SYMBOLISM
Symbolism Racism
In a nation which lives and operates within a complex network of systems, systemic racism means that racism can be found within all of those systems.
Justice.
Education.
Healthcare.
Housing
Financial
Wherever you look systems that work in one way or other for so many Americans fail most people of color.
And since the Founding Fathers never even considered counting the slaves they had purchased as citizens, perhaps even as people, they certainly were not counted within the Constitutional promises of equality and the humane promises of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As a result, we have spent four hundred years fundamentally overlooking what people of color have felt and experienced as “lesser” Americans all these years since.
As a nation we do not see it, feel it, consider it. And so we are where we are.
In these difficult days following the continued murder of black men in the streets of our cities by Police, Americans everywhere seek some way to express their feelings – whether of guilt or outrage or simple humanity in whatever way they can. They do not comprehend that without meaning to they are taking the easy way out of four hundred years of suppression, non-recognition, simple disinterest and fundamental injustice.
And by so doing, will fail.
We see well-meaning America going after the symbols of repression rather than the systems that do damage and must be changed.
And that’s understandable because destroying the symbols of hate and disinterest is much easier and quicker than changing the systems themselves.
And because destroying those symbols can be done now in the midst of all of the public protests, and newly brave political decisions and endless media coverage, while systemic change will take years, decades, generations, perhaps even centuries…the easy way seems natural and clearly expedient.
After all “they” will see we want change, that we do care, that we are on their side and want the murders and brutality to stop. Won’t they?
And so no more Aunt Jemima. No more Uncle Ben’s rice. No more “Gone With the Wind on HBO. No more statues of Confederate Generals. No more Confederate flags at speedways.
And maybe no more choke holds allowed.
And maybe get rid of certain groups within big city Police Departments designed to encourage the rough handling of suspected criminals.
And very generous dollar grants to black colleges for scholarships.
And this is just the beginning…there’s so much more that can be done like this.
Will they all matter in the long run?
Certainly to the well-meaning but maybe not to the people who have lived the life. They see it for what it is.
The easy way out.
REALITY
After the riots and marches and the impact of Martin Luther King, Jr on the consciousness of America, The Kennedy-LBJ success at passage of the Civil Rights bill and the Voting Acts bill brought this response from MLK: it was the cheapest, easiest way for white America…t cost them nothing…
We know that if we examine each of the systems mentioned above we will see obvious behavioral differences which easily prove that they might work for white America but not for black America.
We could review each system but all the examples are familiar –justice is anything but blind: look at the population in prisons: look at the family backgrounds of cops in major cities and see how attitudes never change;
We know that segregated education still exists and that NYC has the most segregated school system in America; while the facts show that our public school system has failed, it has failed for those in poor communities far more significantly than in wealthy ones;
We know the cost of healthcare and what happens when you cannot afford it. It is no secret that the pandemic is killing people of color at a stunning ratio to whites and we know why;
We know that so many of the problems of NYCHA housing exist throughout America and there are no significant grants to fix roofs or anything else;
We know which people gets loans from banks and which don’t.
You can quibble about each of these but the facts overwhelm.
So let’s get more direct. Let’s understand that getting rid of systemic racism is not going to be done now. It is going to take a long time and it must start with each of us.
What you do not understand you cannot feel. And if you have no feeling, there is little or no reason to understand.
How many white drivers feel genuine fear when a policeman stops them for some infraction? How many are asked to get out of their cars, while the officer inspects the interior, the glove compartment, the trunk? How many are asked how they can afford the car they are driving?
How many white joggers are stopped by a police car and asked to lie down on the ground as they are searched because someone in a neighborhood has been robbed and the jogger looks like the possible robber?
Think about this: college educated white people earn significantly more than college educated black people. The promise that a college education offers the sky as the limit only works for whites say the statistics.
And this: the fear in black people increases the higher up the economic ladder they climb. Meaning this: climb out of a black neighborhood and the fear for your life in a white one increases.
How well could you live in that reality?
THE TRUTH
Where does racism come from?
Let’s remember the Rogers and Hammerstein song from South Pacific which reminds us that we are taught to hate.
What did your parents think about people of color? What were the attitudes in your home and when did you become aware of them?
Music…jazz… brought them together. One, black was already studying it We will call him R…the other, white, wanted to.: we will call him M. They listened to records together at college. They got close enough to decide to have lunch in each other’s homes.
Eating lunch at R’s, M received a very polite but cold reception. After hello, R’s Mom said nothing else.
R received a very warm reception from M’s Mom…smiles, a quiet chat and a lovely lunch.
When R left, M turned to see his Mother throw away the plate, glass, knife and fork used by R … throw them all in the garbage can.
He said nothing. She said nothing. But he knew then about how his Mother felt about color; his Dad was kinder, gentler about it. Yet both used the term “schvartze” the Yiddish term for people of color…it was not meant admiringly.
The young men went their own way in time and graduated without much contact in their last two years.
R went on to become a successful professional jazz pianist and teacher. M is writing this piece.
We see, we hear, we know and we either follow our parent’s lead or go our own way.
But it starts there. If you are a New York or Chicago or Boston cop, the chances of your Father, uncle and grandfather being one is enormous. Their attitudes reflect those of generations of police in large cities. They easily become yours.
Nothing is accidental. There is cause and effect. Changing a mind is one kind of challenge; changing a generational heart is something else.
But without it, on a national basis, all of this today will result as it has before and before and before in little or nothing for America.
A comment or two on racial nomenclature:
It seems that “people of color” has replaced “colored people.” Is the former deemed more polite? At least the NAACP’s title has remained intact. Since all people have color, we’re all colored people. Black people aren’t black and white people aren’t white.