So much happened
this week: Rodney King, a man troubled by personal demons and unasked for fame,
and who was brutally beaten by Los Angeles police officers during a 1991
traffic stop, died in a pool accident at his home; the North Carolina
Legislature once again failed victims of involuntary sterilization, who were
mostly poor, black women, by denying them restitution; a newly graduated
college student was denied entrance to and then forcibly removed from a sports
bar in Raleigh, NC, because of the color of his skin; and a study in North
Carolina proved that police and other law enforcement are twice as likely to
conduct a search at a traffic stop if the driver is a minority person, and
minority drivers are twice as likely to be arrested at a traffic stop than
white drivers. Race is in the news every day, and the reason is because racism
still exists.
When I read Rodney
King died in an accidental fall into his pool, I remembered the riots sparked by
the acquittal of the police officers involved in the high-speed chase and
traffic stop during which Mr. King was severely beaten. Seven police officers
were involved in the beating that nearly killed King. Four officers were videotaped
beating Mr. King with their batons while the other officers stood and watched.
Many Americans did not know about police brutality, but this time it was caught
on video, played over and over on the news, and indelibly proved that being
black in America negatively influences interactions with law enforcement. The
riots that began immediately after the acquittal of the four charged police
officers on April 29, 1992 lasted six days and lead to fifty-three deaths and thousands
of people injured. Only the National Guard could stop the violence.
I sat sobbing in
front of the TV, 3,000 miles away, despair oozing through me, as Los Angeles
burned on my twin daughters’ eighth birthday. Cara and Mackenzie wanted to know
why I was so sad. I was crying for all the people who felt other
Americans hated them, treated them differently and brutally, and then blamed
them for their poverty and disenfranchisement. The only thing they could do
from their powerless status in America was to destroy whatever crossed their
path. I cried because I had always been afraid the police might do something
like that to Ronald for being black and being in the wrong place at the wrong
time. He had some scary run-ins with the Syracuse police. See my post The Tar Baby of Racial Discourse:
Rodney King
famously appeared before the TV cameras and pled with the rioters to stop the
violence. He said, “Can’t we all get along?”
He became the
symbol of victimization by racist police officers in America. The videotape of
the beating opened the public’s eyes to police brutality, but I know that
police misconduct, brutality, and prejudice still exist.
This week the
Researchers for N.C. Advocates for Justice made their findings public after
reviewing state data collected on more than 13,000 traffic stops conducted
between 2000 and 2011. Dick Taylor, the chief executive of the trial lawyers’
group behind the study said of the results, "When you are stopped, you are
more likely to have a negative outcome if you're Hispanic or African-American. The
disparities are there. We need to look in a serious way at why that is the
case."
While stopping
short of calling law enforcement agencies institutionally racist, he said the
data certainly raises troubling questions that should be addressed through
training. Can that be enough to stop radically different experiences with law
enforcement based on race?
The North Carolina
Legislature approved the state budget, but without a provision to compensate
about 1800 victims of involuntary sterilization (only 146 have actually been
identified), so it will be another year of waiting for justice. Some argue that
compensating the victims would open the door for other groups, such as
descendants of slaves and Native Americans, to file similar claims for
restitution. I am not opposed to restitution for other groups for the abuse and
genocide wrought against them. How else to help level a playing field that has
been unfair, uneven, and one-sided for hundreds of years? Their blood, their
heartache, their failures, and their inability to become part of mainstream
America in large numbers, are on all our hands. We are obligated to right the
wrongs of the past, else how will we progress as a country and not repeat the violence
and evil perpetrated against people that were historically considered less than
equal?
Jonathan Wall, a
twenty-one-year-old black graduate of Morehouse College and a native of
Raleigh, NC, wrote about his experience at a sports bar in Raleigh, and it’s
been circulating on the Internet. First, he and his two friends were told they
could not enter the bar because they were not members, but when a police
officer stopped by, the bouncer let them in. They were the only black patrons
in the bar. Jonathan was told, as he sat alone at a table, that if he didn’t
order a drink immediately, he would have to leave. He told the bartender he was
waiting for his friends to return to the table. Minutes later, he was forcibly
ousted. A cousin relayed a similar experience at the same location.
I remember a time
in the early 1980s when Ronald and I went to listen to a band at a club in
Syracuse called The Lost Horizon. As we approached the door, we heard someone
tell the bouncer, “Next black guy that shows up, tell him we’re full.”
I wanted to turn
around and leave, but Ronald, pulling me by the hand, climbed the steps and
stood in front of the bouncer and the manager. He looked directly at the
manager and said. “I heard what you said.”
The manager looked
at the both of us and said, “No, man, that’s not what I meant. Come on in.”
“No,” Ronald said.
“I heard you.” He turned and led me back down the steps, and we left. It would
be years before we returned to that club. But I know it still happens. Read
about Jonathan Wall’s experience at this URL:
Racism still
exists because it is woven tightly into our history, our social interactions,
where we choose to live, where we choose to work, and where we choose to worship.
Racism is subliminally communicated in video games, movies, and in television
programs. It is institutional and systemic to the way our society operates. People
use hate language and hateful generalizations in describing the president, for
example, or certain groups of people, such as Islamic people or homosexuals.
It’s easy to demonize a whole group, rather than look at people as individuals.
White people mostly enjoy their individual uniqueness, while most minorities
are not treated as individuals as they negotiate their way through society.
It can be hard to
swallow, but if you are white in America, you are a racist, even when you don’t
personally believe you are. I realized that when I was taking courses toward my
first master’s degree and began studying and writing about multiculturalism in
a deeper way. How can I be a racist when I am interracially married? I
am a racist by virtue of my skin color, and if you are white, so are you.
I benefit because
of my skin color in many ways when I am by myself, for example, I’ve used my
husband’s credit card at stores, written and signed checks in his name, and
even moved money from his account (we have separate accounts) into mine. I can
walk into any business and be treated with respect and feel welcome there. I
built my career by moving from one company to another, each time accepted on
merit (though gender affected my career in both positive and negative ways). In
most of my social interactions, when I am by myself, I am openly accepted. When
I am out and about with Ronald, and we are identified as an interracial couple,
then my ability to navigate my way through society is greatly impacted.
We have been
refused service, had to go to court to purchase our first house, even had our
canoe rammed one time out on a lake in Upstate New York. I’ve been confronted
by angry colleagues, people who embraced me and enjoyed working with me, for
not telling them I was interracially married, as if that changed who I am. I
didn’t change, but their perception of me did.
See my post Schadenfreude to read about being
confronted by colleagues:
See my post Legacy of Racism to read about our
housing discrimination experience:
The people who
practice racial superiority are the ones demanding to “take back America.” They
are afraid of demographic changes and our progress toward equality among people
of all races and ethnicities. They fear they will become the minority and what
that will mean and how they will be treated. They believe their kind, white
Americans of European ancestry, should stay in power and continue to live with
entitlement and privilege at the expense of those they consider less than
because of their ethnicity or skin color. Yes, they are the true racists, but
we all support a society that is classist and racist.
I think that many
white people believe they will lose that sense of privilege and entitlement,
but in a country like ours, there is more than enough to share, and all
Americans could feel they are a part of a great country. Our ideal America is a
country where everyone who is able can find a job and make a living wage, have
access to affordable education and health care, live in affordable and adequate
housing and provide for children and loved ones. That is not the America we
live in now. We live in an America of race and class disparity.
Racism is
everywhere, and examples of it can be found as easily as reading the newspaper.
Changing to a
truly equal and desegregated country takes work and commitment from the
majority of Americans, not just the people being oppressed and a few
enlightened people from the majority group. We can change things together. Can’t
we all get along?
