Sarah from trying to grok
Sarah from trying to grok
All Americans have a race issue. Basically, white folks' race issue is they don't want to be held responsible for racism. Black people's race issue is they don't want to experience racism.
I think that's a really good way of defining the situation. However, I -- and I'm sure other white people -- sometimes feel frustrated when it seems black people claim to "experience racism" in instances where it just doesn't seem to be true.
I admit that many people do need to grow up, both black and white. But I assure you that we white people constantly walk on eggshells to try to avoid offending the black people we work with, for fear of saying something wrong and being charged with "racism". Do black people walk on any similar eggshells?
I see things through different eyes than you, but in 2004 I see white people walking on those eggshells and black people pointing a lot of fingers. That's what I see going on; perhaps you can shed some light from your point of view.
Similar eggshells? OH yeah. But we're on eggshells over the collective reactions…things like making sure the guy who's following you in the store knows you're not a shoplifter. (I actually have a story I think is pretty funny. As teenagers my brother and I were walking around the furniture section of Sears while waiting for my mom. A guy was following us everywhere and I was feeling cranky that day. But my brother handled it… he opened up his jacket quickly and grabbed the back of a recliner like he was going to shove it in there. The guard started for a second, paused, then walked away shaking his head.)
But here's the root of the problem, as I see it. Racism is a power relationship, and we think personal measures are the means of eliminating it…the "we" has no racial division in it but this one phenomenon manifests differently in Black folks and white folks because of our different starting points.
Because our issue is the experience, many Black people feel being held personally responsible for structural issues is simply the result of those same structural issues. Because your issue is the responsibility and you're convinced racism is a personal affair, you take responsibility (and feel the liberal guilt) for things that are not your personal fault.
Knowing this may not help with your eggshell situation. We are, unfortunately, living in the transition period. From a historical perspective it may look like a mere point on a time line. But the fall of the Mayan civilization is just such a point, and to the individual Mayans involved each day was really, really long.
