
As much as I truly hate talking about race, I've come upon a few stories lately that I think can help us all understand one another. My banner on this story is a little misleading, so let me start by saying we're
never going to completely eliminate racism. I'm sorry to have to tell you that, but I wouldn't be being completely honest if I didn't come clean and explain that racism, like terrorism, violence, crime, bias, and a lot of the other plagues of mankind are unfortunately here to stay. The best analogy I can give you is one that was given to me by my friend Will, "I mow my grass even though I know it will just grow back, the point isn't to stop it completely, the point is to keep it under control." I think everyone should agree, all the things I mentioned above should be kept under control as much as possible. With that in mind, I have a few suggestions on how we can help keep racism as limited as possible.
* DON'T DEFEND RACISM*
Just so we all understand how extreme racism can get and why it is viewed as such a major issue particularly by minorities, I'm afraid I have to point out this example;
Six sick twisted individuals in West Virginia, tortured a young black women in ways that are too horrific to even mention here. If you feel you have to know what really happened , I've linked the story here. Generally, I'm against Capital Punishment, but my reason is the inequity of the application of it, not the morality of it. With this in mind, I say B.B.Q. the bastards......'nuff said. This is the way we should all respond to acts of racism of this degree. No excuses, no examples of equal acts by the other side. In fact, let's just simplify it and say anyone who treats another human being in this way deserves the worst punishment you'll stand for morally. Too often I hear people rush to relativism just because race is part of the story. Think how bad you look when your on their side for any reason. This applies to all races, genders, or sexual preferences. Wrong is wrong and we should never diminish it.
*MAKE RACE AN ISSUE ONLY WHEN IT IS AN ISSUE*
Too often we separate ourselves when we don't need to. I don't care that
Mike Vick was black, torturing animals for entertainment is wrong. I don't care that the people in the story above are white, kidnapping and torturing someone is wrong. I never will be able to figure out why race is brought into some stories but not others. Often I've seen articles about acts of violence against white people that would not mention color at all. I was only able to determine that the victims were white by looking at their obituaries or by their pictures in related articles. At the same time, I've seen articles on crimes of an equal degree that make race an issue when the crime was white on black. This is a common complaint by white people. What is the standard? I once questioned the editor of a major local newspaper on why this was so. He told me their policy was to publish race only when a advocacy group made them. When I asked if there was a advocacy group that would do that for white people, he said there wasn't one because they refuse to recognize any group that was deemed a racist organization, and
all white advocacy groups get put in that group. I look at it this way; if there is some value in pointing out race, such as a description of a criminal, a systemic flaw in the system showing bias, demonstrating that a wanted criminal has shown a pertinacity toward a certain kind of victim, or anything else that would help the general public protect itself, then it's O.K. to show race. Otherwise, I would like to see this minimized as much as possible. A robbery is a robbery, A murder is a murder, it shouldn't matter what color, gender, or style of clothes the perpetrator or victim had.
*DON'T LET POLITICIANS USE RACE TO DIVIDE*
From
Willie Horton to
Marion Barry, politicians use race to separate and divide for their own benefit. Sometimes they do it to get elected (Willie Horton) and sometimes they do it to get themselves off the hook (Marion Barry). The idea here is simple, use code words and innuendo to move people (usually the most racist among us) to their side even though we know what they are doing or did is wrong. Unfortunately, this usually works, which explains why they do it. Sometimes they do it even when it makes no sense at all. A recent example of this is the case of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit.
Mayor Kilpatrick was sued by two Detroit police officers for firing them in retaliation to complaints the officers had made against the Mayor. The officers had gone to the press about a supposed wild party that Kilpatrick had thrown which included a couple of strippers and an attack by Kilpatrick's wife on one of the strippers. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the two fired officers, awarding them $6.5 million for wrongful discharge. Kilpatrick then went on to assert the verdict was returned due to a mostly "suburban" (read white) jury. Never mind that both officers were themselves black. Even black Detroit Free Press journalist
Stephen Henderson expressed his disdain for the Mayor's tactics by saying the Mayor was basically claiming, "Whitey stuck it to him." Unfortunately, the Mayor is right in believing a certain segment of black Detroiters will back him based only on that premise. We have to come to a standard that says it wrong for a politician to act badly....no matter his color, or don't be surprised if our cities fall to corruption.
*HOLD OUR MEDIA TO A HIGH STANDARD REGARDING RACE*
I have to give my friend Andre (
Inside Andre's Head) credit on this one. He pointed out to me that the mainstream media has an obsession with missing white women and kids. At first I was a little sceptical, but soon I began to notice that what he was saying was true. (Sometimes
it is necessary to point out inequities) White women and kids graced my T.V. screen almost exclusively. I have noticed though, that in recent times Fox News has responded to these accusations by running more stories about missing black children. (I'm still waiting on the missing black women) In the past two weeks they have run a story about a
missing 10 day old child and a
missing 3 year old. For at least recognizing this inequity, even if only under pressure, I give Fox Kudo's. I hope other networks follow suit. We need to make sure that our media, for whatever reason, doesn't seem to value anyone's life more than someone else's. I've said it before and I'll say it again, everyone's mother, father, brother, sister, whatever, grieve's for their loved one. If for any reason, you find yourself caring less about a child, or for that matter anyone, because of their race, gender, or sexual preference, take a long look at yourself in the mirror and see if you like what you see.
*DEFINE RACISM IN A WAY THAT'S FAIR TO ALL SIDES*
If there is any hope of us winning in our fight against racism, we have to come to terms on what racism is. I would hope that on the first example I gave you at least, we can all agree. As you all went through the rest of my piece, I'm sure it got more debatable. I hope that I at least gave all of you food for thought. One problem I see in our task of defining racism is in who should do the defining. Often on my campus, I see an effort by advocates to be the ultimate definers of what racism is. In there efforts to gain power, they work hard to shut out any other voices besides their own. If we are to come to any real consensus, we need to hear all sides. Certainly the debate will be emotional.... but it is necessary. To have one group do all the judging, or to have a group excluded from contributing is a way of guaranteeing that the problem will continue forever. If we can only make one step toward ending this plague, let it be hearing all sides and coming to a consensus, not a dictation. As I was telling a black police officer friend of mine the other day, " Your Great-Grandfather and mine would have never envisioned us standing here like this today; you a cop and me your friend." We have come far, but we have far to go. Let's all walk down this path together, we don't have to agree on everything. Only on the goal. H.C.