Here's a recent op-ed on a need for a national dialog on race. Thought you might want to at least know about this upcoming conference.
Blogmeister, DeWitt Clinton
By William S. Cohen and Janet Langhart Cohen
Special to CNN
Editor's Note: William Cohen is a former Republican senator and defense secretary in the Clinton administration. His wife, Janet Langhart Cohen, is a former TV journalist, model and author. They are the co-authors of "Love In Black and White," a memoir about race, religion and their experiences as an interracial couple.
William Cohen and Janet Langhart Cohen say that U.S. racial prejudice is still too divisive to be history.
(CNN) -- In 1835, Alexis DeTocqueville, in his seminal work, "Democracy in America," prophesied that the abolition of slavery would not eliminate racial prejudice, which he declared was "immovable."
Sen. Barack Obama, in running for the presidency of the United States, is challenging DeTocqueville's bleak assessment of the human heart. It remains unclear whether the Illinois senator is on a hopeless mission, or whether the American people will decide to make history by breaking with it.
Any discussion of race or racism inevitably stirs uncomfortable reactions. America is, indeed, a nation of immigrants. Most of our ancestors came here in search of a better life. Africans, however, arrived here in chains to make a better life for others. Yet to date, we have been unable to discuss the horrors of the enslavement, lynchings, segregation and degradation of African-Americans without prompting resentment or indifference.
"That's all in the past," is a common retort. "We had nothing to do with it. It's history. Get over it." The problem, however, as the results in a number of the primary states reveal, is that racial prejudice is not history, and neither whites nor blacks are over it.
While Obama has moved the subject of prejudice out from the shadows, more than his exotic name, origin and religious affiliation are at issue. When Colin Powell, one of America's most accomplished military leaders and diplomats, contemplated running for the presidency in 2000, his family feared for his safety. Also, during that same year, when Sen. John McCain ran for our highest office, he was the victim of a vile, racist smear in South Carolina.
There are deep grievances held by black Americans over their past and present treatment by the white majority and equally profound resentments held by many whites over what they see as preferential treatment for the black community. Unfortunately, a discussion of the racial divide in our country is too often reduced to sound bites or shouting matches. Moreover, the preachings and exhortations of several prominent religious leaders, rather than nurturing and appealing to our spiritual needs, have instead served to inflame passions and reinforce old falsehoods and antagonisms.
We are convinced that what is needed in America is a serious, open, civil dialogue on racial, ethnic and religious prejudice. To this end, in July, we are convening a conference in Washington on race and reconciliation with political, spiritual and business leaders. Our goal: to further a national conversation about the need for truth, tolerance and reconciliation.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writers.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Race Talk
Race Talk
Haven’t you had it with the “race” question? Perhaps you’re still fuming over the “female gender bias” question, both of which have turned the Democratic Presidential nomination process into a shooting gallery. I’m no expert on either, as many of you know, but I do work with men and women as university colleagues in a town called Whitewater, of all places, and I have also taught, at several universities, students of both sexes and of many nationalities and races for, well, let’s see, since stepping off a plane from Vietnam in 1970. But the issue of race has simply made me crazy enough to shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” The character Howard Beale (Peter Finch) was mad about something else in “Network,” but I really am screaming as I write this to you all.
“Race” in my humble opinion, is now bogus, for it no longer has any meaning, in any context, and I am certain it has always been used to demean and invoke fear in one or the other, depending on who has had the larger stick. I am sick of the political, childish methods that many Americans have about their “fear of the other,” for it’s not always fear of the (insert color) man. I do admit I’ve lived behind the veil of whiteness all my life, but perhaps it is my experience as an educator that allows me to see that all students are not only equal, but that no student in my mind deserves more or less attention simply because of skin pigmentation.
When I recently heard West Virginians (over NPR evening news) describe their opinions about the candidate Barak Obama, my first reaction was what has made white West Virginians so fearful of a qualified nominee? I admit, also, I did find it hard to simply understand Appalachian dialect in reference to the Democrat from Illinois, (“Whites look out for Whites, Blacks look out for Blacks”). Hearing that, I sensed not just disgust, not just intolerance, but a sincere and deep hatred for someone who aspires to lead our nation in the post Bush era.
Has any discussion over differences ever been clarified through the myopic lens of race? Has it ever settled any misunderstanding? Has race ever clarified a position between groups that disagree? Has color of one person ever adequately defined a person’s human qualities? Has distinguishing race as the only factor in an argument ever made both parties equal in stature? Has the word “race” ever lifted one up in admiration and esteem? Perhaps it is possible that we are all racists when we are confronted with our own terrible fears of the “other,” but how much of that is something we’ve learned from our own culture, from our own parents, or even from our own true blue friends?
I also admit (I admit I’m doing a lot of admitting here, but bear with me, subscribers) to Democratic Party principles, and would easily be placed far left of center on any political position, but I just have to say, Let’s start a debate not about whether race is a factor but whether or not race has nearly always denigrated meaningful relations between human beings.
I see remnants of European Colonialism and its racial superiority, and even see the 19th and early 20th Century pseudo science of Eugenics as a factor woven into our national discussion in this primary season. The discussion has made politicians, and those wanting to vote for politicians, and those commenting about politicians and the electorate, as nothing more than an ugly bear baiting screened-in event where we pay other people to humor us with disgusting epithets and slurs.
So even though our forum here is small, I wonder if we can consider whether talking about race in any context would ever make us more thoughtful, engaging citizens. Call us Canadians, Bolivians, Afghanis, Greeks, Egyptians, Kenyans, Belgians, or even Americans, but from this moment on, I urge you, as “Roseanne Roseannadana” might if she were still on “Saturday Night Live,” to talk amongst yourselves and see if you can find a purpose in defining a person, candidate or not, through the lens of race. Though sociologists have probably already discounted the merits of race as a determining factor in ethnicity, I hope that someday soon (and it needs to be soon) we can have candidates (and applicants, and all the rest of aspiring individuals) who will be seen for what they can offer an electorate, and not on how they will or will not carry the white or the black or the brown vote.
I am always reminded of the sincere and heartfelt remark of the Dalai Lama: “Treat everyone as a friend.” That requires almost too much of us, but it certainly is a concept to try to wrap around our view of not seeing each other as one race or another.
Comments? Reply To All, if you wish.
Haven’t you had it with the “race” question? Perhaps you’re still fuming over the “female gender bias” question, both of which have turned the Democratic Presidential nomination process into a shooting gallery. I’m no expert on either, as many of you know, but I do work with men and women as university colleagues in a town called Whitewater, of all places, and I have also taught, at several universities, students of both sexes and of many nationalities and races for, well, let’s see, since stepping off a plane from Vietnam in 1970. But the issue of race has simply made me crazy enough to shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” The character Howard Beale (Peter Finch) was mad about something else in “Network,” but I really am screaming as I write this to you all.
“Race” in my humble opinion, is now bogus, for it no longer has any meaning, in any context, and I am certain it has always been used to demean and invoke fear in one or the other, depending on who has had the larger stick. I am sick of the political, childish methods that many Americans have about their “fear of the other,” for it’s not always fear of the (insert color) man. I do admit I’ve lived behind the veil of whiteness all my life, but perhaps it is my experience as an educator that allows me to see that all students are not only equal, but that no student in my mind deserves more or less attention simply because of skin pigmentation.
When I recently heard West Virginians (over NPR evening news) describe their opinions about the candidate Barak Obama, my first reaction was what has made white West Virginians so fearful of a qualified nominee? I admit, also, I did find it hard to simply understand Appalachian dialect in reference to the Democrat from Illinois, (“Whites look out for Whites, Blacks look out for Blacks”). Hearing that, I sensed not just disgust, not just intolerance, but a sincere and deep hatred for someone who aspires to lead our nation in the post Bush era.
Has any discussion over differences ever been clarified through the myopic lens of race? Has it ever settled any misunderstanding? Has race ever clarified a position between groups that disagree? Has color of one person ever adequately defined a person’s human qualities? Has distinguishing race as the only factor in an argument ever made both parties equal in stature? Has the word “race” ever lifted one up in admiration and esteem? Perhaps it is possible that we are all racists when we are confronted with our own terrible fears of the “other,” but how much of that is something we’ve learned from our own culture, from our own parents, or even from our own true blue friends?
I also admit (I admit I’m doing a lot of admitting here, but bear with me, subscribers) to Democratic Party principles, and would easily be placed far left of center on any political position, but I just have to say, Let’s start a debate not about whether race is a factor but whether or not race has nearly always denigrated meaningful relations between human beings.
I see remnants of European Colonialism and its racial superiority, and even see the 19th and early 20th Century pseudo science of Eugenics as a factor woven into our national discussion in this primary season. The discussion has made politicians, and those wanting to vote for politicians, and those commenting about politicians and the electorate, as nothing more than an ugly bear baiting screened-in event where we pay other people to humor us with disgusting epithets and slurs.
So even though our forum here is small, I wonder if we can consider whether talking about race in any context would ever make us more thoughtful, engaging citizens. Call us Canadians, Bolivians, Afghanis, Greeks, Egyptians, Kenyans, Belgians, or even Americans, but from this moment on, I urge you, as “Roseanne Roseannadana” might if she were still on “Saturday Night Live,” to talk amongst yourselves and see if you can find a purpose in defining a person, candidate or not, through the lens of race. Though sociologists have probably already discounted the merits of race as a determining factor in ethnicity, I hope that someday soon (and it needs to be soon) we can have candidates (and applicants, and all the rest of aspiring individuals) who will be seen for what they can offer an electorate, and not on how they will or will not carry the white or the black or the brown vote.
I am always reminded of the sincere and heartfelt remark of the Dalai Lama: “Treat everyone as a friend.” That requires almost too much of us, but it certainly is a concept to try to wrap around our view of not seeing each other as one race or another.
Comments? Reply To All, if you wish.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)