Louisville Courier Journal Editorial: Join In A Dialogue About Racial Issues.
Join in a dialogue about racial issues
On July 16, 2009, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., a well-known Harvard University scholar, was arrested for protesting, perhaps intemperately, the presence of the police in his home. They were there in response to a call from a neighbor suspicious that Gates, who was having difficulty forcing his door open, was attempting to burglarize his own home. Gates is black; the neighbor and the arresting officer are not.
To complicate matters, a few days later President Barack Obama commented on national television that the police had behaved stupidly, implying rather strongly that racial profiling was involved.
President Obama's comments ignited a firestorm of charges and counter-charges, and opinion pieces by the familiar throng of “talking heads.”
Depending on the commentator, everyone or no one was a racist; and racism could be anything or nothing at all — or usually, whatever helped make the commentator's point. President Obama sought safer ground, called an impromptu “beer summit” with the police officer and Gates, and soon the nation's attention returned to the health care debate, the economic crisis, the war in Afghanistan and Michael Jackson.
We may never know whether Gates was profiled or not, but the range and intensity of the reactions to the incident were far more revealing than the incident itself.
This is not surprising.
Race has been the central paradox of American life since the first Africans were sold at Jamestown, Va., in 1619 — the basis for legal inequality in a nation committed to equality and democracy. Over nearly 400 years, Americans of European ancestry first enslaved Americans of African ancestry and then, after the end of legal slavery, consigned them to a form of quasi-legal serfdom under segregation.
In my youth, the structure of legal segregation was dismantled, but despite far-reaching changes in race relations and racial conditions, full equality was not achieved.
Even today, one-third of black America lives under conditions that have changed very little in the past 144 years and another third lives under conditions largely unchanged in the past 40 years. And although the remaining third includes Barack Obama and Henry Louis Gates, even they are not immune to the myriad devilish racial stereotypes that still permeate American culture.
Put simply, some white Americans may well be post-racial, but others still see only color through the lens of centuries-old stereotypes and their own prejudices and fears. Taken altogether, these facts describe a nation in which African Americans are “neither separate nor equal,” a nation that is anything but post-racial.
But, if not “post-racial,” what are we? Could racism become more, rather than less, virulent in “The Age of Obama”? And what can be done?
Near the end of his life, Frederick Douglass declared that racism was not an African American problem, but a great national problem, and that until this problem was solved for all Americans, the promise of American democracy would remain unfulfilled. The solution was, he stated simply, “Let the nation try justice.”
Still true and, ultimately, as a matter of national policy, we must eliminate the many “gaps” (in income, education, health, et al.) between racial groups in our society.
As a necessary step toward that end, we must talk and teach about race and racism again — to one another, within and across racial lines, honestly and based on solid research, and not misleading sound bites — recognizing that, if we practice behaving like a community, perhaps we will become one.
We hope, in a very small way, to contribute to this process at the Saturday Academy on Sept. 12. We hope you will join us.
DR. J. BLAINE HUDSON
Louisville 40208
“The Continuing Significance of Race in the Age of Obama” will be from 12:45-2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, at the DuValle Education Center Cafeteria, 3610 Bohne Ave. Please enter from the rear parking lot. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, cal 852-2252 or e-mail mrvass01@louisville.edu — Editor
On July 16, 2009, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., a well-known Harvard University scholar, was arrested for protesting, perhaps intemperately, the presence of the police in his home. They were there in response to a call from a neighbor suspicious that Gates, who was having difficulty forcing his door open, was attempting to burglarize his own home. Gates is black; the neighbor and the arresting officer are not.
To complicate matters, a few days later President Barack Obama commented on national television that the police had behaved stupidly, implying rather strongly that racial profiling was involved.
President Obama's comments ignited a firestorm of charges and counter-charges, and opinion pieces by the familiar throng of “talking heads.”
Depending on the commentator, everyone or no one was a racist; and racism could be anything or nothing at all — or usually, whatever helped make the commentator's point. President Obama sought safer ground, called an impromptu “beer summit” with the police officer and Gates, and soon the nation's attention returned to the health care debate, the economic crisis, the war in Afghanistan and Michael Jackson.
We may never know whether Gates was profiled or not, but the range and intensity of the reactions to the incident were far more revealing than the incident itself.
This is not surprising.
Race has been the central paradox of American life since the first Africans were sold at Jamestown, Va., in 1619 — the basis for legal inequality in a nation committed to equality and democracy. Over nearly 400 years, Americans of European ancestry first enslaved Americans of African ancestry and then, after the end of legal slavery, consigned them to a form of quasi-legal serfdom under segregation.
In my youth, the structure of legal segregation was dismantled, but despite far-reaching changes in race relations and racial conditions, full equality was not achieved.
Even today, one-third of black America lives under conditions that have changed very little in the past 144 years and another third lives under conditions largely unchanged in the past 40 years. And although the remaining third includes Barack Obama and Henry Louis Gates, even they are not immune to the myriad devilish racial stereotypes that still permeate American culture.
Put simply, some white Americans may well be post-racial, but others still see only color through the lens of centuries-old stereotypes and their own prejudices and fears. Taken altogether, these facts describe a nation in which African Americans are “neither separate nor equal,” a nation that is anything but post-racial.
But, if not “post-racial,” what are we? Could racism become more, rather than less, virulent in “The Age of Obama”? And what can be done?
Near the end of his life, Frederick Douglass declared that racism was not an African American problem, but a great national problem, and that until this problem was solved for all Americans, the promise of American democracy would remain unfulfilled. The solution was, he stated simply, “Let the nation try justice.”
Still true and, ultimately, as a matter of national policy, we must eliminate the many “gaps” (in income, education, health, et al.) between racial groups in our society.
As a necessary step toward that end, we must talk and teach about race and racism again — to one another, within and across racial lines, honestly and based on solid research, and not misleading sound bites — recognizing that, if we practice behaving like a community, perhaps we will become one.
We hope, in a very small way, to contribute to this process at the Saturday Academy on Sept. 12. We hope you will join us.
DR. J. BLAINE HUDSON
Louisville 40208
“The Continuing Significance of Race in the Age of Obama” will be from 12:45-2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, at the DuValle Education Center Cafeteria, 3610 Bohne Ave. Please enter from the rear parking lot. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, cal 852-2252 or e-mail mrvass01@louisville.edu — Editor
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