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Racing Nowhere
By Avery | September 27, 2007
In a way, watching (listening to) people dissect people discuss race is painful to watch, but there is a certain familiarity to the dance. First there’s the event, whatever it is. Maybe somebody says somethin, maybe somebody does somethin, whatever. There’s an event. Then there’s the media coverage (or lack thereof). Then comes the question, and later charge of racism. Then comes the denial of racism. Then come the litany of historical precedents. Depending on the scale of the case, we might shimmy out with a comparison to the OJ Simpson trial. Then comes the “race card” accusation. Not necessarily immediately, but soon enough, “400 years of slavery” enters the question, with the inevitable answer being, ‘get over it.’ And at this point, we simply begin another iteration of the dance, with only minimal focus on the initial event.
In certain ways, I think this stuff is interesting. I mean, in general, I like watching and listening to people argue, just to hear how faithful (or not) they’re able to stay to the issue. For the most part, it’s too hard, because generally, the big “wow, there’s really a racial divide” situations quickly devolve into personal reflections — well there might be racists, but I’m not one of them, and I think… or such-and-such happened to me, and being Black (or not) had (or didn’t) THIS impact on the situation. At the same time, it’s frustrating, because I know that no real progress is being made. Once people start bringing out their own personal stories, it’s game over, because the tendency is to use one’s own personal experience as normative. That tendency really leads to a dead end, because first and foremost, a person’s experience cannot really be refuted. If it happened, it happened. Now, we could question the validity of their interpretation of the event, but once a person has exposed themselves enough to tell a piece of their own history, they ain’t really tryin to hear nothin else after that. Only problem is, not all personal stories are created equal. Some things are cogent, relevant, and illustrative of a larger point. Some things just happened to you.
The other thing I’ve noticed is the tendency for people to talk past each other. It’s like jokers come in with a ready-made opinion and look to see one or two words, then they’re off to the races, not even considering that there might be several points of agreement in what the other person said, or that the points of disagreement might actually be inconsequential in the overall scope of the discussion. But then, consensus is not really sexy, is it? It can’t be, otherwise the harpy-looking chick on Court TV wouldn’t have a show.
Thing is, I think it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. This is due to a confluence of many factors, but not necessarily that I think that there’s more or “better quality” racism. People have more access to each other’s attention, so in a sense there’s a great deal more interaction than was possible in the past. At the same time, with the trend towards the informal, we have another problem: we can talk to each other, but we don’t know how to talk to each other. That’s just in general. When it comes specifically to the ultra-sensitive issues of race, the problem is exacerbated, almost the exclusion of a solution.
Topics: race |
September 27th, 2007 at 8:10 am
The time for action is past. Heh!
September 27th, 2007 at 8:58 am
One thing that stands in the way of constructive dialog on race is… well… the definition of ‘race’. Discourse seems to extend from categories many of us sense as arbitrary, but rarely challenge on their merits. So to an extent, we’re often talking past one another.
It follows that if ‘race’ is poorly defined (or perhaps misunderstood), then too is ‘racism’, and subsequent conversations about racism usually get bogged down in an avalanche of personal anecdotes. I try to explain people the difference between racism — which is institutional — and the personal nature of bigotry. Bigotry in America has subsided tremendously over the last 30-40 years. Racism, OTOH, is alive and well. In fact, it’s become chic for many minorities to embrace racist theories for themselves (although they’re mostly unable to affect them).
September 27th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
as dark star is wont to say, eye-to-eye