Racism in a ‘Post-Racial’ Society: How Everyone’s Losing To the Elephant in the Room

by Shimbo

A joke I often told on the early episodes of the Never Daunted Radio Network came from a night of generally unfunny amateur comedy at the D.C. Improv. During one set, a kid who split his time writing for the Washington Post made a joke about living in what, at the time, was considered by some to be a “Post-racial America”.

When out covering his beat in the months after the first Obama election, he saw and experienced the political rancor worsening across the country, and with every billboard that went up depicting Obama as a Nazi, the notion of a “Post-racial America” went right out the door.

As he put it, “After Obama was elected, everyone thought that a black president meant that racism was finally dead. Well, let me tell you, racism isn’t dead, it’s in the gym working out.” Well now, with plenty of workout time under it’s belt, racism buff as hell.

Part of the problem that comes with discussing racism is the baggage that comes with it. For some, mostly white people, the idea of talking about race is somehow offensive, especially from those who “see no color”, and mentioning race, particularly as it applies to how people of color are treated by authority figures, is instantly dismissed as “playing the race card.”

It’s this intent to avoid which comes back around to haunt us in the end, especially now, as excessive force from law enforcement is the go-to lead story from most news outlets today. The very notion that cops and young black men seem to be at odds so often forces people to either tune it out or take sides, leading to confrontations instead of conversations. When it comes to discussing race, it’s difficult to have actual discussions. If people decry the disproportionate arrest rates of black men, and the inequitable prison sentences for offenses such as drug crimes don’t ring alarm bells in some as much as it does evoke a sense that if a man or woman of color goes to jail more than their white counterparts, clearly it’s their fault.

A recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center shows a huge disparity between whites and black when it comes to the issue of police response and black men. The first chart shows that only a third of whites polled believe that Officer Darren Wilson’s shooting of an unarmed Michael Brown was excessive.

The next chart shows that while 80 percent of blacks feel that the Brown shooting raises racial issues, only 37 percent of whites polled feel the same way.

Sadly, all one has to do to see just how far we’re divided is turn to social media, where people, regardless of their level of personal hatred, can find a way to show off just how hateful they can be.

Is it wrong that every time I hear about Missouri I think, “Fuck Michael Brown.”? #sorrynotsorry #notracist #justoverit

— Krystina Rizzo (@RizzBalls) August 25, 2014

At first I thought this #MikeBrown thing was unjustified. The FACTS make it seem that piece of shit thug got what he deserved. #Ferguson — Dave The Merciless (@DavidianVision) August 19, 2014

This is all bullshit in #Ferguson. Michael Brown was a punk thug. He deserved to be shot. He was the aggressor. Fucking #Nigger — Michael Bolton (@MiBolton6886) August 23, 2014

That’s right, nigger has a hashtag.

Now in the interest of fairness, I tried to find tweets from black men and women that spouted the same level of hatred towards whites, and to be honest with you, I couldn’t find any (I’m sure some enterprising individual will happily find me some in order to refute my point, and to that I say ‘please do’). That isn’t to say that they don’t exist, but rather the biggest takeaway from this is the idea that it’s a whole lot easier finding hate speech on Twitter via white people than blacks. And why is that? I suppose it’s an open-ended question, one that will often be shut down with claims of race cards or “only racists talk about race.”

The fact that we don’t have productive conversations about race are directly tied to the arguments we end up having about race. Once it’s devolved to arguments, no one is listening anymore. There’s a unique irony to that, since the people who are so willing to argue about race are the very people who avoid the discussion in the first place.

For whites in America, the tactic of ignoring discussions of race over the years made any discussion of racism seem one-sided, if not a paranoid reaction that is often treated as a diversionary tactic of its own. An often-used canard you’ll hear from pundits is that blacks decry racism, but do nothing to repair the rifts within their own neighborhood. This is a dangerous path to take, because the idea being offered here is “well, if you don’t care enough about the problems amongst your own, why should I care about you?” That, in and of itself is akin to passive-aggressive devaluing of people.

Just as I discussed in a previous article about domestic abuse, using the example comedian Bill Burr used concerning not looking at the problem until it’s too late, the unwillingness of people to even examine the causes or even potential causes of racism lead to the sorts of fissures we’ve seen in Ferguson, which is an issue that’s clearly so much larger than just the shooting of an unarmed black teen. That’s what some can’t seem to effectively grasp.

And because those sorts of people can’t grasp it, they choose to go on the defensive, and the conversations we should be having end up devolving into shouting matches or silence. In either case, the lack of trust that stokes these fires continues to rage on.

And it shouldn’t.

Every once in awhile, media outlets will wheel out a few black conservatives in order to help shift the conversation. Pundits like Larry Elder, who can’t wait to assure white America that “racism isn’t a big problem” speak at length about how every problem that blacks have in America are a result of their own doing, or rather the things they don’t do. While we may agree that many blacks aren’t living up to their full potential, the same can be said about people from practically every race, if race and racism isn’t a problem in this country, why is it that black men and women are often judged as a collective instead of as individuals?

In his seminal book, Race Matters, Dr. Cornel West speaks about black conservatives, and how their position ends up being slightly hypocritical:

“The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they simply want what most people want, to be judged by the quality of their skills, not by the color of their skin. But the black conservatives overlook the fact that affirmative action policies were political responses to the pervasive refusal of most white Americans to judge black Americans on that basis.”

This is also detrimental to conversations on race, because when black men and women choose to ignore the constructs of their own race, with the goal of somehow transcending it, it ignores the simple fact that the reason the divisions exist in the first place come as a result of the efforts of those who those who set the playing field in the first place, and the ones the black conservatives want to be so close to.

Another issue that hinders discussion of race might be the most bitterly ironic of all. A poll conducted earlier this year by MTV consisting of Millennials aged 14-24 shows that while they’re more tolerant as a whole, with a willingness to entertain ideas of equality, the flip side is that adherence to equality makes them uneasy talking about race, which leaves them in the dark about what racism actually is. In a way, coming to that fateful day Dr. Martin Luther King long hoped for may have, in turn, caused the prevention of healing the wounds that still exist as it pertains to race. Make no mistake, because that’s exactly what’s happening. More and more Millennials are being raised in a world where racism is not talked about, to the point where it’s almost become a myth.

Were it only so simple.

The fact is, while on one hand, younger generations are not using race as much as a judgment factor, the same misunderstandings exist to the point where they don’t even understand when they’re engaging in bigoted and racist behavior. Take, for example, SketchFactor, an app that launched earlier this month, whose primary purpose is to help users “avoid sketchy areas” in major cities. By that they mean where the black people live.

The creators of the app, Allison McGuire and Daniel Herrington, insist they’re not racist, nor that their product is for white people, McGuire was quoted in an article saying,

“Even though Dan and I are admittedly both young, white people, the app is not built for us as young, white people. As far as we’re concerned, racial profiling is ‘sketchy’ and we are trying to empower users to report incidents of racism against them and define their own experience of the streets.”

Using buzzwords and making empty assurances only highlight just how shoved under the cushions racism has become, where blatantly racist applications can be seen through some warped prism as somehow helpful. That something exists to help people avoid areas with concentrated black populations is bad enough, but to coat it as being a positive is bordering insanity. But on the other side of the coin, are they right to fear such areas? This is something where blacks have to begin to take responsibility.

The state of the black community in America today is in disrepair; this is a problem that can’t be fixed by shouting at it, casting aspersions or ignoring the worst parts of it. To be sure, blacks in America are engaged in a long term civil war, and it’s difficult to tell which side is winning. As people of color, we have the unenviable task of tending to our own problems while trying to change the perception of others, and on the outset, we’re failing. Just as white people ignore the conversation, black people are responsible for ignorance of their own. We don’t address the issues that are important to the revival of our communities until things devolve into violence. Our so-called leaders fleece us and sell us false tales, usually with the promise of Jesus Christ at the end of them.

As long as we are willing to tear each other down, how can we possibly engage in fruitful conversations with people of other races and cultures and expect the level of respect that we deserve, without earning the trust that goes along with it?

There are no easy answers. There never were.

But regardless of the answers, or lack thereof, we have to have the conversations. We all have to come to the table and stop ignoring that which exists, placing us all in peril.

What I do know is this: Racism has indeed been working out, and it’s stronger than ever. Want one final example of how this could possibly be? It takes white people to tell other white people that racism is still real, even though black people have been spending the last week and a half protesting in the face of rubber bullets and tear gas. It takes Jon Stewart to tell some of you this is actually a real problem.

 

While it was enjoyable, and deadly accurate, the very notion that the only way we can get white people to pay attention to any conversation about race is to have other white people bring it up is pretty racist in and of itself, and indicative of just how little we listen to one another. And I, nor anyone of color, shouldn’t have to accept this as good enough. For far too long, “good enough” has been the order of the day. We, and by we, I mean all of us, regardless of, age, race, location, socioeconomic status, deserve better. We deserve to have these conversations, whether they’re uncomfortable or not, we have to sack up and get everything out on the table so that our future, and the future of our children can be built on something stronger.

We are defined by our differences, but our differences make us all whole. We can never forget that.

Goddamnit, we need to grow, and that will never happen through avoidance.

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Hashim R. Hathaway (Uncle Shimbo) is the host of the Never Daunted Radio Network, and proud father to NeverDaunted.Net. You can reach him on Twitter @NeverDauntedNet