Typed as I listen to Philip Short, who wrote “Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare” — on Booktv.org, and fresh from watching portions of HBO’s new movie, “Sometimes in April,” about Hutu/Tutsu ethnic insanity in Rwanda.
Besides reading about racism, do you ever have what you’d consider a “racist” thought or feeling? Are you a racist? Honestly, now. How do you and I — and the rest of the world — account for story after story about racism the world over? One example from Jay Rayner in today’s The Observer:
Ethnic minorities living in parts of Britain are now four times more likely to have suffered from racism than they were before the last general election, according to one of the most exhaustive studies of race and crime, undertaken by The Observer …
Jews, Muslims and Gypsies tell the CRE that they are under siege in Britain. …
Here’s one take on the issue:
But my purpose is really more to focus — not on the troubles of a nation across the “pond” (because it’s ever too easy to point fingers at others’ misdeeds and atrocities) — but on how we personally feel about, experience, and perhaps encourage, racism. And do we, who consider ourselves typically above racism, also use “excluding language”?
I have a story. When I was in junior high, our family traveled to Chicago — by train — for the national convention of the Elks. My father was an Exalted Ruler (or “exhausted rooster,” as he loved to joke).
The instant I recall my father, who died in 1993, I feel his arms. I see him holding me in his big arms and carrying me safely out into the wild, cold waves off the coast of Oregon. And his brilliance, athleticism, and wit.
I have another memory. Of that train trip in a lovely Pullman car. We dined every night in the dining car, where we sat at a lovely table ciovered with crisply ironed heavy white linen. The food was incredibly delicious and far too ample. All of the porters on the train were black. And, when my father placed our food orders with them, or summoned them to our table, he called them George.
On about the third day of our cross-country train trip, I was walking down a narrow hallway, bumping against both sides as the train rocked along.
Suddenly, three black porters surrounded me. There was fury in their eyes. They told me, in voices too soft to be heard above the clanking of the train, but in voices full of rage, “Tell your nigger-lovin’ father to leave us alone.”
I didn’t know what they meant. There were no black people in my hometown. I’d mostly only seen black people on the Ed Sullivan show, and rarely in Seattle. I knew nothing of their lives, their experiences, their humiliations.
But I did know — instinctively — that they weren’t out to harm me. I was not afraid of them. Their pain was as palpable as their rage.
They were trying to warn me. And their warning has stayed with me the rest of my life. And, no. I never told my parents.
One thing always bugged me. Why did my father call all of the black porters “George”? And why did that infuriate the porters so?
A few months ago, I was listening to BookTV.org, as I am wont to do on weekends, and an author spoke about his new book about the history and lives of railroad porters, and the rather significant — but largely uknown — role they played in the civil rights movement.
In the Q&A period, someone asked him the question I’d been waiting so long to ask myself: “Why did racists call the porters George”? And the author explained that George Pullman — after whom the Pullman cars were named — knew that the best possible porters for his new luxury train service would be former “house” slaves. And those porters, former “house” slaves, became known as George’s boys. The term was meant to humiliate them and put them in their place.
I have a childhood friend. He is the younger brother of one of my closest friends. For years I only referred to him as George, even though his name is David.
But it wasn’t related to his race. He was just too damn curious.
Just ouch.
IMO racism is just s symptom of a deeper ailment. In and of itself racism does not exist…LET ME EXPLAIN.
In the UK the problem is not genetic ie a problem with at persons skin color the real problem is historic and economic which are the usual underlying root of the problem that manifest itself into racism.
African American are treated much differently in the UK than “Blacks” from Africa or the Caribbean…just as “Blacks” from Africa or the Caribbean are treated differently in the US than native African Americans…why?
Because there is a difference of historical perception and links. The UK has no historical link with African Americans they see them in sports and in movies whereas they colonized Africa and the Caribbean and frankly they still see them as subjects.
This is not only applicable to Blacks. I have an Indian friend who went to school in the UK and many whites would not speak to him, but when he met up with the same people in his native Kenya the white spoke to him …why?
Because in the UK he was seen as inferior but in Kenya was acceptable for Whites and Indians socialize together but not with Blacks.
If you want to see a really screwy society go to South Africa where the years of apartheid has left and indelible mark on society.
Thanks for bringing to our attention what you describe as the “misdeeds and atrocities” in our country. We have some serious issues regarding race here, but I am surprised to learn that you equate these with being atrocities. Maybe this is just hyperbole.
It is interesting to consider how natural and inherent these responses to race are in the ordinary person. I came on your diary after posting on this topic a few minutes earlier on Janet Strange’s diary.
If I can recall poorly a documentary that I saw a few weeks ago, it described the arrival of United States soldiers in the UK during World War 2. There was considerable concern amongst the military command about the potential British reaction to black US soldiers. Special films were produced and the customs of the British were explained in detail so that tempers were not inflamed.
You see, the ordinary Brit had no sense of the difference of blacks, They were being invited into homes, being treated with civil friendliness and white girls were even dating them. The films were needed to explain to white US soldiers that they were in a foreign land with a strange people who did not understand the difference between black and white GIs and the customs back home. So it ask them not to display anger if they saw blacks being treated equally.
The British government tried to protect black US soldiers from some of the worst treatment of commanders by trying to insist that they came under British legal jurisdiction. They were unsuccessful in this.
There was one famous case among three quoted in the documentary where a black soldier was sentenced by the US military to a long jail sentence on some fairly flimsy evidence. His crime was raping a white English girl. The village in which she lived was outraged by the case. Huge petitions were raised. You can imagine the anger. Mobs gathered outside the US base and protested and the British government was forced to intervene before the matter got out of hand.
Fortunately the villagers won and were successful in their protests and the black soldier was released. The white girl was known for encouraging the soldiers and the villagers just did not believe her story.
Now we have a complete reversal. So, where does this intolerance that we now have come from? It is so sad. It has always happened with immigrant peoples. In time it will go away but it needs dealing with now.
Thanks again for alerting me to this and you are right to denounce “the troubles of a nation across the “pond” (because it’s ever too easy to point fingers at others’ misdeeds and atrocities)” The Britain you describe sounds like an ugly place and it is best for you not to come and see it. Thank heavens that your fellow citizens can be black and free in the land where true values exist and the American way protects them.
Oh dear god…. the problem sometimes with communication in a flat medium.
I wasn’t think in at all of Britain when I spoke of mideeds and atrocities. I was thinking of the U.S. bombing Iraqis, Afghanis, the French torturing Algerians, the Nazis murdering gypsies, homosexuals and Jews, the Israelis killing Palestinians and vice versa, the Egyptians believing the Holocaust is myth, and on and on.
The only reason I mentioned the article in The Observer is that it caught my eye this morning and prompted me to write about some of my questions about racism.
I don’t know if you read my first comment in the story. I can follow up that story with another. When I was at Stanford, my best friend became a dynamic, funny, irreverent, terribly bright and articulate black girl from Compton (originally Jamaica). We had the best times together. When my mother caught wind of it, she told me not to walk on campus with her so I wouldn’t be seen wtih a black.
Part of my story is about being raised with overt racism, and trying to put it all behind me.
Again, forgive me — please — if i in any way offended. It was truly never my intent.
My reply had the same problem that you described. If I had put a wink emoticon alongside some of it I may have communicated my meaning more clearly. Sorry if I alarmed you by my apparent reaction.
See in Pastordan’s diary for some of the racism I have come across. The most severe in left-wing trade unions.
Thank you for not listing the big UK atrocities committed world-wide. There are too many and the memory too painful.
Some great diaries today by you, by the way.
Thank you. I am immensely relieved. It was really upsetting me… and I’m glad we could straighten it out.
mostly by the victims.
They occur in all societies and in this one, of course, but I do not know of which particular ones have been committed that have occurred specifically in rural communities in the UK, which is the subject of the quoted article.
It is possible, because our rural communities are unused to immigaration. This always creates initial tension but in time they will gain the same tolerance as your own.
If you mean the US, it is neither my own nor would I ever accuse it of being a haven of tolerance.
My apologies, Ducta, I always assume that I am talking to someone in the USA. A bit dumb as I am a Welshman on here.
physical location for security reasons.
But not everyone in the US considers US their own, and only the indigenous people of the continent have any reason to.
I’ve been called that more than once which is somehow meant to be an insult of the highest order I guess to the racists who say it. Yet only shows their racism, ignorance and stupidity. I found out that dating people who are not the same color as you makes people assume or believe all kinds of truly stupid ideas about your character or lack thereof as some have said.
I grew up in a small white bread town in Wisconsin and never saw a black person until I was about 16. However I just knew from the time I was probably 6/7 that everyone was equal period. I simply have never understood racism. Intellectually I know the reasons people will give but I honestly and truly don’t get it and never will.
Those three black men called my father that, I am guessing, out of a desperate, ironic rage against the indignities they’d suffered from my father’s insults — many of which he may have said when I wasn’t around (I don’t know) — and because those three men surely had NO outlet or way to seek formal relief against my father’s insults. (And I’m sure that probably many, many other white train passengers had been insulting to them in the past, and in every instance they had to just shut up and put up with it.)
“People who know each other are less likely to turn disputes into race rows.’ The campaign will, he says, use what he describes as ‘agents of integration’ – women and children – to help foster understanding between different ethnic groups.”
I’ve seen this idea before, in the sense that homophobia is supposed to decline when someone in the GLBT community becomes numbered among the homophobes friends/ associates. I’m not entirely sure that the approach works in all situations though. There seem to be a lot of people who still justify classing the group/race/ religion/whatever as lesser while exempting the individual-“X is different, he’s okay, the rest aren’t.”
The scariest example of bigotry I’ve personally seen lately was the hatred directed toward a Muslim co-worker after 9/11 and during the ramp up to the war. People who had worked side by side with this young woman for years were suddenly spewing hate at her, it was chilling and ugly. Things have calmed down since then but it was a terrible thing to witness. I had never viewed these people as racists but they certainly bloomed-if that’s the word-into full blown bigotry before my eyes.
I was lucky enough to be raised free of hate speech and hate thought at home so I had a lot of family support to help me stand up against it at school and society at large.
Barring a strong home base I’m not sure how people grow from racist to non-racist. Food for thought here, thanks for that.
and exposed the cheap particle board underneath. But that is the way of veneer, and although it may be painful when the friendly smiles turn to icy glares, and the affable chatter at the office, and even what one thought was friendhsip changes to enmity, as they say to young girls who are disappointed by unworthy young men, “at least you found out now instead of later.”
I think the hardest thing for people was watching their kids be hurt. Parents always wish they could provide a world of real wood.
This seems to be a subject many people in this country want to ignore as not being that prevelant anymore and that’s simply and completely wrong.
Racism here just bubbles under the surface everywhere or not so under the surface. They still have segregated high school proms in some places in the south. This is where the school itself is integrated yet they still have two separate dances. When reading this about 2 years ago I was truly flabergasted. I still can’t wrap my head around that.
It is shocking, isn’t it. When I mentored the kids last year, the Native American kids and white kids went at each other. Then, among the Native Americans, there’s a one-upmanship. The Northwest tribes all had slaves, kidnapped from each other’s tribes. To this day, when one wants to put another one down, the put-down is “Slave.” (Especially vulnerable to that insult are those whose ancestry is from slaves….)
Living in the usa, a racist society, it seems inevitable that we each will confront aspects of racism in ourselves or others. Some people insist on defining racism as more than “bias” or “discrimination” to include denying access to resources, services and wealth. I know that I observe people “limiting” others based on their stereotypes or impressions of them, often based on very limited experience or information. I am sure others can observe this more easily in myself than I can.
There’s probably a lot more to say on this topic, but I can’t think of anything else right now.
I am touched by it almost constantly. I work at a residential school of about 160 students. The population is over half black, mostly inner-city girls. The whites tend to be from rural Appalachia. There are also up to a dozen African girls enrolled most of the time.
What is most interesting is the racism directed toward whites by the blacks. That is the norm. The race card is also played constantly by some of the blacks to try to cover for any bad behavior on their part. If any white staff member confronts bad behavior, the first line of defense may well be “You racist”. I have come to believe that this is a sort of psudo-racism on their part, a learned defensive behavior, at least some of the time. I was assaulted last winter by a black girl, and although it was brought on by her mental illness rather than racism, she immediately drew the “She called me a nigger” card. A group of her friends also said that they would go to court and testify to that. When I was told that, I replied “Oh good, I want to see who the liars are.” None of them showed up in court. The defendant did, however, claim that I had said that. She was not believed, since it is pretty unbelieveable that one could work this place for 15 years and be racist. Simply don’t happen.
But we do have far more black racists than white. It is only the Americans who are this way. The African girls typically do not display any racist feelings, if they have them. By their statements, I realize that this hatred of white has been mostly taught to them by their family of origion. Their venom rivals any white fundie spew that I have ever been unfortunate enough to hear.
You asked the question if we ourselves had ever used or thought in racist language. No, I haven’t. I can’t think of how many times I’ve told someone who has used the word nigger, gook, squaw or whatever in front of me not to use words like that in my presence or how many times I should have said something and didn’t. I have a hard time even writing words like that and honestly don’t exactly know where my rather violent reaction to words like that came from. By violent I mean when I’ve heard them used I have at times just become a bit sick to my stomache.
It’s an ongoing battle in any place I’ve lived and hasn’t really improved all that much.
When I went back to college in my 30’s I did come across something interesting and equally stupid. Some of the students and a few teachers had a reverse racism in that I guess to prove they weren’t prejudiced therefore acted like no matter what any black student did it wasn’t wrong and always took their part.
No matter what your race. Even if you are not racist, or even if you are actively anti-racist. Because racism does exist and one is constantly reminded of its presence.
As a teacher, I have those moments when I have to examine my words and actions – could this be misconstrued as racist? I try – very consciously – to treat all of my students with respect. But respecting them means challenging them. Will a vigorous challenge to one of my minority students be seen as some kind of disguised antipathy toward that student because of race? But I also feel strongly that “pulling my punches” and going easy on students because of their race is disrespecting them – it implies that I think they aren’t intellectually strong enough to meet the challenge.
I wish I could say that I am “color-blind” in the classroom, but it doesn’t seem possible. For starters, we use the term “minority” for the simple reason that there are fewer people in these groups, so they stand out in the classroom. And as a Southerner, I am too aware of the history that causes certain topics to arouse emotions beyond the topic itself, even if the emotions are simply discomfort or self-consciousness.
I rarely see overt racism in the people I come in contact with, thank god. But subtle racism seems to be everywhere, mostly emanating from people who deny (often heatedly) that they are capable of it.
A story: A colleague, who is African-American, once told me that when she was an undergraduate, she wanted to take an advanced, intensive course that was considered so difficult that it required the professor’s permission to enroll in it. She called him on the phone, gave him some background about herself – the courses she had taken, her grades, her confidence that she would do well in the course. He asked her questions, seem pleased with her answers, expressed his enthusiasm for having her in his class, and invited her to drop by his office to pick up the necessary paperwork to enroll.
When she went to his office, she said she saw the surprise in his face. “I don’t ‘sound black'” she said. He then spent about 20 minutes explaining that the class was very difficult, did she realize what she was taking on, that he’d hate to see her fail, etc.
She described how frequent these encounters were, and are, even now that she is in her 50’s, with a PhD, and how demoralizing they are. That it is a constant battle not to let these things undermine her confidence.
And it makes me so angry that she even has to fight that fight. I am sure that that professor would deny to his dying breath that he had even done or said or even thought anything that was racist. It’s that lack of self-examination, of self-awareness, that makes me crazy when dealing with people like him. They simply have no clue how much damage they do. And as long as they remain in this state of blissful self-unawareness, they cannot change.
So it’s always there. The “non-racists” who do racist things and don’t even realize it. People like my colleague who have to deal with it. People like me who get angry when I see it. It affects us all.
(BTW, she took the course, of course, and was the best student in the class.)
My father was a racist. Not in his mind, but he was actually one of the worst kind – the ones who refuse to see that what is only logical to them is really racism. He would extol the virtues of the black people that he had met through work, and in the next breath blame all of the world’s ills on those “troublemakers” who moved north after the war. An early memory is of him stopping his car at the end of our street and denigrating the Puerto Rican guy who had had the audacity to buy a house on our street.
I went to an all white high school – there was only one black in the entire school, and the only thing I can remember about him was that he refused to take showers after gym or sports. We later learned that his father beat him regularly, and that he refused because he was embarrassed that we would see the welts.
This was the mid-60s – when Detroit, Newark, and dozens of other cities were on fire. The reaction in our neighborhood was to arm up for the invasion that everyone was certain was going to happen.
After high school, I went into the army, and it was a whole different situation. Half my infantry company in Vietnam was black or Puerto Rican. We lived, slept, ate, bathed, bled, got drunk, together. We ragged each other, and in the end, exposed each other’s prejudices for what they were – silliness.
In order to pay for law school, I signed on to the police department, and worked in a black ghetto. My partner was black. Nearly all of the victims and bad guys that I encountered were black. We joked that there were three kinds of white people in my district: me, landlords, and people who got lost and now needed to get home and change their underwear.
When it came time to decide about my kids schooling, I was determined that they not grow up in a lily white bubble, and insisted that they attend public schools – by now very diverse – in opposition to my deeply religious wife, who wanted Catholic schools. We compromised: public primary and middle schools, and Catholic high schools.
It worked. They had friends from all races and nationalities while growing up, and racism was as perplexing to them as quantum physics. When it did rear its ugly head, my kids were the first to step up to the plate and denounce it. My daughter quit her first part time job in the local market because the owner muttered “nigger” after a demanding black customer had left. She is now a special ed teacher in an inner city high school. And my son, who today starts the police academy for my old department, can’t wait to graduate and head for my old district.
Racism is something that is learned, and it can be unlearned as well. The circle can be broken.
Stories like yours give me hope.