Race ain't over.

[alexandraerin]

I booted someone off my discussion community (and subsequently blocked a comment they tried to leave on a story) for saying, in a tangential discussion, that the word problems of racism left in the United States are "unscrupulous" minorities who play on white liberal guilt.

I've been told this joker went and whined elsewhere on the internet that I'm such a controlling bitch that anyone who dares to suggest there's been any progress regarding race relations will be subjected to a profanity-laced tirade and then banned. No, dude. Just you. And if you really had just suggested that there's been progress, I would agree. But I'd follow up that agreement with the observation that you don't win a long race by stopping after a really good sprint. In fact, to stretch that metaphor a little further, if you're not in great condition for running in the first place, that sprint can stop you in your tracks. Like when people exercise who aren't used to it, and they make a big show of cranking the treadmill up or putting a lot of weights on the bar and they make one big showy push and then go, "Whoo! That's enough of that." and then limp away, trying to pretend like they accomplished something huge.

The evidence this guy pointed to for the lack of actual, non-unscrupulous-minority-directed racism in America was the election of Barack Obama. Which, yay. Milestone. Achievement. Possibly a turning point, but it's far too early to say how big of one... especially when a lot of the folks who'd need to be turning the corner are actually stopping before they get there, limping towards the locker rooms, and slapping each other on the back while bragging about how darn fast they managed to run for that one little burst.

Found via karynthia:

A swimming pool kicked out a bunch of kids from a camp that had a contract to use the pool because they "changed the complexion" of the establishment.

The movie Beyond The Sea had a dramatization of Bobby Darin's advocacy on behalf of comedian George Kirby being allowed to perform the coveted opening spot as his warm-up act at the Copacabana Club, the crown jewel of the club scene. My understanding is that the broad strokes of the story are correct, but I can't pretend to know the actual details of any conversation or anyone's motivations, so understand I'm talking about the scene in the movie, not presenting it as real life. It works as metaphor.

The scene goes like this: the owner of the Copa tells Bobby Darin that it's not his policy to doesn't let colored performers perform. Bobby reminds him that Sammy Davis, Jr. just played the Copa. The owner replies, "Sammy's a headliner."

Sammy's a headliner.

A star attraction being allowed to do his thing isn't the same thing as an up-and-comer being given a fair shake, which isn't the same thing as anyone being let in through the door. When somebody achieves something, that doesn't prove that anybody can... it's when even the "nobodies" are treated fairly that we're really getting somewhere.

When "integration" means that a rich, successful man who is a darling of the media and who draws a packed house is tolerated for his ability to make a nightclub owner an awful lot of money, it's not integration. The same country that elected Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. to the highest office in the land... favoring him over the candidate who would have been succeeding an unpopular incumbent, against a candidate whose party as associated with a potentially era-defining economic crisis and a series of unpopular conflicts, against a candidate who ran a badly mismanaged campaign characterized more by a series of ill-considered stunts than anything else... also contains stories like the one linked to above.

And those are the ones that garner enough media attention to be noticed by a white person in the middle states.

I don't know how much it seems like I talk about racism, to you folks. It's not my "thing" in general, because... it doesn't have to be. If I were going to be a dedicated blogger against intolerance and injustice, I could probably think of five issues that affect me more than racism. I don't even have to think to come up with three. Any time one of us (i.e., "white us") hears the words "racial privilege" and says, "What privilege? I come from a poor background. My employer is an equal opportunity employer. I never had any advantages. What privilege?", there's a huge chunk of an answer for you: we don't have to care about this shit.

It doesn't have to matter to us that a bus load of kids can be told they're going on a fun outing and go through the trouble of putting on their swim trunks and their little bathing suits and lotioning up and finding their ear plugs and their nose clips and blowing up their arm floaties and going out into the hot sun... and then told the party's over, they have to go home.

Try telling a kid that America's "post-racial" after they've gone through that.

Of course, some people do...

It's not about race They were simply making people uncomfortable. There have been complaints. It's not that we're racist, no, see, we even hire minorities. But you're making the established clientele nervous. Wait, what? I'm sorry, but there is no need for that sort of insinuation... we're just trying to keep a happy customer base and maintain the atmosphere of our club. Why do you people always insist on making it about race? There are people with real problems in the world, and if all you have to worry about is not being allowed to go in a swimming pool, then I guess you don't have it so bad, do you?

*barf*

Do you remember what it was like to be a kid and get all excited about something and then have it snatched away? Even when there was a good reason. God, I had a fingertip cut off when it got caught in a heavy screen door when I was pre-K. We were going to the playground, which was like two houses down from our house and which we consequently got to go to about every single day, but we were going there and I was excited and my brother was excited and in our mutual excitement we managed to get a door swinging shut on my finger. I got taken to the hospital and I had my first experience with stitches and I came home looking like I was 2% mummy, which was pretty cool... and then I asked my mom, "So now we go to the playground, right?"

I think I was more devastated by being told that no, after enduring that pain and that trauma and ordeal, that it was too late and it was dark and I needed rest. That was like adding insult to injury. I don't remember the names of the people I met Tuesday night but I remember that. Disappointment sticks like nothing else.

Of course, when I got even a little bit older, I could look back and know that my mother was only being sensible. Today, I see it as a kind of a cute kids-say-the-darnedest-things, oh-they're-so-resilient story when viewed from the outside. All that pain and injury, and what I really cared about was getting to play on the jungle gym.

But imagine going through something like that, being all excited about something, and then being told no, you can't... and being crushed with disappointment... and that it's not because of something that makes any sense when you get some perspective from it...

"Not being allowed to swim in a chlorinated and filtered commercial swimming pool" might seem like the epitome of what's called a "first world problem", but the lingering effects of that kind of incredibly pointed discrimination transcend any barriers of class or economic status.

And imagine being the camp counselors who got the kids all pumped up for their outing and then have to deal with the fallout. Gah. I can imagine that, in terms of excitement and disappointment, but that's as far as I can take it.

I think karnythia had said all of this much better than I did, possibly many times, with much fewer words: "post-racial my ass".

But then, she's had a lot more opportunities to refine her message.

Comments

[hnmic.livejournal.com]

y'know every time someone brings up that Obama got elected I'm reminded of a thing CNN did where they went around with a camera and asked people who they voted for. They stopped at a house in Alabama with a rebel flag flying, when asked, the little white lady proudly proclaimed, on camera, "We voted for that nigger boy."

[stormcaller3801.livejournal.com]

For the sake of, well, hearing myself talk, allow me to share a story that hit rather close to home. The college I graduated from- twice- got a donation of several million dollars from a couple. This couple was extremely well known locally and had run a number of highly prosperous businesses in town. Not only did the college get renamed after these two, but there were a great many awards and comments about how wonderful and magnanimous they were.

Well, one evening my parents went to a party. I can't recall just what it was for; just some big tuxedo-required event. While they were there, they ran into this upstanding, magnanimous couple. And as part of a conversation, the wife offered up her opinion on the potential first black president of the US.

"It won't matter whether or not that nigger gets elected. If he does he'll be shot within a week."

I don't think her opinion, or the opinion of various other people who were on camera prior to the election, spontaneously changed because their candidate lost.

Beyond that though? I think Tales of MU is a fairly persistent advocate against racism. An unusual but consistent one that brings it up now and again.

And I think that there's a core problem with a lot of these things, something that's difficult to deal with. There's a lack of identity, not only for any given race, but for genders as well. I make a point of reading stories aimed at and by women- a lot of them are involved with trying to figure out just what feminism is. Similarly I read things from and by blacks, and I see a wide range of opinions about what it is to be black- what it means, what it should be, what the label should imply and what's not 'acceptable behavior' if you happen to be black, and according to other blacks (e.g., Bill Cosby's commentary about proper speech, Michael Steele's 'hip hop' GOP leadership), and ultimately I come down to the idea that I can't quite understand it, because I'm not in there, but it certainly seems like there's a struggle with the question of identity- something that all the stereotypes, bias, and prejudice aren't making any easier.

[auralfixations.livejournal.com]

Well I hope you won't block me for posting this, but I'm going to assume that there's a difference between leaving a race comment on a race discussion thread and leaving one on a story thread, but feel free to delete.

I live in Chicago, and I've lived both in mostly-white suburbs, and black neighborhoods where I was literally the only white person within 3 blocks who wasn't there to buy drugs. It's my personal opinion that (at least in this city, I can't speak about the rest of the US) so-called "race problems" are really a matter of class and culture.

I think that there are few middle class white people who would mind living down the block from a middle class black or hispanic family (class) who went to Ravinia, had their kids on a preschool waiting list, had tea or afternoon cocktails with the neighbors, and more or less acted like typical yuppies (culture). In other words, I think few people in the Chicago suburbs would mind living next-door to the Obamas.

Someone who has embraced middle class white culture (yes there is white culture, and by middle class I mean real middle class, not working class) not associating with anyone who embraces urban working class black culture really a racist? Or is it cultural superiority, the same way the exact same person would likely look down on anyone who embraced "redneck" culture and watched Nascar and Blue Collar Comedy?

From my experience, middle class white people don't mind minorities so long as they're middle class and "act white." Working class white people tend to be split - half of them are either more racist, because they see blacks as competition for their jobs, and the other half embrace black urban culture and adopt the dress, music, and speech inflections.

And I don't see that as racism. I see it as classism and ethnocentricism. And I hate to say it but classism and ethnocentricism have always, and most likely will always, be around. Every culture throughout history has had its upper classes and lower classes and the two don't generally mix - they have little common ground to discuss. And ethnocentricism, until recently, was just a US problem. If you moved to France, you acted French. If you moved to Japan, you acted Japanese. When in Rome, as they say.

But the US was always a "melting pot" of different races, and with them came different cultures. And most people tend to socialize with other people who have the same cultural values. It's not racist, and it's certainly not only racist when white people do it.

Obviously there's always going to be a small group of racists (neo nazis, kkk) just like there's always going to be a small group of sexists, a small group of religious fundamentalists (why are the Amish never called fundamentalists anyway? Right, tangent.), a small group of people who want to ban gay marriage...that will NEVER go away. Google "church of rael" and you'll see what I mean - there's always going to be a group of kooks who think what they think and that's it. They'll make headlines every so often to sell news but they're not indicative of a wider problem.

As for that news article, IF the only reason the children were kicked out was their skin tone then yes I agree that's racist. I also think that a private club should be able to have whoever it wants as a member based on whatever criteria it chooses.

[caret-mox.livejournal.com]

That first article linked to another article that gave the club's perspctive. They say they renigged on the deal with the campers because they didn't realize how much they would crowd the pool. They got complaints from members about not being notified ahead of time and the unexpected crowding. If I were a member at a private pool club, I have to say I'd be a little put off by an onslaught of kids. It has nothing to do with minorities. I don't know how big the pool is and how crowded 65 kids plus the regular members looks at the specific club but I can see that as a reasonable realistic non-racist complaint. I personally don't like kids. They're noisy (dear god can they scream and shriek) and rowdy and clingy.

[aniraangel.livejournal.com]

Not being American, I see this stuff and I go '.....er?' because, honestly... the idea of throwing people out of anywhere because of the colour of their skin is absurd. Even if the area I live in is more or less white... there are Aboriginal folks around here, and Asians, I believe there was a family from India... English, South African... even if most aren't, they're still here and if I don't like them it's not because of their skin colour, it's because they're pains in some way. Like the boy in my science class who used to think it would be fun to make overt sexual innuendos and run off with my pencil case.

I thought he was an arse, but that's because he was. He was Aboriginal, which is hard to forget because he adored pulling attention to the fact... and I don't know? I've met people of different races I've adored, and some who no matter what colour they were make me want to do unfortunate, violent things...

That's not to say some people aren't out to get other races... just that there can be things other than colour that motivate people to do things.


...Also, I've always wondered.. isn't calling people "white trash" just as bad as say, calling and African American something?? Americans, you constantly perplex me...

At any rate, my funnest answer is always Avenue Q... because a little humour is good for the soul...

I suppose...

[drooling-ferret.livejournal.com]

I suppose I shouldn't be shocked that the vast majority of the previous comments were of the "well, I agree, but..." variety. I am a little, though.

The degree of not-getting-it necessary to make a statement that proves the point you were making and think one is offering a valid counter argument... just, wow.

First time long time, btw.

I just wrote about racism

[interestinghell.livejournal.com]

in my blog, except i have a different twist on it because I'm currently in Australia. Give it a read, let me know what you think.

http://jennahasnoidea.blogspot.com/2009/06/race-relations.html