Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 51 replies, 50 voices, and was last updated 20 years, 4 months ago by
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The answer is no. Knowing one’s heritage is a fact that most white Americans can and do take for granted. Is it our televisions? Our families? Our schools? Russell Banks lamented recently (Harpers Magazine, June 2000, p. 83) that Americans as a whole know little about what he calls the African Diaspora, the phenomenon of the African migration and assimilation into post-Civil War America. This ‘Creole-American’ story is ‘the one we all share, regardless of how we label ourselves on the left side of the hyphen.’ We live in a country dominated by European ideals: free markets and gold medals and prescription drugs and Hollywood, and maybe that’s why I spent most of my formative years learning about the War of the Roses and not any time at all on Timbuktu. I feel schools should teach about our collective origin, as Americans, in Africa. I don’t want to feel that because I am white I cannot be proud of this heritage, which affects me every day.
Just as whites like to think minorities should know what the House of Tudors was, because descendants of that people wrote our Declaration of Independence, so too, do I wish I could have learned about my shared culture in Africa. The history of blacks is not African-American history, it’s American History. With knowledge, we beget ignorance and hatred.
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Name : Scott M., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Unitarian, Age : 24, City : Humacao, PR, State : NA, Country : United States, Occupation : engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,I agree with Jennifer that whites need to make more of an effort to understand our situation as African-Americans – and I call myself that because I don’t feel like an American, either. This is why there are Chinese-Americans, Mexican- Americans and other ‘Hyphen-Americans.’ Whites seem to want to sweep all the wrongs they do under the historical rug, from the theft of the New World by the Portuguese, Spanish, British and others to the theft and ‘colonization’ of major portions of Africa, the Middle East and the Far East. ‘Let it go,’ they say. ‘That was in the past,’ they whine. How conveniently they forget that it has been only within my lifetime that blacks in the United States have even been able to freely vote, or that there has been only one generation after mine in which 1) we have not had to endure the fear of not being able to love who we wanted because of miscegenation laws, 2) we can buy a house wherever we can afford to, 3) we can eat anywhere we choose, or 4) shop anywhere we like. It really hasn’t been that long.
And to answer Dave about the slave trade: while it seems true that there were blacks sold by other blacks into slavery, who were the ones doing the buying? Even the best salesman cannot sell if there are no customers. Bringing up this fact is nice historically, but I have found that whites who do this act like the little boy who points at his dog when his mother confronts him about the lamp he just broke. There is no absolution or lessening of guilt here.
One more thing: I think that the road to healing and forgiveness can be traveled by all races much more smoothly if those doing the wrong to others simply stopped. People would have no reason to bring up the past if it were also not the present. When I can look my children in the eye and tell them truthfully that the color of their skin means nothing in this society, and that only the color of their souls does, then I will ‘Let it go.’ Not before.
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Name : Ron W., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 38, City : El Cajon, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Artist, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Slavery occured almost 200 years ago, but how many years ago were we segregated? How many years ago was it that blacks couldn’t vote or drink from the same water fountain as whites? How many years ago were we lynched or our houses were burnt to the ground. Not that many years ago and maybe in your parents or grandparents lifetime. We are trying to move forward, why do you think we even are where we are today? It’s not easy when we are still being discriminated against. If all the injustices against blacks were over, I wouldn’t live in fear of the police or I wouldn’t still be hearing about a kid I know having a policeman put a gun to his head because he looked like a suspect, etc. Do you understand that all of our culture was stripped from us and we were seperated from our families and how that affects our unity. Divide and conquer, right. You talk about us going back to Africa. How easy do you think that would be? Do you understand that some of blacks don’t feel a real connection to Africa or America for that matter and why? Where do we belong? It’s like we don’t really belong anywhere at all, too black for America, too American for Africa? I always laugh when I hear whites say, ‘go back to Africa’, like they have a right to be here and like they didn’t bring us here in the first place. Why don’t you go back to England, France, Ireland, Spain, and leave this country to the people who belong here. Oh, I forgot you killed them off, and screwed them too.
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Name : Janna, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Age : 22, City : Atlanta, State : GA, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,Jennifer’s answer is the only logical reply I have ever seen on this issue. She acknowledges that holding all whites responsible doesn’t cut it, but she also identifies how racism has changed only its manner, not its intent or outcome in this country. Every day, black Americans are discriminated against in this country. The problem is still very prevalent. But the answer is not to copy that behavior or use a ‘blanket blame’ policy. The answer is to teach by example and hold irresponsible behavior accountable as it happens.
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Name : Alma, Gender : Female, Sexual Orientation : Lesbian, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Methodist, City : Kempner, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : contract employee, Education level : 4 Years of College,It isn’t that we don’t know these things. For me, it is rather the fact that the shipping of slaves from African occurred almost 200 years ago. I am sure it was terrible, but I notice that instead of moving forward, there seems to be this desire to relish in the misery. Being a gay person, I too know something about bigotry and being denied God, relationships and a fulfilling life. But I try my best to keep my head high and live my life. Don’t get me wrong, I speak about the injustices my people experience. I believe the Jewish people have done a good job of moving forward after the Holocaust, yet never letting us forget what can happen. That only occurred 60 years ago. They have since started Israel, where many have relocated to make it a powerful country. With respect to researching one’s roots, isn’t that more of a reflection on the cultures in Africa than the current state of affairs in America? In Europe, they have been recording births, deaths and families for century upon century. Why African cultures didn’t is a question you will have to ask of them.
If I may, there is one question I have always wanted to ask. If so many Americans of African descent are so unhappy here, have they ever thought of relocating to Africa? And if they have, why haven’t they? I know the cultures would be very differnt, but over there, there would be like people, and the good could be taken from here (i.e. education, business skills, arts)while leaving the racist bad behind.
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Name : Matthew, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 45, City : New York, State : NY, Country : United States,I think the real question you should be asking, Mike, is whether white people can empathize with the plight of black people in this country. It is one thing to understand (or to say you understand); it’s a whole other issue to feel what another might feel. Especially if that other person has had experiences in this society that are different from yours. As a young black female in this country, I know that I see the world in a different way than say, an 80-year-old white man sees it. This is something I have come to accept. The only way to get empathy from someone is if they go through what you go through.
It’s possible for a white person to understand what has happened to black people. But he or she could never feel the same degree of anger that you and others like you feel, because as a people, they haven’t lived your life or seen the world through your eyes. That is why it is hard for different cultures to agree on things sometimes. You always have to combat over-defensiveness.
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Name : K.R., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Religion : Christian, Age : 22, City : Atlanta, State : GA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Sometimes, I think some people don’t want others to understand, whether they do or not. There is power in oppression. I don’t know lynchings, but I understand gaybashing and ‘quail hunting,’ and everyone saying queers don’t love, and those who do get what they deserve. I’ve never been called nigger, but I’ve been called faggot, pansy, pervert, queer, and those were the nicer ones. I have seen people fired from their jobs and kicked out of the military for being gay. I can’t marry the person that I love, and many churches won’t allow me through the doors, because they believe I am an abomination, a ‘hateful thing of God.’ Violence against gay people is usually targeted by appearance. An artist friend of mine was gaybashed twice in college, but he was straight. They just decided he ‘looked gay.’ The ‘love that dare not speak its name’ has left little history to look to, because it was suppressed. In fact being the only gay child of 5 makes you feel like a stranger in your own family. When I say, ‘I think I have a general idea of why you are angry,’ I often get the response, ‘That’s totally different. You can’t understand because your white.’ There were some radicals in ACT UP who, I imagine, are a little disappointed today because when they protest for AIDS funding and brutal deaths like Matthew Shepard, they are met with sympathy and agreement. I think about the loss of culture, especially during St. Patrick’s Day, Octoberfest, etc., and while most whites cringe at our history, for killling off the natives to slavery, there is a confusion, as if the expectation is to change the past, leaving you still angry, and me feeling helpless. I encourage anger, but ask, ‘so, what are you going to do about it?’ I think about what we call American Culture, from jazz to blues to cinema to sports to literature, and think that if anyone deserves to lose the hyphen and proudly call themselves American, it is those who descended from slaves, created a new home, and have had such an influence on the rest of us.
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Name : Craig, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 37, City : Minneapolis, State : MN, Country : United States,Sometimes I think some people don’t want others to understand, whether those people do or not. There is power in oppression. I don’t know lynchings, but I understand gay-bashing and ‘quail hunting,’ and everyone saying queers don’t love, and those who do get what they deserve. I’ve never been called nigger, but I’ve been called faggot, pansy, pervert and queer, and those were the nicer ones. I have seen people fired from their jobs and kicked out of the military for being gay. I can’t marry the person I love, and many churches won’t allow me through the doors because they believe I am an abomination, a ‘hateful thing of God.’ Violence against gay people is usually targeted by appearance. An artist friend of mine was gay-bashed twice in college, but he was straight. They just decided he ‘looked gay.’ The ‘love that dare not speak its name’ has left little history to look to, because it was suppressed. In fact, being the only gay child of five makes you feel like a stranger in your own family. When I say, ‘I think I have a general idea of why you are angry,’ I often get the response, ‘That’s totally different. You can’t understand because you’re white.’ There were some radicals in ACT UP who, I imagine, are a little disappointed today because when they protest for AIDS funding and brutal deaths like Matthew Shepard, they are met with sympathy and agreement. I think about the loss of culture, especially during St. Patrick’s Day, Octoberfest, etc., and while most whites cringe at our history for killing off the natives to slavery, there is a confusion, as if the expectation is to change the past, leaving you still angry, and me feeling helpless. I encourage anger, but ask, ‘So, what are you going to do about it?’ I think about what we call American Culture, from jazz to blues to cinema to sports to literature, and think that if anyone deserves to lose the hyphen and proudly call themselves American, it is those who descended from slaves, created a new home and have had such an influence on the rest of us.
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Name : Craig, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 37, City : Minneapolis, State : MN, Country : United States,As a descendant of European Jewish immigrants, I can’t trace my family back much before 1900, let alone to a ship 200 years ago. Your situation is not unique in that regard. If you feel that is the source of your (justified) rage, then I suppose I’m entitled to even more. Fortunately, I don’t share your opinion. I have no hatred for the Germans (the Holocaust), the Russians (pogroms), the Germans before that (who probably drove my people into Russia), the French (who drove them into Germany), the Romans who destroyed our Temple, the Babylonians who exterminated many of our people, nor the Egyptians who our common Bible says enslaved us. I reserve my anger for things that can and need to be changed, and history is not one of them.
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Name : JerryS, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Jewish, Age : 52, City : New Britain, State : CT, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,The most intelligent piece I’ve read on racism in the United States was by an African-American columnist whose essay appeared in a San Francisco paper’s Op-Ed page in late 1995. I’m sorry I don’t have his name and cannot find the article in SF newspaper archives. He wrote that a black person and a white person discussing racism is akin to a rabbit and a lion discussing a dog. Certainly they can both agree that the dog is big, mean and has sharp teeth, but the lion can never truly understand the constant threat that the rabbit feels. As a white woman who has done some ignorant, insensitive and racist things, I now keep this in mind. A little empathy never hurts, folks.
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Name : Monica F., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 40, City : San Francisco, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Computer Technician, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,Jerry, two points. Jewish suffering and how Jews have reacted to it are not necessarily the standards by which all others’ sufferings and responses should be judged. Jews have suffered as Jews, and blacks as blacks. These are unique sets of experiences and evolving chapters in history. They stand on their own merit and deserve to be seen as such. They can be compared, but only competently so, after they are understood. The notion, implicit in your argument, that since Jews have a bigger cause to gripe than blacks, blacks should keep quiet if Jews are not griping is both exceedingly dangerous and not one I would encourage blacks to embrace. Secondly, I always thought that it was Jewish anger, outrage, pain and hurt over aspects of their history which convinced them to conclude ‘never again’. If Jews can revisit their history for ostensibly laudable reason (study, celebration, direction, resolve, etc.) why is it so difficult to ascribe similar motives to blacks when they revisit their history?
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Name : Floyd L., Gender : M, Age : 59, City : Memphis, State : TN, Country : United States,Oh my goodness!!! Do you think that blacks are ignorant to the fact that other blacks bought and sold slaves. That is common knowledge. But yes, the majority of the buyers were WHITE. But that’s not even relevent to the the subject at hand. Blacks are not claiming to be the only people that have been oppressed at all. We’ve taken History classes. We are not ignorant. No one ever said that we were the only ones oppressed. That’s just like saying don’t complain about being raped because so many other women have been raped.
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Name : Melodie, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 21, City : Bronx, State : NY, Country : United States,To Kala and all, You asked: ‘Does history really make you who you are?’ I must answer ABSOLUTELY. Just as the 100 year old tree you see today is the product of the seed that took root 100 years ago, so YOU are the product of the cultural and societal ‘seeds’ of your family, community and nation. Don’t kid yourself into believing that just because an event is ‘in the past’ it has no bearing on today. My people would not be starving on 3rd world poverty stricken reservations if it were not for events that happened ‘in the past’. Sure, the past cannot be changed. But until this nation takes responsibility for its past and stops believing that ‘there is no one left’ to be accountable for historic crimes, this nation will not be free of hate. ‘Time’ does not heal wounds my friends, only truth and love. Just like the child who burns their hand REMEMBERS the pain of that PAST experience to avoid repeating it…. america must do the same. And as survivors of the brutality of americas past, we must REMEMBER, and tell america in so many words- ‘that hurt’. Does history matter today? YOU BET it does. It is alive in you and I….
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Name : Samson Storm, Gender : M, Race : American Indian, Religion : Native American, City : Rapid City, State : SD, Country : Turtle Island, Occupation : Political Activist,Dave, your comment that ‘The majority of slaves were not captured by whites, but purchased from black Africans. Do you extend your hate to black Africans as well as white people?’ is not really telling the whole truth. These Africans that you refer to who sold slaves to Europeans were not selling them into the lives that these people eventually faced. You have to understand that slavery at this time and in this part of the world (as in other cases around the world) was nowhere near the level of physical, mental and emotional brutality as it was here in the Americas. In some cases, slaves in Africa (and there is evidence for this in several Native American civilizations) were treated just as well as the members of the society they were in – assimilated into the culture and by all means treated as human beings, which is much more than you can say for the ancestors of African Americans. So no, Africans are not ‘at fault’ for this tragedy. Secondly, while you or I have perhaps not used a derogatory term about African Americans or expressed outward hate toward them, we still inherit our fathers’ and mothers’ legacies. You have to understand something: we are not bad people for our history, nor can we do anything to change it. However, you MUST take it upon yourself to take responsibility for yourself today – and it goes far beyond day-to-day stuff. Taking responsibility for our ancestors’ actions is our burden. The first step is admitting you are connected to this history simply because you have been born from and within it. To deny this connectedness is to take part in the ongoing proliferation of hate.
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Name : Brenda, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : European-American, Religion : Catholic, Age : 23, City : Pittsburgh, State : PA, Country : United States, Occupation : Intern, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Reading your question and reading the responses only reinforced my own opinion: Privilege is like oxygen – something you are aware of only when it is taken from you. Most white people don’t consider themselves racist. They don’t use the bad words. They try, or believe they try, to treat everyone they meet equally. It’s like this – if I go to rent an apartment, and the real estate agent has a big smile and a kind word for me when they open the door, I’m not going to think to myself, ‘I wonder if she likes me because I’m white?’ I’m going to think, ‘Wow, what a nice lady.’ Even if the Realtor is a blatant and unapologetic racist, I might never realize it unless she goes out of her way to make a comment, whereas if she opened the door and frowned when she saw my face, I would wonder what’s wrong. And if I’m black, I’m going to wonder if it was my skin color that made her frown.
Thousands of things are like that, little daily events in which black people or Latinos or Asians have to think about whether their race affected the way they were treated. And white people don’t have to. It’s not really a conscious thing. When I am discriminated against because I’m a woman, say, or hell, because I’m Irish, I realize it almost immediately. But when I’m given preferential treatment, I may not even realize it, and if I do I’m more likely to think it’s because of my personal charm – no one wants to think that people like or dislike them because of things beyond their control. White people know intellectually that racism exists, but once you’ve removed the blatant signals (no lunch counter signs or designated bus seats), it’s hard to see how it works in your favor. I don’t think about the fact that I’m not being followed when I walk around a department store. When I go to get a loan from the bank, I worry about my credit rating, not my skin color. So I think it’s hard for most white people to understand black people’s perspective – they simply don’t have to think about race all the time. They don’t consider themselves or their family or their friends racist. When they conjure up the image of a racist, it’s likely to be some Alabama klansman in a hood, not an ordinary traffic cop or store clerk. So from the persepctive of the average white person, racism appears to be much less of a problem than it is. I’m trying to be more sensitive to it, but it’s difficult; the benefits I get from it are almost invisible to me.
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Name : Colleen32010, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 21, City : New York, State : NY, Country : United States, Social class : Middle class,
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