Some conservative commentator whose forebears were from Bangladesh is asking me not to call racism ‘racism.’
One thing that is undeniably true is that American conservatives are overwhelmingly white in a country that is increasingly less so. As the number of Latinos and Asian-Americans has increased in coastal states like California, New York and New Jersey, many white Americans from these regions have moved inland or to the South. For at least some whites, particularly those over the age of 50, there is a sense that the country they grew up in is fading away, and that Americans with ancestors from Mexico or, as in my case, Bangladesh don’t share their religious, cultural and economic values. These white voters are looking for champions, for people who are unafraid to fight for the America they remember and love. It’s unfair to call this sentiment racist. But it does help explain at least some of our political divide.
Last night I was watching superhero movies on TNT and I started playing a little game. I watched every commercial to see if it had people of more than one race. All night long, in commercial after commercial, I was presented with an ideal of coolness and happiness that involved young men and women of all races (but mainly white, black, and Asian) having fun at Burger King, or buying car insurance, or wearing fancy jeans, or whatever. The advertisers are just trying to sell a product, but the truth is that young people are receiving a non-stop deluge of subconscious programming that race (and to a large degree, gender) doesn’t matter. That’s an ideal. It’s largely aspirational. Every big city and most college towns have examples of these kinds of seamless cross-racial cultures. I’ve lived in those cultures in both Los Angeles and Philadelphia. But Los Angeles and Philadelphia also have far larger areas where race is the most important thing and where blacks and whites do not mingle easily, if at all. Even in the suburbs where you see increasing diversity, all you have to do is go to your local mall to see racial divides and mistrust. There is a ton of bad racial feeling still alive and well even among our young. And economic conditions for blacks and Latinos are shockingly worse than they are for whites. We have not yet come close to erasing our race-related issues.
It’s understandable that some whites want to live among other whites and feel uncomfortable about the increasing racial (and even religious) diversity of their communities. But when someone comes along to play the role of champion for those sentiments, that’s an appeal to racism. When economic times are hard and people are having trouble paying the bills, the temptation to steal is greater. That’s natural and understandable, but you don’t praise someone who taps into those sentiments and encourages people to go on a looting spree. What we’re talking about is whether a leader appeals to peoples’ better or worse angels. It’s always possible to stir up resentment and ride people’s hatred to a position of power and influence. That’s doesn’t make it right.
When you go around asking where the president’s birth certificate is, you are nothing better than a champion of racism.
As for the post-racial Eden that the advertisers are selling us? The counterprogramming is available 24 hours a day on talk radio and Fox News. That’s all racist, too.
