I want to make a confession. I hope Steve Bannon is
listening.
I’m a white guy who grew up white in white neighborhoods and
went to elementary schools that were almost exclusively white. I can remember only
one student in my school who was African American. Other than her, my only
association with black people during those years was the woman who cleaned our
house.
(Why our lower-middle-class family even had a housekeeper is still a mystery to me.)
My introduction to African Americans really began in junior
high school when the white schools were consolidated with “the one where the
black kids go.” I remember striking up a friendship with a black guy named Mike
on the first day of school, and we remained friends throughout high school
before going our separate ways.
I later worked in a supermarket with a racially diverse
group of college-age clerks, cashiers and “carry out boys,” several of whom
were African Americans. One of my best friends from that time, a guy named
Phil, was black, although I admit that we didn’t socialize outside of work. I’m
still friends with another guy whose name is Greg,
The point I’m trying to make is that I don’t believe I was
ever a racist, but when I sit and think about it, I suppose I could have been
if I had taken a slightly different path.
I have known some full-blown racists in my lifetime and I
never really understood why they were the way they were. I have looked for an
explanation and one factor keeps popping up: We take on the views of people around us, so let’s start there.
My parents were good, decent, church-going people. They
cared about others and went out of their way to do good things. They were scout
leaders and youth group counselors and good friends to their friends. They were not racists.
Still, I remember hearing them use an expression about “[somebody] in the wood pile,” and they had a name for Brazil nuts that I won’t repeat. I suspect they got those sayings from their parents and the people around them, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t pick it up from them, at least for a while. One step in the wrong direction.
Still, I remember hearing them use an expression about “[somebody] in the wood pile,” and they had a name for Brazil nuts that I won’t repeat. I suspect they got those sayings from their parents and the people around them, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t pick it up from them, at least for a while. One step in the wrong direction.
When I was still pretty young, my friends and I used to
chant “eenie meenie miney mo” to choose up teams for games we were playing, and
I’m ashamed to tell you who we caught by the toe back then. So yeah, up to a
certain age I did take on the vocabulary of those around me. Take one more step.
Fortunately for me, taking on the words of racists did not
evolve into taking on the views. I mean, somewhere along the line I had an
awakening if you will, or at least developed awareness that using those words
was wrong. I took the path that led away from the views and attitudes that
accompanied an unfortunate choice of words. Steps
in the right direction.
The fact that you could walk away from it told me there must
be more to racism than just hanging with the wrong crowd, and it had to start a
long time before it reached my generation.
A psychologist writing for the Huffington Post explained
that racism stems from thinking of oneself as being different from other
people. “Racists see others as being less than themselves,” she wrote. “You
have to think about where those attitudes began and how they developed. Was it
environmental? Was it upbringing? Was the person born that way? So, there’s the
age-old debate about nature versus nurture here.”
I get that part. If you grow up in an environment where
people think that white people are superior to people of color, you might begin
to believe it yourself, and that belief gets reinforced by the social
environment you live in, including the schools you attend, your church, your
families, your neighbors, and so on.
That further explains the “how” of racism but it still
doesn’t answer the question of “why?”
Next, I looked at “It Stops With Me” (ISWM), an anti-racism
campaign of the Australian Human Rights Commission, which went a few steps
further. ISWM says “it's normal to want to spend time with people that have the
same interests, background, culture and language” that we have, which “creates
a sense of belonging that is really important.” They could have added, “…and are the same
color.”
ISWM says people by nature are quick to judge, often
assigning labels to people which become stereotypes for those of different
racial backgrounds. We also tend to blame others for our problems, especially people
who look or talk differently than we do, ISWM says.
The downside of all of this is that over time, spending time
only with people like ourselves often leads to thinking one group is better
than others. To avoid that eventuality and defeat the standard stereotypes, ISWM
says, “We should get to know people from different racial backgrounds and find
out how much [we] have in common.”
So, to recap, racism begins with the belief that one group
is better than another, leads us to hang with people who are alike, judge
people who are not in our group and blame them for our problems. This has been perfectly
illustrated in the age of Trump, Brexit and a wave of nationalism, where mostly
white voters believe that “other people” are taking their jobs, depriving them
of their sovereignty, threatening their security and living on government
handouts that somehow harm everybody else.
Columnist and author Tom Scocca wrote, “White people don’t
like to believe that they practice identity politics. The defining part of
being white in America is the assumption that, as a white person, you are a
regular, individual human being. Other demographic groups set themselves apart,
to pursue their distinctive identities and interests and agendas. Whiteness, to
white people, is the American default.”
That still doesn’t tell me why people are racists, and I still don't understand, but it
does lead me to one conclusion: White people need to get out more. There seems
to be a whole world around us and we’re missing it while huddling together
under the Stars and Stripes, singing “God Bless America” and chanting “America
First.” The problem is, when you do that, it’s no longer the real America.
Did you get all that, Steve Bannon?
No, probably not.
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