I guess I could give a passing grade to William Saletan for good intentions, if nothing else. His piece reminds me a bit of a comedy routine Lenny Bruce used to do called “How to Relax Your Colored Friends at Parties.” Only Mr. Saletan is trying to relax white folks.
I guess I had an advantage. My mother was the director of a nursery school, and she arranged it so my play dates included both white and black kids. I never had a chance to form the misimpression that black kids are any different from white kids. When I first encountered some soft racism from someone I liked and respected, I was already in 7th Grade, and I found it confusing and disorientating. My friend wanted to know why I was going to root for Larry Holmes to defend his heavyweight championship against Irish-American Gerry Cooney. I still remember it. “Marty, why do you always root for the black guy?”
Since there really wasn’t any predicate I could think of to justify the “always,” I felt a little defensive, as if it were an unfair question. But the main thing is that it had never occurred to me once to make my decision about who I wanted to win a boxing match on the race of the boxers. I liked Larry Holmes. I didn’t want him to lose to some second-rate punk with a big punch but no skills. The idea that my self-image might be improved if someone who looked like me was proven to be the toughest son of a bitch on the planet just didn’t compute for me.
It wasn’t a one-way lesson, either. I quickly realized that there were some black kids who were rooting for Larry Holmes specifically because he was black. That made me start to think about racial matters in a way that had never been necessary before. I didn’t like it.
The bottom line is that white America has always treated blacks differently as a group, which has forced blacks to react in kind. This reinforces racial thinking, which has the effect of perpetuating differential treatment.
My biggest problem with Saletan’s piece is that he is talking to whites who have already been accused of racism. How about instructing white people how to avoid being accused of racism in the first place? Because when you support policies and laws that have the purpose of legalizing murder and disenfranchising blacks, then you should expect blacks to respond with racial solidarity. They will point out that they are being targeted because of their appearance rather than content of their character, and the wheel of racial tension will go around one more time.
If I have any advice for white people, it is this. Stop generalizing about race. Stop supporting policies that are intended to screw people based on how dark they are. Stop putting people of color on the defensive about their appearance, and they will eventually stop organizing in response along racial lines.
There is really only one prime directive: judge people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. And, yes, white folks have to take the lead on this because we are the ones that imposed this system in the first place.