Because You Never Asked

     (This essay was written around 2002.)

     If one is the kind of human being who … 1) spends substantial amounts of time away from one’s own country, and … 2) has a tendency to use one’s reasoning powers beyond such things as the procurement of bodily sustenance, sexual gratification, and the usual diversions embodied in people like Jerry Bruckheimer, Brittany Spears or Shaquille O’Neal, you will undoubtedly begin to take note of the concepts these alien nations have of your country. For this writer, qualifying with regard to the first prerequisite is self evident. As for the second, which could be considered somewhat more esoteric, the fact that these essays have now become a book of substantial girth is some evidence of qualification. One might find much of this work questionable with regard to right or wrong, smart or stupid, interesting or boring, clever or simple minded, erect or limp, etc. and blah, blah, but the mere existence of such a mass of dubious philosophical patter, at the very least, is proof of some rudimentary attempt to use one’s reasoning powers beyond the realm of Regis Philbin.

     In having spent a great deal of time in western Europe, I’ve noticed that they regularly attribute a higher degree of racism to America than this observer would deem factual. Such criticism from countries who relegated their ex-colonial subjects to a status somewhat reminiscent of an animal with a harness, does not go down easily for an American observer. Laudably, on both sides of the Atlantic, in spite of the fact that so much more needs to be accomplished, great strides have been made in these areas and perhaps no more so than in the United States.

     One must remember that racism cannot exist unless differing races are living in close proximity. When Christopher Columbus blundered into the Western Hemisphere, it set off a chain of events --- decimation of indigenous populations, a plantation economy thirsting for large stocks of cheap labor, etc. --- that created social problems we are still struggling with 500 years later. The simple fact that the American experience has always been shared by significant populations of differing races, has made racism a formidable part of our history. It’s quite convenient for the Europeans to smugly criticize American racism when their national populations, up until the most recent times, have been so homogenous. Nevertheless, some degree of credit must be given to such countries as England, France, Holland, and even Germany, for the multi-racial cultures which have been developing there with a reasonable degree of civility for the last ½ century. But the historical context is hardly comparable. When third world people willfully seek a better life in countries somewhat equipped to handle them --- schools, housing, jobs, etc. ---  the emotional-economic abyss created by centuries of brute forced labor, does not have to be dealt with. Assimilation, although not easy, is a far more obtainable task.

     Contrary to the belittling European attitude, I make the case that America has been in the vanguard in dealing with racism. If there is some truth to such an assertion, it is more the result of historic accident, just as the development of racism in America was hatched from a similar roll of the dice.

     Racism in America had to be dealt with. By the time the 20th century had rolled around, there was a large population of black people wallowing in obviously inferior conditions to the rest of the nation. Trying to maintain such a status quo would eventually prove impossible. Like any social movement, the aggrieved party must provide the impetus for change and the Afro-American, in a gallant display of emotional-intellectual equality, could only endure such obvious contradictions for so long. If millions of black people could go on accepting such a lowly position in a supposedly democratic society, would not the racist point of view be proven? Given their normal endowments as human beings, their militancy was inevitable.

     The full fledged maturation of the civil rights movement in the 50’s and 60’s was the flowering of a plant that had been slowly nurtured in rocky terrain and arid conditions. Certainly, the people who planted these seeds --- Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. DuBois; ground breaking entertainers and athletes like Marion Anderson, Paul Robson, Jack Johnson, Jackie Robinson; intellectuals like James Baldwin --- should be given their fair share of credit for the breakthroughs affected in the era of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X., Rosa Parks, Ali, and on up to the well developed structures of today’s civil rights watchdogs. Nor should the rest of American culture be forgotten in this struggle. The average American proved to be a reasonable enough person to recognize the validity of all this agitation, and the progressive elements within the status quo were strong enough to force the issue in the stodgy halls of Officialdom. If such retro-thinkers as the Bush Gang are now obliged to include people of color at the highest levels of government, it was not through any efforts of their own. With the predictability of an algebraic equation, the Bushes of the world will always resist. It is only when a flood of such proportions as the civil rights movement sweeps them downstream with everything else in its path, that they are forced to adapt in order to survive. If Colin Powell and Conde Rice can now thumb their noses at the civil rights establishment from such grandiose positions of power; if Clarence Thomas can now wear the most hallowed robes of judicial omnipotence while conveniently denying opportunities which were so passionately obtained for him; if a whole stable of black versions of Rush Limbaugh can yak away all night on Fox News, they can thank those goddamn liberals who made such pests of themselves.

     What the Europeans mistake for racism in America are the residues and wreckage left behind by the centuries of a truly racist society that once existed. It’s one thing to “officially” erase racism from the map --- civil and voting rights acts (though in the presidential  elections of 2000 and 2004, we’ve seen some new tactics around such laws), desegregation of facilities, services and schools, etc. --- but quite another for the previous victims of such racism to be emotionally and intellectually ready to compete in the world as conceived by the Thatcher-Clinton cowboys. As a result, we still see an Afro-American community operating from a position of inferiority. This manifests itself in ways that could be construed, from afar, as a racist ideology: the squalor and violence of ghetto life, the out of proportion incarceration rates of blacks and Latinos, under funded schools (see essay “Education”), and, perhaps more than any other factor for the Europeans,

     the death penalty.

     The United States is the only so-called western democracy that adheres to the eye for an eye philosophy of the death penalty. For the Europeans, as well as this writer, such revenge-like punishment is considered undignified of a contemporary, enlightened nation. (As for its effects as a deterrent to crime,  you could sooner convince me that the Titanic can’t sink.) Our use of the death penalty has ramifications beyond the romantic joust of intellectual positions. The Europeans are well aware that the execution of Afro-Americans is significantly higher than their percentage of the population. This adds fuel to the racist perception of America, although I’d call it a somewhat false image. Our judicial system is not institutionally racist. Post WWII America, in throwing off the shackles of “official” racism, was really saying, “OK, no more unfair rules or laws. Go get’em and good luck.” But the previous 4 centuries of depravation had somewhat retarded the black man’s ability to compete. They were using wooden rackets while the rest of us were already using space age materials. As a result, a higher percentage of blacks still live in environments fertile for crime and violence. There is more criminal activity in the black community, logically leading to more black people awaiting their fate on death row. This is further compounded by the true inequality in our judicial system, which will usually reward a more expensive monetary defense. (Ah hah! We seem to have stumbled upon the true essence of American ideology, much more so than racism.) The average Afro-American in trouble with the law does not possess this financial advantage. This further weakens their position, but it is not the result of some congenital racism. It is the indirect result of past centuries of intellectual neglect. The judicial success of a comfortably solvent black man like O.J. Simpson, lends credence to the fact that our courts are not racist in concept.

     I defy any European critic of American race relations to show me a government more representative of its racial make up than the United States. This holds true for many social aspects of American culture as well. It is now almost obligatory for commercial propaganda, as well as TV and cinema creation, to be multi-racial. Institutionally, legally, “officially”, there is no nation anywhere that has waged the war on racism with more tenacity than the United States. But good intentions alone might not be enough. The problem is this:

     The United States has propagated a way of life that, for the moment, has become the basic model for the planet. It is hyper-competitive, self centered, mega-commercial. It is an every man for himself attitude based on material acquisition. It is not easy, considering the historical inheritance of the Afro-American, for such a person to be effective in this cultural climate. If we leave aside the inevitable individual, private cases of racism, America, seen as an integral entity, is not a racist society. But its “modus operandi” might not be optimal in trying to erase the unavoidable inequalities residually left over from the centuries of slavery and de-facto slavery. In spite of the well intentioned advancements made since WWII, we have far from conquered our racial problems. One has to wonder if the human interaction created in the society championed by the United States is capable of further improving the situation.

     My guess is the following: race relations will continue to improve, not just in America, but in all the world. But it will happen in spite of the American cultural blueprint, not as a result of it. It will happen because it has to happen. The world is always becoming a smaller, more connected place. All peoples are living in closer proximity. As mentioned at the outset of this essay, this will create racism … and it will eventually help to weaken racism. And so it goes …