Anyone tired of the racism news cycle? You know the one — it happened with Michael Richards, Don Imus, Dog the Bounty Hunter, and even with the Jena Six. The initial outrage! The talking heads discuss it on cable news and play it for entertainment value! The perpetrators meet with Al Sharpton and/or Jesse Jackson! The story fades! Certain white people feel it’s okay to say they didn’t think it was a big deal to begin with and that black people say/do that stuff all the time and hip hop sucks and !?! And so on, and so on…
The examined this trend in a recent story. Why do we treat these incidents as singular events instead of examining the larger problem of racism in this country? Why are we willing to complete this cycle over and over again instead of solving the problem? The answer they find is simple. If you examine Michael Richards and Don Imus as just cogs in the greater racism wheel, you’re admitting something that many white people don’t want to admit or honestly don’t believe — that racism still lives in this country, and not just when a tired, has-been comedian says “nigger” at a comedy club.
The problem in solving racism lies first in seeing it, says Dovidio, who is white. As with any process of healing, one must acknowledge the injury to get better.
The inability of many whites to acknowledge racism has a deep impact on the way race is discussed in society, because white people “control the discourse on what constitutes race in this country,” says Paula Rothenberg, a senior fellow at City University in New York and author of “White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism.”
“The reality is [in] every aspect of life — economic, social, political — white people benefit from the way the system is organized and black people experience deficiency,” says Rothenberg, who is white. “The system is constructed so that it appears to be fair and just and neutral to all, when in fact white people inherit white supremacy and benefits. . . .
Don’t expect a Fox Newsie, or the hords of people who watch the drivel produced on that network religiously, to come to grips with reality any time soon.
Great entry, Lauren.
According to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle — “Summit called to address racial disparities in academic performance” (November 12 article by Nanette Asimov) — California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction thinks cultural ignorance is what’s holding black kids back.
In a sense, he’s right. His example of black kids learning to be “a bit raucous” at church shows some ‘cultural ignorance.’
Mr. O’Connell — go attend some black churches. Try to find one in which the few kids in attendance are taught to be “a bit raucous.” While you’re at it, get a copy of Bill Cosby’s new book, and start reading.
The only thing that would have been loud is the sound of my cries as a belt/switch/shoe tore my ass up if I got “a bit raucous” in church. I can just see my mother giving me that, “try it. I dare you” look that some black mother patented a century ago.
Thank. You. I can’t even imagine ever acting up in church. EVER. The assumption that all black kids go to church also qualifies as cultural ignorance.