Touching The Third Rail

This may seem a bit disjointed as it was written over the course of three days sitting in outside in a tent in the Florida sun, baking my brain. If so, I apologize.

You know, I read articles like the one I recently noted about the NAACP complaining about the "Caucasian Club" that some high school student wanted to start and I begin to ask myself: just how much of an issue is racism, and will we ever fully eliminate it?

Now I'm not trying to deny that racism exists, or to claim that it isn't a problem, I just question whether or not it's as serious as groups like the NAACP or MEChA would like us to believe. I also question if the true problem is still white on black racism, or if it has shifted.

Since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, the country has made significant progress in the realm of white on black racism. Even in the Deep South, it is no longer acceptable social practice to call someone a "nigger" or a "darkie" or any of the other racial epitaphs that used to be part of the everyday vocabulary - even of the little kids. Racially based jury nullifications are nearly non-existent anymore. The Klan has gone from being a social institution viewed in the same light as the Boy Scouts or the Salvation Army to being a group that is vilified just slightly less than the Nazi Party. Lynchings have become so uncommon as to be a huge event when they do happen. Blacks are no longer prejudicially dismissed as job applicants due to their skin color. In those regards, and many others, things have significantly improved.

Of course, there are still some folks who have no clue when it comes to racial harmony. There are still some white folks who view every black as a mugger, a thief or a rapist. There are still some white folks who would deny even the existence of a black person based solely on the color of their skin. We certainly have not achieved anything near nirvanic perfection, but we're also not in a time of open and violent racism either.

But what about the reverse, black on white racism? Where do we stand on that?

I don't think that we're really making progress in that arena. In fact, I believe that an argument could be made that we are actually regressing.

To give an example, my kids ride a small little school bus with maybe 15 kids total. Out of those 15 kids, 9 are black. Now we really don't care that 9 of the kids are black. Every morning I still bring the kids down to get on the bus to go to school. We figure that it's healthy for them. Gives them an opportunity to interact with other kids who may be of a different background than ours. Sounds great right?

Well, it is - sometimes. We have a real problem, however, with one of the black parents who is hyper sensitive to any perceived racist comment. She has accused every white child on the bus of being a racist bigot (understand that most of these kids are haven't made it to the third grade yet). The other day, a first grader was telling a friend on the bus that a seat was a "white seat." Now, as it turns out, the seat has White Out on it. But this parent, rather than maybe discreetly saying something to the offender's parents, went off the chain. She got up on the front step of the bus after everyone was on and proceeded to scream at and berate the kids on the bus for being racist. She riled up one of the black fathers to the point that he got on the bus and was pounding on the handrail while screaming at the kids. And then, as the bus left, both of the screamers were standing there laughing, presumably at the hilariousness of their terrification of the kids.

And it's not as if we're in a position to be able to go to the school and register a complaint about this. These parents have already gone to the school claiming racism on the bus. If we complain, then the kids suffer the consequences of being labeled by the school as racist kids in need of intervention, which they most certainly are not. Heck, they're just barely old enough to consciously realize that there is a difference in pigmentation between them and some of the other kids. We try to do everything we can to raise them with good judgment, but without prejudice. But now we can't feel comfortable putting our kids on the school bus in the morning, not because of racism, but because they might unfairly be branded as racists, a tag which would be long lasting in the school system around here.

Of course, this is all just based on personal observation. Maybe I've been affected by the one bad apple of the bunch, but I kind of doubt it. Certainly not all blacks are racist any more than all whites are, but I do believe that the problem is more prevalent than some people would like to admit.

I believe that part of the reason for the rise in black on white racism is due to the unintended consequences of affirmative action. Some blacks, as characterized by the NAACP, feel as though everything is due to them - that they have an entitlement to special favor. But in an ironic way, by demanding and receiving these entitlements, they are only perpetuating many of the stereotypes that lead to racism.

I recently read an article (I'll try to track it down again) which pointed out that the federal government employs blacks almost three times as frequently as demographics would indicate that they should. But generally, the blacks in the government tend to hold the lower level positions, while the whites (who are the most significantly underrepresented demographic in the federal government) tend to rise to management positions more rapidly. Think about the unconscious effect that this might have.

Certainly we are all aware of the real and perceived ineptitude of federal employees. We've all at some point ran into an unaccountable front line government employee who either provides flat out wrong information, misleading information, or answers a question we never asked while ignoring the one we did. Often times when they provide this erroneous information, they do so with a command of the English language that is normally only associated with the ghetto. Quite often, it is easy to identify the black government employees simply from their dialect.

And generally, when you do complain, you end up speaking to a manager who is white.

The end effect is a subconscious reinforcement of the stereotype that the front line blacks mess things up and that the whites in management are there to clean up the mistakes and make things right. You also have a subconscious reinforcement of servitude, that the whites are the group that is in control and that the blacks are there simply to serve the wishes and desires of the whites.

There are certainly more than a few blacks who don't fit this profile, just as there are more than a few whites who don't either. But the unintended consequence of the hiring of blacks out of proportion in the federal government is to create exactly this type of environment.

But all in all, I don't really view black/white racism as a huge issue these days. I see there being more a of problem with Hispanic racism, both against and by.

I can only comment on the Hispanics I see here in Florida, which are primarily either Cuban or Puerto Rican. And I must also preface this by pointing out that there are huge differences in the degree of racism found among Hispanics. Some are nearly as colorblind as Martin Luther King's dream envisioned; others can make the Klan look like the Rotary Club. The degree of variation found within the Hispanic community, I believe, points to the fact that the ideas of integration, assimilation and racial harmony are relatively new concepts as compared to the blacks and the whites. They will eventually achieve the same degree of harmonization as whites and blacks currently enjoy, but it is going to take some time to achieve.

For Hispanics, the biggest impediment to racial harmony that I see is the absolute refusal to use the English language except when absolutely necessary. Their use of Spanish in any setting, regardless of the type of company in that setting, is one of the worst Balkanizers in America today. There are many Hispanics who are segregating themselves willingly by refusing to adapt to the general society.

Nations that are divided cannot thrive and have trouble being able to survive. The private industry boom of the last 30-40 years is due not only to technological advances, but is also partially attributable to the fact that black/white racism was reduced allowing for a more efficient use of intellectual resources. The federal government and its inborn inefficiency, is a beautiful case study for what happens when institutionalized racism - of any type - is allowed to persist.

Our biggest racist obstacle facing us today as a society is racism for or against Hispanics. And the potential damage to our society is even greater than it has been in the past because we are not only dividing along pigmentation lines, but we are also beginning to divide among linguistic lines. Rome may have become reached its zenith as a multi-lingual empire, but no world player since has successfully been able to negotiate the associated issues. Canada has probably handled the issues best and they are still wracked every few years by a Quebecois separatist movement. Linguistic separatism is the solvent that dissolves the bonds of societal unity.

I'm not trying to slam the diversity movements or the "save our cultures" crowd. Both have some very valid uses and our society is made richer by assimilation of diverse viewpoints and the selective adaptation of the strengths of other cultures. They only help to make our own culture that much better, that much stronger and that much more resilient.

It is when those movements morph over into racist movements that I have a problem with them. America is founded on a uniquely American culture. We may adopt better practices and we may welcome folks from other cultural backgrounds, but ultimately, America is America because of our culture. Those who wish to replace the culture that we have developed over the last 225+ years don't wish to make us better, they only wish to destroy us and to tear us down.

Their primary tool is racism. As such, we will never be able to fully eliminate it as there will always be those who wish to destroy us from within. It's just such a shame that they have to corrupt the names of well-intended organizations like the NAACP and ACLU, just like they are attempting to corrupt our language.