In recent years I have noticed what I believe to be an increase in racist behavior here in the United States. This behavior is often quite subtle and frequently connected to some political activity that is taking place, especially since President Obama was elected, so it is appropriate to write about it here.
I want to offer a disclaimer right up front that I am white, I am male, and there is much I don’t know about racism, not the least of which is that I have never been the target of racist behavior. That said, I think I can identify racism when I see it most of the time because it is really just a special case of prejudice and I am sure I have witnessed prejudice along my way through life.
There are two types of racism that I hear talked about – overt and covert. Overt racism has been demonstrated recently by a rancher in Nevada named Bundy when he said in an interview that he thought “The Negro” might have been “better off as slaves” than “under government subsidy.” Covert racism would be different in that he would think it, but he would not say it. If these thoughts were harbored by a covert racist, we might witness behaviors that seem inconsistent with the person we have come to know.
I think it is worth a few moments of our time to examine why Mr. Bundy’s comments were racist and not just casual conversation. First, he inappropriately lumps all African-Americans together when he referred to “the Negro.” We don’t know what he supposedly witnessed, but he speaks as if the characteristics of one person could be extrapolated to all the members of the race. The reverse situation would be if somebody once observed a man named Bundy who was lazy and then decided that all men named Bundy were lazy. Mr. Bundy would probably argue vehemently that he is not lazy and any such assertion to that affect is ludicrous and he would be right to do so yet, he freely uses the same thought process when talking about others. Mr. Bundy also implies in his comment that he believes all African-Americans are the recipients of some form of government subsidy and we know that is not true either so it also crosses the line into racism.
Prejudice, and more specifically racism, is manifested when a particular characteristic of a person is used, without any personal knowledge, to decide something about a group of people. My Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition offers the following:
1prej·u·dice n [ME, fr. AF, fr. L praejudicium previous judgment, damage, fr. prae- + judicium judgment more at judicial] (13c) 1 : injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one’s rights; esp : detriment to one’s legal rights or claims 2 a (1) : preconceived judgment or opinion (2) : an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge 2 b : an instance of such judgment or opinion 2 c : an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics
For me, “preconceived judgment or opinion” pretty much says everything I need to know – prejudice involves judgment on the basis of no facts. In other words, prejudice has its foundation in ignorance. When President Obama was asked about the comments by Mr. Bundy, he said something to the effect that if someone wants to advertise their ignorance we should just let them talk. I have a poster about Murphy’s Law hanging on my den wall and one of the corollaries states “never argue with a fool, people might not know the difference.” That corollary conveys much the same message as President Obama.
It is worth noting that racism is a form of prejudice, but not all prejudice is racism. I’m sure that everyone can find a memory about some prejudicial behavior that didn’t involve race. Some other common groups would include gender, or religious beliefs, or occupational identifiers. Sometimes the prejudice is hurtful and sometimes it is not, but it is always something to avoid because it is unfair and demonstrates ignorance. So if we can identify prejudice when we see it, we have some idea what racism must look and feel like and we know it is bad on all levels.
There is another form of racism we read about as well – systemic racism. Systemic racism is usually evidenced by some form of analysis which indicates that a particular racial group is not represented equitably within a population. Regulations which are supposed to be administered fairly and equally can be shown to have produced a result that is racially disparate. In other words, regulations that were supposed to treat all persons equally somehow produced an unequal result.
I don’t think that systemic racism necessarily requires a racist administrator to achieve a racist outcome, but racist behavior within any administration will certainly produce a racist outcome. Instead, I believe that systemic racism can take place when all the administrators were acting fairly and equally as they did their work.
This is where the argument comes in that says the attempts to correct systemic racism are themselves racist with respect to the majority groups involved. College admission policies have been in the news lately because of this legal question and the United States Supreme Court seems to want their cake and eat it too. Systemic racism is wrong, but attempts to correct systemic racism are also wrong because they are racist. So, if I get this right, the court is telling the colleges to be fair and equal in their admissions policy, but don’t use any unfair or unequal measures to achieve a fair and equal result.
Here’s an idea – the College admission procedures should be administered by a group of people (a board or a staff) who’s demographic reflects the demographic of the population that College is attempting to serve. Then just throw all the applications out on the table and let them do their work. We don’t know which applicants will accept admission and which will decide not to so the final demographics may be skewed, but the process was as fair and equal as we could make it.
Another thought I would leave behind deals with the overt and covert nature of racism. Consider what happens if an overt racist becomes a covert racist? Said differently, what do we observe if an overt racist goes underground? After you have given that idea some quality thought time, I would ask you to consider how far have we really come in our Civil Rights struggle?
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