I find it difficult to express how angered I have been by the reaction to the Skip Gates arrest, and some other racial incidents recently. I am starting to feel like our language has truly been turned inside out. Suddenly, the word “racist” has come to mean pointing out racism. Obama’s statement that it is “just a fact” that there is a long history of discrimination against blacks and Latinos by law enforcement, which should be remarkable only for its obviousness, is suddenly “playing the race card.” The fact that, to use the words of Ta-Nehisi Coates , “officers are well within their rights to arrest you for sassing them,” is terrifying, and has gotten lost in the “was too!”/”was not!” bicker over whether the officer was racist.1 I have been absolutely appalled by how many whites have rushed to the officer’s defense. I don’t know what’s in Officer Crowley’s heart; I can’t say whether he’s racist or not.* But the fact of the matter is that he arrested a man for talking back to him. We cannot let this fact get lost in the discussion. This is far from uncommon, and it indisputably happens more to members of less-powerful groups than it does to wealthy white ones.
I desperately wish that we could take this incident and turn it into a discussion of issues that are distinct but overlap so much they are frequently thought of as the same thing. The first is police authoritarianism. The second is the unjust and unequal treatment of minorities by the state. They are so often talked about as the same thing because the authoritarianism of the police is disproportionately directed at minorities.
These are two enormous problems. And if anything is ever going to be done about them, white people must stop being so defensive, so quick to see ourselves as unfairly slandered or even discriminated against. This is visible any time a white person reacts defensively to an accusation of racism directed at another white person they do not even know, about a situation they haven’t witnessed or studied, and that has nothing to do with them. What this shows is that it is easier for them to identify with the one accused of racism than with the alleged victim of it. And that alone should tell us how far we have to go.
The most grotesque example of this I’ve seen recently was in the emails of Dr. David McKilip, a Florida physician and conservative activist who has been organizing against health care reform . He sent an email around to his mailing list depicting Obama as a tribal witch doctor , complete with loincloth, headdress, and a bone through his nose. When this became public and initial criticisms started to come in, he wrote this to his mailing list:
Here they come. The first of what likely will be many emails accusing me of being a rascist (sic) for forwarding this email of Obama as a witch doctor.
…
So Talking points memo is apparently painting me as a racist for sending around a picture that points out that health care will get worse if the government takes it over…
This may be worth doing a story on about how these ultra liberal groups like to race bait and avoid the issue. Professional muckraker? Please. Now they are calling my office phones too!!! Yippee.
Lesson learned: Any attempt to discuss politics will lead to a race-baiting war. Also: Don't engage on anything that looks like personal attacks on Obama. It casues distraction that confuses the issues.
Don't let them bait you. I will choose to ignore them and always talk about the issues.
In his mind, sending around a picture suggesting Obama as a “primitive” African tribal witch doctor isn’t racist or race-baiting; it’s objecting to that picture that is baiting. And what frightens me is not just that he can write such a thing, but that there will be millions of Americans who agree with him.
In this post I have focused mainly on whites’ reactions to the Gates arrest and to accusations of racism in general. But so much more needs to be said, about police and authority and gender and race. It’s hard to know where to begin. But I hope this is a tiny little fragment of a start.
*And in fact I don’t even think this is a useful framing; the history of America means we breathe in racism our entire lives and can’t help but be affected by it. Good intentions (or a lack of bad intentions) don’t mean that we don’t have racist beliefs and assumptions that affect our actions. And, of course, it’s about more than individuals – people who sincerely struggle against racism can belong to racist institutions.
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I think it's kind of like the way they learned to attempt to manipulate the word "tolerance". Like when they make some really racist, sexist, or homophobic remark and you answer back, and all of the sudden it's "WAAAAH, what happened to liberal tolerance? You're not supposed to call us on our shit!"
So now when someone points out something obviously racist they try to make it out like YOUR the racist one for even noticing! Because we're all supposed to be so color-blind and beyond all that! Except, you know, if we actually were they wouldn't have said/done the racist thing in the first place.
Also, sorry, by "they" I didn't necessarily mean just whites. I was speaking generally of people I've encountered with predominantly far-right views.
I agree, and it shows they either don't understand the concepts of racism/tolerance/rights or are being entirely disingenuous. Usually it's the latter, IMO, but sometimes it's not, and sometimes it's an unholy amalgam of both.
Also, my thanks to the editors for providing this space. I'd never written a blog post before, but I was feeling so frustrated I just couldn't contain it. So I'm very grateful for the forum that allows me to post this publicly.
Your points about McKilip and his view of racism reminds me of something Adam Serwer wrote during the presidential campaign:
For the most part, most white people's experience with race isn't one of racial discrimination. They can only relate to racial discrimination in the abstract. What white people can relate to is the fear of being unjustly accused of racism. This is the larger half. This is why allegations of racism often provoke more outrage than actual racism, because most of the country can relate to one (the accusation of racism) easier than the other (actual racism).
A very interesting point. Not to massively derail the thread (and feel free to delete as you see fit, because I acknowledge from the outset that that's kind of what I'm doing), but I think this in part explains the all-too-typical reactions that many men have to well-publicized accusations of rape - from Kobe Bryant to the Duke Lacrosse team to [insert incident here]. Most men, hetero men especially, don't live their lives worried about being raped. Obviously men do get raped, but it's not an everyday concern to the same degree that it is to many women. As a guy, when I'm out, I don't feel like I need to watch my drink, be wary of the girl I'm dating, avoid walking in poorly-lit places or being out alone too late at night etc. The worst that's probably going to happen to me is being robbed, or maybe beat up. Rape just doesn't come into the equation.
What men can relate to, though, is the thought of being 'accused' of rape. After all, the thought process goes, who hasn't had sex when both people were kind of tipsy, or been to a party with a stripper, or gone home with someone impulsively without really thinking through the ramifications? Maybe that's all that happened to [insert relevant public figure]. If he's being brought up on rape charges, so goes the thinking, then it's not too far of a leap to imagine the same thing happening to ME.
I need to be clear in saying that I'm not defending this logic, but rather pointing out that it's very difficult logic to change. People are instinctively most likely to believe and trust the narrative that best meshes with their own experiences, anxieties and fears. I'm not quite sure how that larger tendency can be well addressed.
Well done piece. I never understand the stark panic reaction to a minority persons complaint either.
Gah. I can't find the goddamn audio file, but to dovetail with Coates' comment, Minnesota Public Radio also had a good short segment where they quoted Dr. Delores Jones-Brown at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice as saying people are overlooking the significance of the case for the charge of "disorderly conduct": What does "disorderly conduct" even mean? What kind of police-state logic are you using when simply calling a cop a racist (or being "uncooperative," whatever THAT means) can get you slapped with disorderly conduct? It is indeed f'n terrifying.
I'd like to comment on the backlash to the person that called the police. She has been accused of being racist, and threatened, to the point that she had to make a public statement defending herself.
I sat there feeling sympathy for her plight, as, in my opinion, she was being a good samaritan, and doing what she thought was right. You can imagine my surprise, as I heard my cousin and aunt, agree that she was a racist, and had been the cause of all "this mess".
I questioned, in my mind, would they have reacted the same way, if the caller had been a Balck person. I came to her defense, because I feel that, far too often, we as Blacks have racists attitudes as well, that we need to be challenged about.
I questioned my aunt about how she would have felt if it were her home. Would she have wanted that same woman to call the police, or would she prefer to come in and find all of her valuables stolen, if it actually had been a break in. And, I think others should see this. The woman thought someone's home was being robbed (since tehy were banging with their shoulders to unlock the door), and she tried to help the owner of the house. Had it not been the owner who was breaking in, she would have been viewed as a hero by Gates, and the public, no doubt.
I say this to say that, in this country, racism is alive and well, and unfortunately, sometimes minorities are gulty of racists views as well.
I'm astounded that there was backlash to the caller. She didn't arrest Gates, the cop did. Now that the tape of the call is out, we know she didn't describe the men forcing the door open as black. However, if she had, it would have been an accurate description. I'll acknowledge that I am white and may not see the nuances, but how could anyone say that an accurate description of a person is racist? (ok, when skin color is not relevant, mentioning it can be racist, but in the case of a suspected crime, skin color of the alleged criminal, along with height and build, is relevant for ID)