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.

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