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On racial justice I - Ogres

by Prometheus 6
August 24, 2003 - 12:00am.
on Race and Identity

A number of posts on race and racial justice have come to my attention this week and I've been chomping at the bit to comment on some of them. At first I was going to deal with them all in a single post but I decided that rooted in vengeance over being traumatized by a lot of really long entries this weekend.

Nurse Ratched at Nurse Ratched's Notebook has written a long post on racism that uses a metaphor that I think captures the effect better than the cause, but metaphors are always imperfect. She suggests a three part response that I feel is the beginning of a solution…but only a beginning.First the metaphor.

Imagine, if you will, a line of millions of people waiting for food. The line isn't single-file, but fluctuating in width and length. For most, it is the only way they know to get food, though a very few are willing to get out of line and take the risk of going hungry, knowing that they may be able to get back in line later. Like at the grocery store, some people move ahead in the line faster than others and reach the food distribution point three or more times a day. Others may eat once or twice a day, or even less often, and the pace can fluctuate. Most of those in line move at a similar pace to others they know, and eat with similar frequency.

…Walking along the outside of the line are ogres. Each of them has one or more knives, of varying sizes, shapes, and degrees of sharpness. As the mood strikes, they may reach out to cut someone in line. Often, they will injure only one person with a swipe, but they can hurt many, particularly if the ogres work together. Sometimes the injury is mostly a matter of injured pride, other times it can be scarring or life-threatening.

For whatever reason, the ogres seem to prefer to slash out at people with darker skin much more than at those with lighter skin. Those with especially fine clothing seem nearly always able to avoid the slashing by some means or other, while those with less expensive clothing or very unusual clothing seem to attract the ogres' attentions. Those who shuffle along meekly are more likely to escape the ogres' notice, and those who are extremely wary and constantly scanning for the ogres may be able to leap out of the way, sometimes leaving another behind to receive the wound. Some people seem not to notice the ogres, walking right past them as if they weren't there, while others seem unable to take a step without ensuring they have all the nearby ogres in their sight. Often these hypervigilant people have some visible ogre scar marking them. Some of those who escape the ogres' notice regularly use the distractions they cause to move ahead in line or toward the well-buffered center, populated with the least-scarred group of people.

…The treatment (or lack thereof) received by the wounded is sometimes a topic of discussion in the line. Some people are grateful to have received thorough and solicitous care. Others are angry because they or people they care about were treated roughly or ignored or tended only minimally. Some say that is the way things have always been, and they'll always be that way, and there's really no point in getting exercised about it. Others say the important thing is to get better at avoiding the ogres, and for those who are successful at it to teach the others how to duck or sway or run or avoid notice. Still others say that those tending the wounded should be given rules to follow and ample supplies, so that all those with a certain severity of wound can be assured of receiving the same treatment.

Nobody suggests getting rid of the ogres.

This is a marvelous observation. Most people miss the difference between responding to damage and preventing it.

The good nurse's metaphor also captures the random element in the attacks. I know a number of Black folks that feel each racist action is a calculated assault on their particular person. I know others who feel their choices are the sole reason for their lack of specific damage. Both these responses are understandable. It's like the relationship of the unemployment rate to having a job…if you have no job the unemployment rate is 100% as far as you're concerned. And the unemployment rate is of little use in figuring out if you, personally, will have a job tomorrow.

What the metaphor misses is the origin of the ogres, and where they stand as they lash out. The ogres are in among us. Sometimes the damage they cause is the transformation of a human into an ogre. And some people sell their souls to become ogres.

Here's the three part response. Each part is close…real close:

There are three keys to fighting the ogres. The first is shaming the ogres. We should not be silent when we are aware the ogres are slashing out. Those who actively and deliberately perpetuate discriminatory actions and attitudes should be shown unambiguously that this is not acceptable to the rest of us.

If "shown unambiguously" means creating real repercussions, I'm all for it. If it means public criticism, well, there are too many people to whom that means nothing, at least as regards this issue.

The second key to fighting the ogres is to have something worth working toward, worth fighting for, as a goal. If youth do not have a positive vision of their future, what is their motivation for making the effort instead of giving up? There needs to be a possibility of something better than a full-time job that doesn't pay a living wage for anyone who is willing to put in the time and the effort, regardless of academic scores or career choice.

I think a positive vision of the present is more important than a positive view of the future.

Immediately after finishing that sentence I'm not sure I can see a difference between the two. But I'm leaving it there.

The final key, the single best way to make the ogres disappear, is to dump this pitiful excuse for a public school system we have in this nation.

If you read the entire post, you'll see this is a call to enhance, not abandon, the public school system. And I agree wholeheartedly with the need. This will remove a major justification ogres use for lashing out, but that's a different thing that getting rid of the ogres themselves. Ogres are not rational no matter how many times they growl "because…"

In the end I find this post to be evidence that Nurse Ratched is willing to look right at the problem. Her top-down solutions, though, leave certain bottom-up issues in both Black and mainstream communities unaddressed.

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Submitted by Nurse Ratched (not verified) on August 24, 2003 - 6:00am.

I appreciate your commentary, but I feel that I have failed to convey an important point of the reasoning behind my call for an overhaul of the public educational system. You seem to have taken it as a tool for fighting the presence of any grounds for stereotyping any group as ignorant or uneducated, and you do have a point in that, but that wasn't my reasoning. In the first place, education brings people opportunities that they don't have without it. In the second place, education brings self-confidence, and educated people don't have as much reason to feel ignorant or inferior (feelings of inferiority being a primary cause of seeking someone, some group, to which one can feel superior). In the third place, educated people with positive experiences with a range of people are less likely to be overtly bigoted. Finally, good public education over a period of a few generations combats racist training at home and prevents experiences in the schools that build or reinforce racist stereotypes. All of this combines to create a society where bigotry is both less likely and less desirable as an outlook for anyone to have, whatever their reasons. Yes, the ogres are among us, but we often feel that we have no power over them. I am saying we do, but our greatest power to defeat them is working together as a society. I think this is a bottom-up means of addressing the problem because it works at the roots of the issue: ignorance, powerlessness, lack of opportunity.

Submitted by P6 (not verified) on August 24, 2003 - 3:33pm.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not beating up on you. Improving the public education system will definitely address much of the educational inequities cause by racism. It will also convince a number of people their racism is in error.I'm just looking at the root of the problem cause by racism. And education won't touch it.