Letters to the Editor
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I am so incredibly disappointed
... in Gary Kamiya, for not thinking his article through whatsoever, and in Salon, for publishing this.
Someone already pointed out that whites don't THINK of themselves as a homogenous "race" either ... yet we behave as one. Thrown into a situation with five random black folks and five random white folks, the groups will certainly divide and interact along racial lines -- even if race is a construct -- but if separate may interact along lines of class.
Great civil rights leaders have never, by the way, denied that class is a huge part of our racial animosity and oppression here in America, Gary. Read Dr. King.
Meanwhile, someone read this stuff before it gets published. This article just makes no sense whatsoever, and minimizes the very real problem of institutional and personal racism in America. Sounds like Guiliani: "race! 9/11! everything changes! blah blah blah!"
Not to mention the incredibly clinical, removed, yet also INSTITUTIONALLY RACIST use of the term and grouping "black underclass." If I hear that again I will tear my damn hair out.
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This study was interesting
as a converstion opener, but we have a ways to go. The part that is "heartening" if you want to call it that, is that blacks are starting to "normalize". That is to say that in most societies, whatever the ethnic make up, there are classes or social ranks. For the longest time, blacks were profoundly unrepresented in the middle and upper social ranks--the equivalent of American untouchables or any other group officially denied access to higher classes because of their birth. Now there is enough differentiation so that a middle class black person might be as culturally different from a poor black person as a middle class white person is from a poor white person. It's not perfection, but believe it or not, it's progress--it's a less artificial situation. On the other hand, why people expressed economic differences as being "not as one race" seems baffling, yet not, when you consider that some blacks have considered group oppression one of those great traits that ties the race together. When some members do not experience that oppression to the same degree as others, does that no longer make them of the same race? Is that how race is defined by some?--by shared experience rather than shared country of origin?
Some people have suggested that because of this shift in economic status among some blacks, we can move on from race to focus on class inequalities--I don't think it's quite that simple, though. For one thing, middle class black "culture" isn't the same as middle class "white" culture--nor should it aspire to be. For another, it's not as if middle class blacks don't experience racism--they do. Race matters--just maybe differently than when nearly all blacks were poor and oppressed the same way.
The final point to this, and one that has elicited great outrage AND quiet nods in the black community, is to what degree can you value traits of your race and community that also manifestly prevent progress? Liberals tend to magnify the wrongs perpetuated by whites on blacks, while conservatives harp on the malfeasance of blacks, as one of those scenarios precludes the other, but I think they happen simultaneously, and are intertwined, and the situation can only be mitigated by mitigating BOTH sides. That is to say, for example, that when police stop profiling young black men AND young black men stop committing crimes at a higher rate than other young men, the situation would improve. Improving just one or the other won't really do the trick.
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Tribalism does not equal Racism
The human mind in order to deal with the vast quantities of data the average person absorbs constantly, groups data into more manageable categories. It's not necessarily fair or accurate but it's functional. In human organizational terms this dynamic of grouping can best be described as the need to identify people as 'us or them'.
Tribalism is an expression of 'us or them'. Thats all. It makes no judgments about 'them', it simply denotes 'them'. Naturally tribal people have opinions about other tribes but those opinions merely reflect their judgments as thinking people, not a genetic dynamic at work. The genetic dynamic at work in tribalism is simply, we are us, everyone else is them.
Racism is a judgment and says: we are us, they are them, and they suck.
They don't compare at all.
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First Hip Hop is Dead and now RACE is dying.....
As I read this article, I didn't know how to react, so I will just say, I was stunned. It's beyond me that looking at the events of the past year anyone could come to the conclusion that the issue of race is dying.
Between the Jena 6; Megan Williams in West Virginia (for those that never heard this story...a blk woman was held as a sexual slave and tortured by 6 whites in W. VA; the black cop in Long Island who found a noose in his locker and the rising popularity of noose usage lately; the outrageous makeup of the prison population and let's not leave out the great immigration debacle (regarding latinos) ....these are just a few incidences that seem to cast doubt on the fact that the issue of race is a dying one.
If you want to play semantics and debate whether there are "races" or not...you go ahead. The fact is that in this country historically, we have used the color of peoples skin as an primary identifier...check the box next to black, non-spanish....
The idea of the demise of black solidarity is a disturbing one to me. As a black woman, I feel a sense of loss and it's too complicated for me to even begin to explain on this post. Let's just say, I don't think this is necessarily a good thing.
Perhaps unbeknownst to white folks, there has always been a gap in values among middle-class blacks and lower-income blacks. I am not sure why this is such a surprise. Black comedians joke about it and we laugh because we all know....maybe its just a black thing. :o) And there are those of us who have had to straddle the line growing up....being from the middle-class but attending schools where kids of all economic backgrounds attended, so you tried not to come off too "bourgie" or "white" because you need to be down with your friends, so you spoke w/slang and made other alterations to your behavior...until you got back home. Then you flipped the switch again because your parents expected you to speak proper english and behave like you've got some sense.
There was a gap, but there were commonalities which keep us connected and I think to lose that, would be devastating.
I think it shows at the very least a lack of insight and naivety to think that further separation of black middle-class values from lower-income peoples would SUDDENLY cause white people to see middle-class blacks as less of a threat or more palatable and thus they would join together and sing Kumbayaa and hold hands as they now feel more well-intentioned and motivated to help the black lower-class....it's freakin' laughable!! What the hell kind of theory is that! Oh my, that's amusing.
Don't get me wrong, I would love for us to all get along. It would be great to be able to not talk about a black lower-under class of any color in this country...but it will never be....that's not pessimism that realism.
As someone mentioned 2% control 90% of the wealth in this country...I am going to go out on a limb and guess that that top 2% is 99.9% WHITE (maybe Oprah's up in there...)...when that economic disparity changes, maybe we can re-examine this issue as well.
Oh and one more thing....black people never elected Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson Kings of all black people. It is white pundits, media, politicians, and fallen stars seeking absolution for their racist comments that go to Jesse and Al for forgiveness like they are the popes of Blackville.
We the people, never crowned them. So for the love of saints, please stop talking about them like they are THE BLACK LEADERS of ALL BLACK PEOPLE.
Peace.