Reflections on racism, forgiveness — and redemption

previously published in the Terre Haute Tribune-Star, 3 March 2019

Now that the dust has settled regarding the blackface scandals among the Virginia Democrat political leadership, what’s come of it? Gov. Northam is still in power, though diminished. Several weeks ago a commentator remarked about how so many white people are no doubt trying to scrub their yearbooks, Facebook, and other sources for any evidence of blackface. Those searches are probably either completed or now forgotten, threat over. The new anger de jure is directed at something that did or did not happen at the Academy Awards.

A couple of weeks ago I listened to a discussion lead by Joshua Johnson of NPR’s 1A radio program about the history of and use of blackface and other black images for the entertainment and product branding by white entertainers and business people. It’s worth your time to listen and can be found here: www.npr.org/2019/02/08/692759371/the-news-roundup-for-february-8-2019.

Near the end of the segment, Mr. Johnson raised the question of “white redemption,” that is, when can someone like Gov. Northam, who is exposed to have engaged in racist behavior, claim to, or be, redeemed? This discussion did not go too far, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Is it possible for a politician, public figure, really anyone, especially if they are white, to survive something like this? Gov. Northam has not resigned. The Virginia Black Legislative Caucus met and decided he should step down, but fell short of demanding it. Would that be the same response if the governor were a Republican? Does party matter or is it something about Gov. Northam’s “total body of work” that mitigates in some way his medical college yearbook photos and the activity memorialized in those photos?

Gov. Northam was to start a “reconciliation tour” but has delayed it. I’m confident that the public relations firm that Gov. Northam hired is behind the idea of a “reconciliation tour” and if they are worth their fee they will not have Gov. Northam trying to moonwalk.

I wonder what Gov. Northam has said in private, if anything. He is reported to be a member and regular attendee at the First Baptist Church of Capeville, a predominately black church. Almost immediately Pastor Kelvin Jones and congregants gave him “another chance.” That is a very different response than national white Democrat leaders who called for Northam’s immediate resignation.

White Democrat leaders are unforgiving while Gov. Northam’s pastor and fellow Baptists are willing to give him another chance. Another chance to do what? To not wear blackface? To not have another picture from 30-plus years ago emerge with compromising content? If Gov. Northam screws up his second chance, will he be shunned at church? Asked to leave the congregation? Asked to resign the governorship?

What does redemption look like for most of us, the “us” not in the public eye? First, who grants the redemption? Our white friends who may worry that being friends with someone who wore blackface or did racist things 30 years ago might reflect on them? Those who think all this is just PC liberal “gotcha” moralizing? Or is it our African American friends, colleagues and neighbors who we look to for redemption? For that “another chance” to not do something? Most of us really don’t have African American friends, colleagues or neighbors, given how race so effectively segregates us both physically and socially. So, this is a challenge. That Gov. Northam worships with African Americans says something, I think.

In January, I had a reunion with my two of my college roommates. It had been 38 years since I had seen SN. I was startled when he told us his first memory of me. It involved matters of race. I didn’t recall it, even after he told the story. I don’t deny it; I suspect that it happened because I know, at 17, an only child, I was apprehensive about living with a person who I didn’t know and afraid that he might be black. Fear is the heart of racism.

After several weeks of thinking about this I don’t have any answers. I do have one suggestion. Don’t make excuses for past behavior. Own it. If you are embarrassed/ashamed/feeling guilty by it today, why weren’t you then? That should say something about the path you have been on.

You may not have been very conscious of your path, but you can reflect on it now. And maybe achieve some level of redemption.

Thomas L. Steiger is a professor of sociology and director of the Center for Student Research and Creativity at Indiana State University. Email: thomas.steiger@indstate.edu.

Demographic shifts disrupt majority-minority status

Previously published 7 April 2018 by the Terre Haute Tribune Star

Over the last month or so, I have read and heard stories about the changing demographics of the United States. The term “minority-majority” is common in those reports. Even Wikipedia has an entry for majority-minority: “A majority–minority or minority–majority area is a term used in the United States to refer to a jurisdiction in which one or more racial and/or ethnic minorities (relative to the whole country's population) make up a majority of the local population.”

A search of the term produces many reports, especially over the last two years with headlines such as “10 percent of U.S. counties now majority-minority,” “US to be majority-minority by 2044,” “post-recession generation to be majority-minority.”

I guess it makes for good headlines to use such terms but it certainly isn’t helpful as the United States’ demographics change. Indeed, it is this kind of headline and framing that drives the uneasiness that is driving so much of the reactionary policies of our current politics.

In a racist society that constructs in-groups and out-groups based on physical or cultural differences, the dominant group, which may be a numerical majority as in the United States, will predictably be unnerved and feel threatened as “minority” groups gain more equal status, including numerically. For such groups, “equality” feels like discrimination.

My issue with the use of “majority-minority” is that it encourages that fear of greater equality.

Think about what the use of “majority-minority” assumes; it assumes that any white person has more in common with any other white person than any person of “minority” status. This line of thinking reduces all white folks to essentially the same things just as it also reduces others to the same-but essentially different than white folks. Indeed, constructing things in that way, makes it even harder for individuals to rise above the simplistic, inherently racist categories to create meaningful and positive human relationships, or for those who must see some kind of economic value in everything “social capital.”

The use of “minority-majority” also assumes that all “minorities” are the same, too. Adopting this usage forces the assumption that all minorities are the same. African-Americans are not the same as Latin/a Americans nor are they the same as Chinese Americans. The paradox is that using minority-majority actually pushes minority members to view each other as more similar than to the majority.

If demographic patterns hold out, whites will go from a majority to the plurality. Whites will still be the largest single racial/cultural group. To the extent that “white” preferences for foods, entertainment, fashion, and so forth are homogeneous, their market power will continue to dominate, because the “minority” is indeed not homogeneous in their preferences. Many share similar preferences that white folks do.

I suspect this is not the first time in our history that “whites” faced a similar demographic situation. (Of course we did not have the 24/7 media coverage of such things then.) From 1820 to 1860 the U.S. population almost doubled, and that doubling came from immigration. 31 million people immigrated to the U.S. in that 40-year period. And, given who was considered “white” then, many of the people who today are considered white were not then — the Irish, Eastern Europeans, Greeks, Italians and others.

Over time, however, definitions changed and they became “white.” Don’t be surprised if current racial definitions change and these trends change. Of course that means those currently “white” will be joined by some who are not considered “white” now. This, too, is predictable when such racial/cultural classifications signify inequalities individuals will look to “move” up into the dominant groups.

It is up to us. For me, the “dominant” group in the United States are its citizens. It’s too bad that is a minority viewpoint.

Worldwide, ‘white culture’ seems to have strong hold

Previously published in the Terre Haute Tribune Star (April 4, 2010)

TERRE HAUTE — I grew up in a tourist town. Like all tourist towns, the locals had a love-hate relationship with the tourists. My parents didn’t care for the tourists (even though they had once been tourists themselves, Midwesterners, they honeymooned on a Florida beach and ended up staying forever). I, however, found tourists to be fascinating. As a child, I recall meeting people with strange accents in our library. As I grew older and was able to get to the beach resorts, I’d try to meet visitors from faraway places.

When I am the tourist, I care less about that which draws tourists (theme park, beautiful beaches, mountain vistas, ancient temples) than the possibility of meeting interesting people. Unlike most people at a theme park who hate standing in long lines, I don’t mind. It gives me a chance to talk to others who I otherwise would never have a chance to meet. Of course, this is hard because most people are not like me, they are more interested in the upcoming four minutes of thrill ride, than in meeting new people.

After my weeklong academic conference in Bangkok in February, I extended my trip with three days of touring Ankgor Wat, the ancient temple complex outside Siem Reap, Cambodia. This is the largest temple complex in the world (so the local tourism ministry tells us). In three days of touring ancient temples, I took about 1,000 pictures of fascinating testaments to humanity’s ability to construct monuments to its deities and earthbound rulers.

While I appreciate the experience of the ruins, the head-scratching moments (“and they didn’t have cranes”) pales in comparison to the chance to meet interesting people. And in Siem Reap, most of the people didn’t speak English (at least not as their first language) and that means I’m in a target-rich environment to meet people with different experiences and different perspectives than me.

Anyone who has traveled with me knows that I quiz taxi drivers, waiters, first mates on snorkel boats, and just about anyone who I can, about their “story.” How did “you” come to be here now? We hired a guide in Siem Reap and I asked him how he learned English, how he came to be a tour guide, what his future plans were. He graciously answered my questions. I met many people at the conference, several with whom I am having e-mail conversations. They know about my gentle prodding curiosity into their lives. It is an occupational hazard, sociologists are unapologetic about their burning curiosity into the “ways” of people.

I met a “farang” (Western foreigner) couple at one of the temples we were “exploring.” He stood out. Over 6 feet tall, with gleaming white hair, he was speaking Khmer to the children selling postcards and drinks to we hot and flagging temple tourists. He made the children laugh and he was having a good time doing it. His wife, too, spoke a little Khmer. He spoke to our guide and switched to French. I said something and he looked at me, switched to English and said “American?”

His English was tinged with a German accent. I asked him how he came to know Khmer. He told me he knew many languages, that he was conversant in 11 different languages. I guessed right, he was in the foreign service. He told me that he had a facility with language, that he found it easy to pick up new languages. He was retired now, living in France. Both he and his wife were very pleasant. As we talked, I thought, perhaps we could meet them later in Siem Reap for a drink.

And then “it” happened. This remarkably gifted person, who, despite his modesty at learning language, clearly put the effort out to learn 11 different languages and understood the importance of language and of making the effort to respect and engage people of other cultures by learning their language and culture, looked right at our guide, and said to us: “You know, white people and white culture will soon be gone. Your people, the Asians are taking over the world. There will be no more white skin, there will be no more white culture.”

I’m surprised he didn’t Sieg Heil at the end of that. He said this with a most genuine and warm smile on his face. I think he then repeated it in Khmer, just in case the children and our guide didn’t understand.

Born 10 to 15 years earlier, he might have been a Hitler Youth Camp Counselor, but given his aristocratic bearing more likely a high ranking SS officer.

I don’t know if he registered our shock. I wondered something a bit different about him. I told him that I was of German heritage and told him my last name. I know what it means in German and his reaction was what I expected. He mumbled something to the effect that “language changes over time,” broke off our conversation and walked off, with a gracious goodbye.

Three minutes before I thought here is a terrific example of the future in a globalized society. People will have to become culturally competent across many language and cultural boundaries. I was even thinking, could I learn Thai beyond the ability to order food in a restaurant or tell a taxi driver where to take me? Could I learn enough to ask one of my new Thai colleagues their story and understand it in Thai?

This German world citizen is wrong. Neither “white culture” or white people are going to disappear. “It” and “we” might, however, share some shelf space. The economic and military superiority of “white culture” is a recent historical event. The impact of freer trade is evident in the countries we visited. Indeed, the hunger for “white culture” as Herr Rassistische (translate in Google Translator if you wish) would call it, is evident everywhere we went in Thailand and Cambodia. Right down to the desire for Frau Rassistische’s alabaster white skin.

I suspect that the Amer-Asian children and grandchildren left behind by American soldiers fighting in Vietnam have now found new status as the preferred image for Thai and other Asian societies. The cosmetics industry is clearly geared that way. Last week the Thai government appointed someone to examine the claims made by various cosmetics products to lighten skin as fraud and into possible negative health effects of these treatments. Entertainment is heavily influenced by American and European trends.

I went to a Thai nightclub called the German Brewery. It was a Haufbrauhaus Thai style. This wasn’t a place for Germans weary of Tom Yum soup. This was a nightclub catering to Thai tourists, best as I could tell. While the music was not German, the entertainment was definitely more American with Thais adding their lemongrass and chiles. We even sang and danced to “YMCA.”

“White culture” disappearing? To me it looks like, through the airwaves, global travel and the Internet, that far from disappearing, “white culture” (and even the crude notion of white skin) is far from disappearing, it is proliferating. And along with it is that concept of white superiority. Too bad we can’t get beyond such crude rankings.

What are these folks clinging to? Religion? Guns?

This remarkable article in WaPo. If you haven't read it, plesae do so now. It is about the racism that Obama field workers have encountered on the campaign trail. And be sure to read the 3000+ comments the article has generated on WaPo website and it is unbridled, much of it.

While I know politicians want people to vote for them, which poiticians want to court the vile racist vote?

I was disappointed in Sen. Clinton for trafficing in this. And McCain? Those types are mostly likely to vote for him anyway. I hope he is proud of that.

In a nation that is about choice, in a nation that would find the Muslim beliefs that you are born a Muslim and can't ever leave the religion (if you do, you can be executed as we have seen already), that we don't look at Sen. Obama for his accomplishments. I think he is surprised more people don't see it.

Of all the racist remarks I have heard, and I live in Indiana, one of the towns where a bomb threat was phoned in for the Obama HQ, is the one that if Sen. Obama wins, African Americans will be given everything and Whites will suffer. What has Sen. Obama been given? Isn't his path, through education, through merit, achievement, what is the American ideal? Oh, yeah, there is hte anti-intellectual aspects of the US, our current President probably being one of the best examples. Anyway, what a role model for anyone...Sen. Oboama, but especially for African American men. Egads, imagine what "Barack Obama" had to put up with. Yet, he persevered. That is a remarkable characteristic. Just as Sen. McCain has shown. And Sen. Clinton.

Read the article.

Discussing Race

There is a remarkable discussion at this blog. It starts with an incediary comment by Pat Buchanan which I reproduce below:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here
that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a
community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the
greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.
Wright
ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no
people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold
trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent
supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services,
Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the
African-American community into the mainstream.
...We hear the grievances.
Where is the gratitude?

A reader of this blog then added this comment on the developing discussion that was on how to even discuss race in America today:

I am a white guy. Raised in Virginia and South Carolina ... old enough to
remember "white only" water fountains and bathrooms and schools and churches. I
now live in California after a sojourn in Alaska. So let's talk about race, Pam.
I get you that the righties just don't get it and Sen Obama does. I think the
Clintons "get it" too. But that is not really the discussion that needs to take
place, is it.
It is one thing to describe the problem and another to
describe the proposed solutions to date (as Buchanan attempted - really tacky
that he termed "race" as a poverty issue in my book) But let's narrow the
discussion from "race" to white and blacks in the USA in 2008 and beyond. Let's
leave Asians and Latino's to another discussion.
How do we even talk about
black and white in the USA in 2008?
I was on a bus in San Francisco a couple
of years ago. The driver was a black man. He stopped the bus and three black
women got on aged approximately 19 to 21 or so. They had boxes of chicken
dinners in their hands. The first two women got on and immediately proceeded
down the aisle to the very rear of the bus, where they took a seat. They were
talking very loudly. Sitting in the front of the bus, I could hear every word
they said. They were really loud.
The third woman stopped at the pay kiosk
at the front of the bus. She proceeded to put change into the kiosk. She only
put a few nickles into the kiosk. The driver informed her she had not put enough
change into the kiosk for herself, much less the three of them. She said she did
not have any more money and asked him to let it slide. He refused. He said they
had money for chicken, they should have saved money for the bus. The woman
called, yelled, to the back of the bus to her friends for money for the fare.
They screamed back that they were broke and for her to just join them in the
back of the bus. They proceeded to yell back and forth for a good minute or two.
The driver was getting angry. He insisted that the three women get off the
bus. They refused unless they got their fifteen cents out of the kiosk. It is
impossible to retrieve money from the kiosk, as everyone in San Francisco knows.
They started yelling at the driver ... the one woman from the front of the bus
and the two women from the rear of the bus. It was getting nasty.
A black
man came forward. He was irritated. Asked the driver how much the women owed.
The driver answered and the man put that amount in the kiosk. the man and woman
proceeded down the aisle; the man to his seat, the woman to her friends in the
rear of the bus. The driver finally drove the bus. Howevr, the driver kept
looking in his mirror at the three women and yelled at them that there was no
eating allowed on the bus. They yelled back that they weren't eating on his damn
bus. Actually, they were.
The driver turned to the Asian woman seted next to
me in the front of the bus and informed her that in the City there were Black
people and there were niggers. Those three were nothing but niggers and gave all
black people a bad name. His comments shocked and offended me. The three women's
ploy for a free bus ride shocked and offended me. But I said nothing. I am not
sure I should have. Just not sure.
The fact that a racial discussion brings
this story to mind shocks me too. But it does.
I must balance it somewhat
with the incredible black man about 18 years old who organized the bus stop of
about a dozen folks of various races to allow a disabled white woman to board a
bus first even though she was the last to arrive at the bus stop ... a thing
just not done! He spoke up and moved us all until we all just stood aside,
allowing this woman free space and all the time in the world to board the bus.
He was quite the speaker and organizer. I tried to enroll him in labor organizer
school, he was so good.
I really don't know what I am talking about, do I?
LOL If you think someone ought to do something, that someone is probably you.

As someone who tries to provide a forum as well as a way to discuss race in America in my classes, I found this to be very interesting. As well as reflective of the difficulties folks have, both white and black. (and others as well).

I've had some of my most racist statements made by black students....about blacks. Part of the problem is that folks confuse racism, prejudice, and then discriminatory behavior. Certain words are incendiary, like "nigger" but a discriminatory policy all dressed in neutral language hardly gets a pass.

I think that white liberals are more afraid of being called racist than trying to work through the difficulties. Therein lies the problem. the very idea that some individuals are not racist. We live in a racist society, where the dominant belief system contains considerable racism. Without the tools to tease that stuff out, without a more theoretical understanding, we are ridiculously left pointing fingers at each other.

Buchanan's comments sound like the old planatation owner. "I give you a place to sleep, I feed you, I clothe you, your ingratitude is stunning." Affirmative Action helps everyone (I'm sure if anyone read this that will be eye popping).

The entire conversation is grounded in racist thought; that the individuals of racial groups are good representations of the entire group and that the minority group, especially, is monolithic. White folks make such a big deal out of African American folk being "loud" for instance. You should try flying 8 hours with a bunch of Swedes. Trying to scam a bus ride. I used to tape a string to a quarter, it would fall through, then I'd pull it back out again. Didn't work all the time, but maybe a third of the time. Until well intentioned whites admit their negative feelings, confront them and then begin to intellectually struggle against them (not wrap up their feelings in poitical correctness, because inevitably you get twisted statements like Geraldine Ferraro's).

Senator Obama's Speech on Race in America

The full text of Senator Obama's speech can be found here If you have not read it, I urge you to. I have not heard the speech. apparently too many folks trying to download it, I couldn't get any videos to load.

For the record, I have not decided who I might vote for in the Indiana Dem Primary. I've always like Senator Clinton, even before she was controversial, divisive, all the crud that the pundits and her opponents like to say about her.

Anyway, this speech is eloquent. I have no doubt he wrote it. I cannot imagine someone writing this for him. It is authentic, which is supposedly something everyone is looking for (until they find it in the wrong color).

As someone who has read more research on race than most, his speech is factually and sociologically accurate. Senator Obama displays not only an experiential understanding of race relations that is far beyond most, but also a theoretical understanding that is exceeding rare, in my experience, for sitting politicians. Politics and complex theory don't mix well in a sound byte driven media. I'm surprised the NYT would publish the entire text of his speech.

I'm impressed. Will it stanch the blood of this gash at his candidacy? Not on the far right, not among ideologues. Among regular people who don't understand race relations beyond the simplistic zero sum perspective that most view it through? Maybe half will get it.

I do expect that when he quietly suggested that social class is the real inequality in the US, that many, if they can pick up the subtlety, will berate him for that. But not Mike Huckabee....hmm.

Anyway, what does anyone else think about his speech, either its substance or the political gamesmanship of it all.