist Ferraro. Northern white immigrants and their descendants can be worse with racism than the white southerners they claim moral superiority over.

[jmpurser]

IMHO Bill Clinton is much more guilty of having a mindset that he should "get things done" and take the credit rather than "get the right things done" and take the blows. Thus his much ballyhooed "politics of the possible" became "Don't ask, don't tell" in the real world. I don't think this reflected his own bigotry but certainly it was him enabling the bigots to inflict theirs upon our nation. The man simply doesn't have the integrity to know when to stand and fight.

[Horace McMillon - Huffpost Blogger]

His unwillingness to stand and fight set the Dem's back for years. We lost the House, Senate and more under his watch. He was such a great communicator. Yet he was so unwilling to advocate for the things he claimed to represent... Obama is a bit to pragmatic at times as well. However, he certainly seems more willing to advocate for moderated progressive causes (As opposed to Clinton's simply trying to be in favor of populist cause of the moment...

[blaqntelligence]

Thank you Mr. McMillon.