Post-Racial & Post-Editing
Yesterday, AOL News posted a piece I wrote about the idea of post-racial America. In short, I feel this country will become “post-racial” the second after Waka Flocka Flame beats Akeelah in the next spelling bee.
What ended up being published was a very tamed and poll-stat friendly version of the sentiments I sought to convey.
And yet, I was still met with the typical emails:
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You’re lucky that you’ve got AOL and other left-wing media giving racial preference positions to black racist “writers” like you.
Your boy Obama is a typical black racist, too. He proved it after the Henry Louis Gates incident – an incident which I notice didn’t come up in your tired old AOL Lexis-Nexis rehash.
Americans aren’t racist. They just don’t like racists like you.
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White haters like you will ALWAYS be pointing out that our efforts are not good enough. I am convinced that it never will be! The problem does not lie with us, sir. Whites have made tremendous, even more than acceptable, strides. The problem is that blacks have NOT.
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This country has come a long way in racial relations; shame on you for using your intellect to set this effort back to the 1960′s with your slick rhetoric.
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Until we as a country stop dumbing down and giving everything to the blacks there will always be racism.
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Tea Party huh? Those people are pissed at the government, it’s not a race thing fool.
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I was polite in my responses (but later marked them all as spam, no worries) and was greeted with retorts like this:
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Thank you for replying to my email. And thank you especially for replying in a white voice. It was mighty white of you.
And as for me being a racist, I gave $100 to Alan Keyes during his campaign against Obama during the 2004 Illinois Senate race. I’d gladly have Keyes or Condoleezza Rice for President, especially in preference to the chocolate Pied Piper.
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None of these responses surprised me. Anytime you mention the word “racist” there will be plenty of people ready to shout “YOU LIE!” as if you’re acting like some fancy Negro who thinks he like runs the country.
A hit dog will holler indeed.
What gets me, though, is that what was published was so mild. For me at least.
If you’d like to read it, click here.
You would’ve thought I said, “I want to stab those tea party folks and you fancy liberals with my Black power fist Afro pick!”
I can only imagine what would have been said of me had my original piece ran as is. I actually think that one had a bit more nuance to it albeit obviously more pointed in its criticism. I took aim at white liberals as much as I did conservatives, which is at the core my main point. I never intended to say all whites are bad. I think it’s silly to believe that, but some people can’t take any sort of criticism.
We are not post-racial and its disingenuous to say otherwise. The end.
Still, I do want the original version to get some sort of life especially after the responses the defanged version netted.
So if you’re interested, would love for some of you all to read both and share your thoughts.
Here it goes:
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Though it would be disingenuous to deny progress, it’s hard not to look at racial politics in America mirroring that of a person on a stationary bike. As much as we like to think we’re peddling forward, we really haven’t gone anywhere.
It’s what makes many so frustrated when it comes to this debate about whether or not we live in a post-racial society.
Those who champion such claims tend to inadvertently prove its fallacy. Chris Matthews is the most recent example of this. Despite his affinity for President Obama and the feeling his oratory skills sends up his leg, Matthews still couldn’t manage to think beyond his linear view of the world when trying to pay Obama a “compliment” when touting perceived improved race relations.
But Matthews’s ineptness in that instance doesn’t point to any malice. He wants to see a better America; it’s just that like many who share his privilege, he does very little in doing the work necessary to make that happen.
By contrast those who sneer at the notion of a nation where everyone dares to treat others different from them with respect are actively courting like-minded people to preserve their vision of the country.
Look no further than this past weekend’s Tea Party convention which kicked off with a rousing tribute to racism.
Though their apologists deny allegations of racism throughout its membership, these lines from Rep. Tom Tancredo’ opening speech at the convention make such claims difficult to refute outright: “People who could not even spell the word vote, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama.”
As humorous as Sarah Palin’s green alternative to note cards may be, I’m much more fascinated by the Tea Party meshing anti-government sentiment with Jim Crow-like rhetoric into a movement so popular that it’s close to becoming a modern day answer to McCarthyism.
And as frustrating as it is to contend with the fact that on one end you have a man surprised that our President is so darn brilliant it makes you forget he’s black while another still lumps all people of color as either dimwitted or un-American, the imagery still pumped out to the masses makes it understandable.
I am elated that Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled its most diverse array of honorees in recent memory; however, I can’t help but look at it without a bit of taint.
Precious Jones (Precious) and Michael Oher (The Blind Side) are both uneducated, both overweight, both poor and down trodden, both in need of some sort of savior. In both cases their savior was delivered in a much smaller melanin count. Each play right into stereotypical narratives about black men and women – and Hollywood can’t wait to honor them for it.
My disdain isn’t for Precious and Michael, though. Michael’s story has been proven true and as Oprah and Barbara Bush have both articulated, there are Precious’ in the world. But when it comes to black storytelling we’re still more inclined to address the poor and the feeble minded over the brilliant and successful – even one year after the election of the first black president.
Not to mention the press is far too anxious to cover those who obviously think less of their darker but fellow Americans without collectively calling them racists outright.
If there’s one constant tale in black history it’s this: There’s a lot of self interest in perpetuating the status quo.
Until that changes I see no point in disingenuous liberals debating “post-racial America” and conservatives fighting against the “cult of multiracialism.”
Both sides proof neither truly exists.
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I get the point of wanting more qualifying evidence, it’s just in the future I need to be certain my voice can still be heard among all of the polls (which I’ve discarded publicly often) and random stats.
Kendra
February 17, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Michael let me first just say I think you are brilliant and I love your post and your blog. I think you were dead on it is like the people who don’t realize that you are dead on are living in a bubble. I am from and live in your hometown and just 3 weeks ago along side the beltway on Richmond this white guy was in some dulle truck with the confederate flag on the tires like painted on them. I was taken aback like is it really this serious and he looked at me looking at his truck and proceeded to ask me what the was I looking at you fu%king Ni**a Bit%h! You have to forgive me because I am still under construction so I yelled back I must resemble his mother…
I felt bad afterwards only because he didn’t even deserve a reply. How’s that for a post racial America.
Jason
February 17, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Thank you keeping this flame burning. For what it’s worth, I’m a white male, which means in the United States I know I have more privileges than others. I know that I have to work half as hard to get twice as much as a non-white male. I keep reminding my white male friends that people still struggle with garbage that my white male friends and I will most likely never face, as well as achieve extraordinary successes about which we will never hear.
My nephew is of mixed-ethnicity (black, American Indian, and white), and when America elected President Obama in 2008, I got excited because my nephew can now look at the President and see someone who looks like him too, instead of the previous 43 Presidents who looked like me. Maybe by the time my nephew meets the age requirements to be President of the US, we will see the ethnic differences in each other and realize that “their culture” is also “my culture.”
My son is also of mixed-ethnicity (Asian, American Indian, and white), and he, his cousins (black, white, Latino, or mixed cousins), and his friends see the differences in each other’s features and backgrounds, but they don’t seem to care about them. They care more about skateboards, video games, cheeseburgers, and finding a significant other than they care about curly hair, who likes rice and who hates it, and whether or not beans are good for your heart. They’ll say things to each other that would’ve caused fights in my day in high school, but to me it appears that this is how they’ve grown closer, by making the fact that they have differences into what they have in common with each other.
Not only am I frustrated about racist white men, I am also frustrated by more “progressive” white people who appear to feel that it’s still the white man’s burden to help non-whites rise up to their level, or who become enraged when a non-white male says he’s mad at white people. Deal with it people. If you don’t want non-white people saying they’ve been treated unfairly, step up and help make the world a place in which no one is treated unfairly. Get off your high horse and don’t be afraid of being wrong, or of having been wrong for your entire life. Learn from the situation, and really listen to what other people have to say about your position in life vs. their positions in life. Maybe the unfairness will piss you off as much as it’s pissed me off. Maybe you’ll see your neighbor really is your neighbor, no matter from which neighborhood he comes.
krissyk
February 17, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Michael, I appreciate you perspective a lot. I have realized that a lot of White people are waiting for Black people to thank them for allowing us to be apart of their society and not to be seen as our race, I really believe that White people don’t understand why we continue to see the racism. I’ve been asked “why can’t Black people get over it” or “Slavery had nothing to do with me, so don’t blame me”. Well, since only 50 years ago we weren’t even considered CITIZENS under the U.S. constitution, so I would think it would take some time for all this racism stuff to leave society, so the denial that people would still carry those sentiments is beyond me. I don’t even have the strength to explain anymore. This “post-racial” america stuff kills me. How can people who still equate blackness with poor and uneducated possibly think that racism doesn’t exist anymore. No one tries to care or listen to the plight of Black America’s true identity crisis…they just holler RACIST, many times because White people can’t wait to try and turn words around, the Republicans do it all the time. All of this misses the point and makes intellegent, insightful conversation impossible. Its basically become conform or shut up. Just listen to Lil Wayne and watch the Kardashians and we can all be friends. It’s so stupid
krissyk
February 17, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Btw, I also appreciate Jason’s comment and when I write about White people I’m not talking about all white people. I wish the day would come that we could truly have this conversation without it becoming “who can be the most convincing non-racist”
Jason
February 17, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Thank you KrissyK. The idea of “who can be the most convincing non-racist” got me thinking. I certainly don’t want to appear to be making exactly that statement, but I can see how my type of comments could appear that way. Maybe my statements will always appear that way because I am a white man and no non-white person will ever truly trust my intentions? While to my white friends that might not appear fair, I accept it. It’s up to me to change people’s minds about my statements–I’m not the one who’s been wronged or been considered less of a person. The next time I comment somewhere, I’ll incorporate your idea into my statements.
I don’t have all of the answers, but I’m willing to listen, even if that means I have to listen to someone’s anger first. I might not have committed all of the offenses, but by my being a white man I represent some of the legacy of various forms of oppression, and I have benefited from it. While I cannot change that past, nor can I truly make amends, I can listen and join in efforts to make the world a better place.