Present Day Racism
Living in present day America where race and racism is prevalent, it is important that we examine its long history. Being a non-minority white woman, it is clear that I myself have never experienced the hardships or divide that racism creates. With that, I believe that myself and many other non-minorities turn a blind eye to the reality that racism is still embedded in our society. In “Time and Distance Overcome”, author Eula Biss explores and explains the relationship between the creation of the telephone and the history of racism that followed. Secondly, in “Walking While Black” Jamaican native author Garnette Cadogan compares walking the streets of Jamaica to those of New Orleans and how the effects of racism changed his reality. Lastly, American author and journalist Ta-nehisi Coates’ excerpt from “Between The World and Me” reflects on what life was like growing up as a Black boy in oppression of the Baltimore education system. Through reading and understanding these pieces, it has become evident that race and racism is something that must be faced head on. In order to acknowledge and combat present day racism, it is critical to learn and discuss the meaning and history of racism in both the education system and in our personal time.
An experience I’ve had that made me reconsider and really put myself in the perspective of what experiencing racism could be like was on a trip to Hawaii. Going there, I was a white, caucasian tourist to many on the island. With knowing the island’s history, I knew that native people do not appreciate the visitation and exposure of the islands. Native people will often refer to tourists as “haole”, a traditionally derogatory term for people who are not of Native Hawaiian or Polynesian descent. One day on my trip specifically, my father and I were on a hike on the North Shore of the island. As we passed a small group going down the same path we were on, a man’s voice yelled “disgusting haoles” back at us. Although at the time I didn’t understand why or what he was referring to us as, I still could feel a feeling of being singled out. I looked different, acted different, and had a different culture from the people around me. In most places this would be something I wouldn’t think to acknowledge because of my race. White people don’t have to think about how they are different from others because we naturally fit with society. White privilege has made myself and many others blind to this realization, a clear issue in our society. It took an experience like this for me to begin to understand how it feels to look, act, and have a different culture from those around me. This experience also made me acknowledge the feeling of being singled out in a group of those unlike you. The feeling of being the “only one” or that you’re “different” is uncomfortable. If anything it is cold and isolating. Our society has been so corrupted in it’s past to make African Americans feel like the singled out ones. Cadogans essay further explores this idea in his comparison of life walking the streets of Jamaica to life in America. He describes how in Jamaica, his skin color was something he did not acknowledge because he had grown up in a society of people who looked the same as him. In America though, he realizes the distaste for his skin color that America has. Walking the streets in America “felt more dangerous than Jamaica. The sidewalk was a minefield, and every hesitation and self-censored compensation reduced my dignity. Despite my best efforts, the streets never felt comfortably safe. Even a simple salutation was suspect” (Cadogan 5). Cadogan sheds lights on how in America, he was seen as a threat. His skin color made those around him believe that he could be dangerous and to steer away. It was a “minefield” in a sense that simple actions that someone like myself, a non-minority white person made, would be okay; but in Cadogan’s case he would be criminalized. He is unable to exchange casualties or feel comfortability walking in the streets due to his skin. This is a glimpse of how America has been built to criminalize those who look, act, and have different cultures than the non-minority white person. If we ourselves choose to be more aware of this divide, there is hope to change. It starts with educating ourselves on the inherent and unjust bias America has created for African Americans.
Biss’s essay opened my eyes to a side of America’s history that I believe has been swept under the rug. One reason why we don’t learn these realities is due to the misrepresentation or solely no representation of minorities in school curriculum. In my own high school education, we read very few African American or minority authors. The other half is the glazing over and generalization of America’s history of racism. America cannot change its inherently racist foundation without fully recognizing the horrors of its past. Being part of a present day society, we are desensitized to the vindication and criminalization of African Americans. Biss’s essay details how far this has gone back in America’s history. In the past, lynching took place nearly anywhere, including, “bridges, from arches, from trees standing alone in fields, from trees in front of the county courthouse, from trees used as public billboards, from trees barely able to support the weight of a man, from telephone poles, from streetlamps, and from poles erected solely for that purpose” (Biss 3). This information is something that I had never previously learned in any school setting; largely due to the American education system wanting to glaze over the brutality of racism in our history. In present times, it is important to rip off the band aid we have placed over racism and discuss the brutality of our past. We cannot move forward without recognition of it. Biss then further explains that punishments like these would be for simple actions such as, “whistles, for rumors, for “disputing with a white man,” for “unpopularity,” for “asking a white woman in marriage,” for “peeping in a window” (Biss 3). Although lynching was a concept that I learned in the education system, I know that the gruesome details and realities have been generalized. Biss’s explanation of criminalization for African Americans demonstrates that the fear Cadogan expresses in his essay is no overreaction. The history of penalization for small actions dates back to the beginning of America. This example of what African Americans would be penalized for is a justification of that fear. Reading excerpts and articles such as these are vital for society in order to realize and change the way America is. College should not be the first time I learn the use of the telephone pole for a vicious act like the innocent lynching of African Americans. I have an internalized anger towards myself for the misunderstanding of history and the education system for trying to hide these realities. Beginning the conversation of racism with truthfulness of its history is the only way to change racism faced in the present day. Consequently, it is not until we open the wounds of the past and admit to them that we will be able to progress as a country.
The American education system historically is built on a rigid structure for success, leaving no room for diversity or variation. Further, it is based on the success for the typical, suburban, white caucasian specifically. Coates’ reflected letter to his son on growing up in the education system of Baltimore explores this idea. Growing up in an area where violence and hardship were prevalent, education and being part of the street life was a combative lifestyle for Coates. For him, education “meant always packing an extra number 2 pencil and working quietly. Educated children walked in single file on the right side of the hallway, raised their hands to use the lavatory, and carried the lavatory pass when en route. Educated children never offered excuses — certainly not childhood itself. The world had no time for the childhoods of black boys and girls. How could the schools?” (Coates 93). The education system does not consider the backgrounds of African Americans in a sense that they do not factor in their realities. For Coates and many other African American children, the lifestyle they grow up in is not always comparable to the stereotypical Caucsian. In my own education system, the option for better schooling of children that come from low-income families or backgrounds is only offered at high-school level. This program was known as METCO, many students who were part of this came from minority families that lived in the suburban areas of Boston. Their chance for a better education I believe should be throughout their whole lives, not in the last four years. This is again an example of the neglect that the American education system has for minorities such as African Americans. If given the equal opportunity that sheds light of their background, there would be more of an equal success. To achieve this, educating ourselves on the realities of African Americans is vital. I myself tend to forget the advantages I have with my race especially when it comes to my education.
Discussing the realities of racism in our country and its systemic nature would change my own perspective and many of others. Although psychologist Paul Bloom would argue that, “Empathy is a spotlight with a narrow focus; it shines brightly on those we love and gets dim for those who are different or strange” (Bloom 2), I believe that if we choose to approach the discussion of racism with empathy it will help society progress. We must talk to those who are “different” than us, in this case racially, in order to understand their realities. In turn, we will then be able to empathize with them. David Foster Wallace’s piece, “This Is Water”, would say the narrowminded-ness towards racism comes with a lack of empathy. If we think outside of our own reality, we then see the reality of those around us including minorities. Wallace makes the suggestion, “to be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded” (Wallace 3). In other words, it is important to have awareness of the lives outside of our own, this includes the topic of racism. The things that I am certain of having and obtaining in my life are not certain for the life of others. Due to the automatic white privilege that has been handed to me, I am given more opportunities in society. In turn this also means that I am discluded from the many downsides of our society. For instance, I don’t experience the hardships of racism. Therefore it is my job and the job of many to become educated about the hardships others do face. Turning a blind eye to racism and its effects has been the arrogance of society and America itself.
In order to change we must put aside the uncomfortable shame that society has for its racist history and discuss how we can change. The education system has glazed over the history of racism in order to avoid coming to it’s gruesome reality. The glazing of history can be compared to the childrens game of telephone as it, “depends on the fact that a message passed quietly from one ear to another to another will get distorted at some point along the line” (Biss 3). The system has changed the way history has been taught, distorting it, in order to mask the truth. Although I can understand the avoidance of truth because of shame for the fast, it is far more important to push pride aside and face America’s racist truth head on. My generation has grown up believing that what was taught about racism in school was the truth. Coates also sees and experiences this in the Baltimore education system, explaining, “I sensed that the fear that marked West Baltimore could not be explained by the schools. Schools did not reveal truths, they concealed them. Perhaps they must be burned away so that the heart of this thing might be known” (Coates 93). Likewise to Coates, I agree that the concealment of truth must be stripped away. Schools and teachers overall have a fear of teaching students the reality of racism’s history in America because it is horrific. The education system feeds into and influences this fear by continuing to mask truth. Our society must overcome this fear and discuss the horrific truth behind our history. If we choose to become transparent with our past, we will be able to move forward together. Concealment of the truth creates a bigger divide between the education system and minorities. The education system won’t change and we will not achieve racial equality without admitting to how it has been unequal in the past.
Overall, there is no way of reversing or erasing the existence of racism in our country overnight. By saying this someone many ask, well what can I do? Although there are a multitude of things to list in combating racism, the first steps to progress is by talking about it. I believe that many avoid these conversations because we would have to admit the heinous acts and history of America’s past and present. Even though it is not easy, we will not be able to progress without discussion. Therefore, I myself and those around me must choose to face the reality of racism in our country and not be afraid to discuss it.
