It’s not on an academic level. On that level, I would challenge any white person I know to be more aware and outraged by both the history of racial injustice in our nation and its current manifestations.
It’s on a gut level. It is as profound as if I were George Wallace standing in the doorway at the University of Alabama.
I don’t know if any of my white friends feel any of the feelings that I do. As much as race is a third rail of American politics, openly admitting to gut level racism, if it is there, is not a something I’ve ever heard discussed among them. I hesitate, greatly, to admit it on this wonderful day of Barack Obama’s wonderful speech. I am not sure if discussing what is ugly is on the path towards accomplishing what can be beautiful.
I did not grow up in a family where racial epitaphs were heard, not ever. I did not grow up in a family where my father’s career was stymied by affirmative action. I accompanied my parents when they went to marches for fair housing and to support civil rights. My parents named my brother Paul Robert, in honor of Paul Robeson.
As a man, I have worked for many social, progressive and political causes, some strongly linked to racial injustice – death penalty abolition, repeal of the “3 strikes law” and criminal justice for juveniles.
And yet, examples of my racism are many. When the cable stations champion the cause of a white girl murdered in a “safe neighborhood” and ignore the fate of an African American girl who has died on the same day in the Inglewood, I am furious. But there is a disconnect. I find it easier to sympathize with the family of the white girl. I feel even that the white family feels the loss more. Again, that is only one of many examples. All of them even more disturbing than the oft-admitted fear of black teenagers walking behind one on a darkened street.
I have lots to offer to get me off the hook. There is the most clichéd of defenses: I feel complete comfort and connection with my own African American friends. Networks do only cover the white girl’s murder. It’s easier to relate to what is most easily apparent. For every example of my prejudices, there is probably a rationale.
But, I must take the responsibility and I am appalled by my bigotry, even more than I am appalled when a friend refuses to understand the inequities of the criminal justice system or the code words of divineness spoken by our presidential candidates.
I ask myself, if I were a student at Little RockHigh School, would I have spit on the nine black students or offered a hand in friendship. I am sure I would have been among the latter. But, in many ways it’s easier to rise up against the most obvious of oppression with action, than to rise up against inner racism by self-examination.
I can imagine my African American friends reading this and dismissing me from their lives. But if Barack Obama is willing to put his candidacy on the line to say that the issue of race cannot be ignored, “not this time,” than admitting amongst my white friends to our ugliness is not too much to ask. If admitting it in a way that ultimately dispels the feelings rather than binding them to us and making them our private haven against evolving, than it will be a good thing. If, with some candor, self-awareness and apology, we can admit it to the African Americans in our lives and move forward with more hope than if we did not, it might be a very good thing.
Jonathan Leigh Solomon is a (retired) stand-up comedian who appeared regularly on "Late Night with David Letterman" and the "Late Show with David Letterman," co-hosted the MTV morning show, "Awake On the Wild Side," was the host of the late, great, sorely missed NBC children's program, "Kid's TV," and the star and co-creator of the not so greatly missed Fox sit-com "Bachelor Life." Among the television shows Jonathan has written for are Michael Moore's "TV Nation" and "Mad About You." In 2000, as a member of Vice-President Gore's press pool, he covered the presidential race for Politics.Com, filing his column "Solomon Wises to the Occasion" and appearing regularly as a featured guest on political talk-show programs offering fact-filled punditry. In his spare time, Jonathan continues his work as history's greatest political consultant. He wrote, "Our long national nightmare is over," for Gerald R. Ford. Prior to consulting with Jonathan, Ford had been planning to go with, "Wow, I'm president! Can you believe it?! Me! Gerry Ford! Wow!!! Now who do I gotta' pardon to keep this gig?"
So was it the conduct of the Blacks that caused your racist view or did it just manifest on its own?
Yes, I have an extreme hatred of closet Black radicals like Obama that blame Whitey for everything that is wrong in their life. I blame people like him for causing this hatred between the Blacks, Whites, Asians, Hispanics, Jews, and every other group you want to name. So when I see a group, congregated in a church of all places, preaching hatred, yes, this effects my view of Blacks as a group. On an individual bases most don’t run around spewing hatred toward others because of their race.
Like you I did not grow up in a family that called blacks Niger’s, or berated blacks in anyway. Throughout life I learned to dislike Obama blacks that have their hand out all the time and cry about injustices that occurred before their parents were born.
In Obama’s case he is far more disgusting. His Black descendants came here on their own free will. Yet he hangs out with a bunch of racist hate mongers that will never stop complaining even after you give them the world.
Where are the hand outs for the Italians, the Irish, the Mexican immigrants. They all have been discriminated against at one time or another.
NO Sir, I could never support Obama anymore than a Klansman.
I believe the Black radicals like Obama are getting exactly what should come to them which is the same disgust as the KKK groups that run around screaming white power.
They are pissing their own bed and now have to sleep in it.
by
Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 797 comments)
on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 4:17:30 AM
I suppose by making such a statement, certainly, you must be privvy to some knowledge of Obama's psyche and history that hasn't yet been revealed. And by making such a statement, your credibility would be better served with an example that would hint to Obama 'blaming Whitey for everything that is wrong in their lives'. And how would you justify blaming 'him and people like him' for hatred between the races?
Obama's speech, clearly refuting the hate espoused by his preacher was not at all vague. Did you grasp the content and it's meaning? I'm inclined to believe that you simply missed it. But, of course, guilt by association is always easy - so easy a child can do it - and has been used to justify countless hate crimes.
Obama, a closet black radical? Again - hate speech often has, at it's core - irrational, emotional, simplistic belief systems along with unsubstantiated foundations. Making such an inflamitory and powerful accusation not immediately followed by an example - any evidence of any kind - reveals much about your character and mindset.
The value and the content of his character have nothing to do with a person's skin color - and to hold and defend that mindset is the very definition of racism. I suspect that you are a prisoner within the walls of your own mind, and may one day actually realize it. Racism is the crutch of the weak-minded bigot - I will always judge a person by their words - and their actions. Wouldn't you feel foolish to know a number of my black neighbors and co-workers after such broad, all-encompassing and disparaging remarks about an entire race of people not of your own.
by
Michael McCoy (5 articles, 1 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 351 comments)
on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 5:44:41 AM
Apparently you didn't bother to spend 37 minutes of your time to actually listen to the Obama speech. If you had, you would have heard an answer to "Where are the hand outs for the Italians, the Irish, the Mexican immigrants." You might have heard the man explain that "They all have been discriminated against at one time or another."
But I expect You Tube is as far as you might have gotten.
by
Jim Freeman (108 articles, 53 quicklinks, 224 diaries, 386 comments)
on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 9:43:45 AM
Racism, as you have described it, is in your, and everyone's, DNA. What you have described is the natural instinct to gravitate to what is familiar, what is most like you, and to be suspicious of what is different (color, shape, facial features). This is not a feature of intellect or training. It is instinct. All people, and all creatures have it.
What I find puzzling, is that while American caucasians castigate themselves for being "racists' in this sense, they do not seem to tumble to the idea that, in the same sense, black, asian, and all other "races" are equally racist. Japan may be more racist than any other nation.
When we understand that this instinct has its roots in survival value from primeval times, then we will be able to understand it, and take the next step to understanding how almost imperceptible is the difference between us under the skin.
I am a caucasian who is NOT racist. And I am quite accepting of the fact that we are what nature made us, that we need to understand ourselves better, accept it as what is, and move from there toward dealing with the way we have altered the world and ourselves.
Those scurrilous racist comments about Obama? That's what you get when you combine this natural instinct of suspicion of what is "different", with fear and perhaps a touch of stupidity and poor encuturation.
Cheers
by
wch (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 17 comments)
on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 9:30:23 AM
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