Nonetheless, it would be historically incorrect (and opinion polls taken at that time support my argument) to assume that a majority of white Americans did not harbor some racist attitudes towards black Americans at that time. It is clear from Michael Richards' outburst that some Americans still do but I doubt if Richards, for example, supports siccing German Shepard dogs on black school children.
It's the second sentence that you almost never hear from the politics that says 'never let whitey off the hook'. It shouldn't be surprising that a substantial number of dysfunctional whitefolks hold to those politics as well. Welcome to contemporary liberal politics. Still, PT makes the very important distinction between racism and bigotry. It's something more of us should do.
Yesterday on the way home, I figured out a way to podcast. Turn on the radio for five minutes and then turn it off and let me rant. Maybe I'll get around to it, maybe not. What kicked it off was some caller to Michael Medved who represented himself as a black professional who lived in the Oakland Hills and spoke about how he was subjected to the racism of being accused of being the gardener at his own home, and how his children had to suffer through that every day. There are three simple solutions to that. The first is to hire a gardener. The second is to undo your childhood in small-town Mississippi. The third is to count your blessings. But the caller was not predisposed to the easy solutions, and I'm sure that although there are many black psychologists in the Bay Area, he probably isn't going to spend the money on Solution #2. Otherwise, where would his politics go?
I haven't gone over it in a while, but I should remind us of the
differences between racism and bigotry. Racism is what you believe to
be true in your head. It is an ideology that has to be consistent.
You've got to believe some fairly significant things about race to be a
racist.
Most Americans understand the dynamics of race enough to not say "I have no idea" when asked very specific questions about race. And so it's not particularly difficult to figure out if somebody is racist or not. But when you deal with the mental, if you're in the area when you are considering if somebody 'harbors racist attitudes' well.. let's parse those words in a Catholic sense.
All Catholics know that there are sins of commission and sins of omission. Things you have done and things you have failed to do. Over here at Cobb, we say than an enemy is someone who doesn't care if you fail. So let us suggest that one who harbors racist attitudes is guilty of a sin of omission in that they don't care if someone else is treated like a nigger. OK? Good.
Now lets look to the matter of bigotry.
A bigot is a racist with a dog in the game. You don't qualify as a bigot if you don't care one way or another. Bigotry requires action. Just harboring racist attitudes doesn't cut it in bigot-land. You got to walk the walk, not just mumble the words. For example. The civility and ultimate usefulness of legendary Usenet group, soc.culture.african.american was destroyed by the active bigotry of racist flamers there who derailed every conversation they could. They came back time after time and acted out an agenda of bigotry. Not to complicate matters much, but it doesn't really matter if they believed in a theory of genetic supremacy, because nobody online in the forum ever showed their faces. It could not be proven that they were white and we were black. The point is that their destructive actions spoke for themselves. A bigot is not satisfied until the object of his scorn pays a price just for existing.
People who accuse Michael Richards of bigotry are wrong. People who accuse Mel Gibson of bigotry are wrong. When Michael Richards says, "I am not a racist", I believe him. But I do not believe he is innocent of sin.
Everyday, or at least every time somebody gets offended, we hear somebody intone reverently that 'Racism still exists in America'. That's a bold statement. Really? Ya think? What they really mean to say is that most people 'harbor racist attitudes' and depending on one's faith in one's fellow man that either means 'It's all in your head' or 'all hell can break loose next week and we'll all be back in chains'. For a nation that pledges to judge people by the content of their character we have to admit to being rather poor judges. Surely there are folks who don't feel any benefit of any doubt is due, but that's their problem. Our problem is to keep a nuanced differentiation of the various offenses so that we can keep the extreme squawking to a minimum. You can't compare Richards to Bull Connor to Hitler to the woman who clutched her purse the other day at the supermarket.
The very least you can do is distinguish between thoughts and deeds. You can hold racist thoughts in your head. That's your safe harbor. You can actually *be* a racist. It's not a crime to be immoral. But when you act, be prepared to get called on it. Because as much as people like to say that America is a racist country, it is not. It is a country with a history of the worst kind of bigotry imaginable and a fair amount of it persists. But it was neither founded on racist grounds, nor could it survive as such. And so we are constitutionally bound to combat bigotry rather than to encourage it. And it is the actions of Americans to end all that bigotry that has redeemed and continues to redeem this nation. Every day we're calling out the names of people who disgrace us.
Every sin of omission and commission is seen by God, but while we are on Earth our justice cannot approach His. It would be foolish to attempt to cleanse America of sin or of sinners. We would self-destruct. What we can and must do is strive towards righteousness and count our blessings. If you have a problem with that, perhaps you ought to see your doctor.
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