I am an avid reader of a local blog by Sheila Kennedy. She is extremely well informed on local and national issues, a clear and concise writer and a reformed Republican. Here is a link to today's (Sept. 1st) blog if you would like to see an example: https://www.sheilakennedy.net/2016/09/voting-my-conscience/
By and large her readers are bright, liberal and up on current events. I enjoy their thoughts and comments and occasionally comment myself. Therein is the germ of this post.
One commentator, a teacher in the Indianapolis school system, said he was unable to understand why a black student could hate him simply because he was white. In (what I thought was) a helpful reply I suggested he should read James Cone's A Black Theology of Liberation, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, James Baldwin's essay The Fire Next Time and a couple of other titles in the hope that they might help him understand the attitude of the student.
My suggestions didn't make him happy. He basically told me to go jump. He took it all as criticism and not an effort to help. Let me explain why that bothered me so much as it did.
There is a race problem in this country. Blacks don't trust whites. What is more to the point is that they probably shouldn't. Whites have screwed the black population of this country from jump street and, despite the best efforts of a few well meaning folks (count me as one, I hope) prejudice still runs rampant.
Most whites have no clue as to why Blacks are angry. "Slavery ended years ago," they say. "We passed the Civil Rights Act," they say. "We elected a black president," they say. "I never owned slaves," they say, etc., etc., etc..
Those sincere(?) comments mean nothing to African Americans who are still stopped by police, hurt by police, insulted by police and others every day. They mean nothing to the parents of a child who has to be warned "NEVER run through a white neighborhood," or "ALWAYS keep your hands in sight around a policeman." They mean nothing when one in every three black males will eventually do jail time, when the prisons are jammed with blacks sent away for marijuana possession and young white rapists walk after ridiculously short sentences or "affluenza" (read "spoiled white kid") is cited by a judge as sufficient reason for sentencing a white teen to ten years probation after his drunken driving spree (without a license) killed four people and seriously injured others. Here is a link--you really have to watch this to believe it: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/hear-teen-affluenza-drunk-driving-defense-34516612
Did you watch it? Imagine some poor black kid using the defense that "he was raised so poor that he didn't know right from wrong."
Blacks hear, and hate, the phrase, "Black on black" crime. Like there isn't "White on white" crime? Sheesh. We just never hear it phrased that way. Why? Because we are, consciously or unconsciously, racists.
"Wait," you say, Blacks are racist, too." Fair enough. They should be. They have damn good reasons. It isn't up to Blacks to prove to us they are worthy of our trust--it is the other way around. We were never slaves, lynched by mobs, shamed by Jim Crow, harried by police, jailed in ridiculous numbers, and now, victims of voting law changes hell-bent on keeping blacks from voting.
Did you catch my use of "our trust" in the above paragraph? It is there because I'm white. A friend of mine, also white, once said, "It is a tribute to the character of blacks that they haven't all risen up and killed us in our sleep." He was right.
Do you disagree? Well I suggest you read the books/essays suggested above. Others, too. Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Malcolm X's autobiography, Fredrick Douglas' Slave Narratives. Get through those and you will only BEGIN to understand. But at least you will have a start.
It is time we own up to our (read "whitefolks") race problem and got serious about fixing it. We should begin with a heartfelt apology and real repentance. And then it will still take years before we change. But, my friends, it is the right thing, and we just may find it will be well worth the effort.
No comments:
Post a Comment