Racism and the Problem with White People...

I am not a sociologist. I don't actually know the depth to which racism is part of American society, but I do know it is a present reality, not simply something corrected by the Civil Rights' Movement in the 1960s. How do I know this? I see it. I am part of it. Every day.

Dave Chapelle has unabashedly revealed the negative attitudes of Caucasians towards African Americans, which are often not perceived as being racist. Though his humor crosses the line into crassness, he uses it to shed light on some of the struggles of African Americans that "white people"  would like to avoid discussing. This includes current segregationist attitudes that reflect the 1950s (i.e. no inter-racial dating), or generic criminal profiling by cops of those with a darker skin color. Sometimes it seems the person's only crime was that they were, "driving while being black."

No one likes to believe one is racist. And I am not singling out Caucasians as the only culprits. But the reality is that in a predominantly "white" society, African Americans often get the short end of the stick.

This message is concurrent in The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Alex Haley, 1965), in films such as "Hairspray," and now in Kanye West's soon-to-be mainstream song, "New Slaves."  These don't simply address day to day interactions between Caucasians and African Americans.  Instead, they argue there are flaws in the system.

Take, for example, the recent promotional events in Texas for Kanye West's new album featuring the song, "New Slaves." The song is quite vulgar in much of its language and imagery. I am not an advocate for how Kanye West chooses to express his message. But it is worthwhile to listen to what he has to say, as he is representing a message that is, in itself, more vulgar than one might like to admit. He differentiates in the song between African Americans who are simply passed through the system and those who prey on other African Americans to get ahead. He doesn't offer solutions. His point is that there are many guilty parties, but it is ultimately "the Man" that is at fault.

I could give you a million experiential accounts, but the evidence of such corruption in the system which turned my head was in reading about the financial status of African Americans. In a semi-informal survey, Michael O. Emerson and others present in Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America an overview of the economic discrepancy between African Americans and Caucasians. The conclusions of their studies is that, even when African Americans are working in the same jobs as Caucasians, they tend to have less assets and more difficulty getting loans.

I probably don't need to tell you that many African American communities in the US are very poor, have higher crime rates, etc. than areas that are predominantly Caucasian. The question is: why?

The answer posed from a geographical standpoint is that there is no easy way out. Low testing scores lead to less funding for schools, which means the teachers will most likely be less educated or experienced, having little to work with. A case study of this type of scenario is contained in the non-fiction, The Freedom Writers. Erin Gruwell was a unique educator who chose to go to a school that paid less and fight for her predominantly African American students to get a better education.

Back to my stream of logic: By the time a student who has gone through such a school system gets to high school, they may need to get a job to support their family, they may have been roped into a gang in an effort to fit in or to simply survive in their neighborhood. They would be exceptional to be able to get a college education. One of the things colleges look at is the school someone graduated from. Now, it is possible for someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps the old-fashioned American way, but my point is that they are at a seriously unfair disadvantage from the start. Most will stay because they have no way out.

To conclude my ramblings, I offer only what solutions my small mind can contrive: this would include social programs. It would be quite excellent if the church was able to step up to the plate, pitch in, and run these. Sadly, the evangelical churches spend more time getting more church members, creating more spiritual programs, or installing coffee bars than caring for the desperate in society. I love the church, don't get me wrong: it is the body of Christ! But we need to have deeds as well as faith (read the book of James!).

 I would propose the church should be running organizations that would reach the youth in these areas in particular, offering tutoring services, helping to raise funds for better education, giving skills training, providing healthy adult role models, etc. Ideally this would be churches of various denominations and ethnicities, working together. The church also needs to model integration in a healthy way.

The more I think about these issues raised in our culture, the more I am in earnest that the church would be a light to the world. Not a self-righteous, solitary candle, but a blazing white light that comes from modeling the kind of love Jesus Christ stood for in all His actions on earth. This includes finding ways to overcome racial discrimination both in the church and in society.