About Race (again)

by Tom Kando

Once again, we have to think and talk about race. (Do we ever NOT need to?). Today, I am going to tiptoe through this minefield once more:

A few recent news events:

(1) The Dolezal “Scandal”: In early June 2015, it became public knowledge that Rachel Dolezal, a white woman, had been passing as a black woman. She is a civil rights activist and she was the president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP. Her subterfuge became known because she was outed by her parents, who provided evidence that Rachel is fully of white extraction.

(2) The June 17 mass murder. Dylann Roof, a 21-year white man, murdered nine innocent black people in a Charleston church, after spending an hour praying with them.

3) The ensuing “debate” about the Confederate flag: People are now arguing as to whether the confederate flag should continue to fly in various public places, or be taken down.


4) President Obama, commenting on these things, said that “we are not cured of racism (yet,) and it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say ‘nigger’ in public.”

1) The Dolezal case became a media circus, with people taking various sides as to whether this woman did something bad or not, and why. Many African-Americans were offended, and their primary reason for this was that Dolezal had LIED. She had also fabricated a history of black victimization for herself.

I have mixed feelings about this: Clearly, the fraudulent assumption or portrayal of black identity is generally wrong. The history of “Blacking up” goes way back. While most of this has been racist, there are also precedents where the motivation was praiseworthy.

I am astounded that in the whole brouhaha about Dolezal, I haven’t come across a single mention of John Howard Griffin’s classic book Black Like Me. This book was once assigned in many Sociology classes as must reading. In it, the author, a white journalist, describes his experience passing and living as a black man in the South in 1959. Where have Chris Matthews and all the other pundits been? Have they all forgotten what they read in college?

For many years, sociologists have pointed out that race is a “social construct.” That is, it is biologically insignificant, slippery and unscientific. However, it is used in society as a pretext for the categorization of people and for their treatment in a myriad of social, political, economic and personal actions, thus giving the concept an enormous importance which it should not have on the basis of its biological component, which is per se as insignificant as the color of one’s eyes or hair. If race is a social construct, then this too, diminishes the wrongness of Dolezal’s actions. Her CHOOSING to be black reminds me of Bruce Jenner’s recent conversion to Caitlyn Jenner.

Of course, this comparison opens a whole other can of worms: Obviously, LGBT people are not so by choice. I only mention this so as to indicate that even gender - that biological variable which most of us view as perhaps the most fundamental cornerstone of our identity - can be fluid, undefined, changeable. If so with gender, then why not race?

But this aside, I am fully aware that the cavalier assumption of black identity when you are not truly black can be insensitive. There are good reasons why playing blackface is no longer acceptable.

The crucial difference between someone like John Howard Griffin and Rachel Dolezal is that the latter is sort of a "cheat" (at least according to some), whereas the former performed a valuable historic and eye-opening scientific experiment. At the same time, we might want to give Dolezal credit for her motives: She seems to have been an idealistic civil rights worker who identified so much with the underprivileged that she ended up choosing to pass for one. She went about her idealism the wrong way.

I’ll agree with those who feel that any passing for being black, even when motivated by idealism, can be patronizing, and I’ll leave it at that.

2) As to Dylann Roof: Clearly, if we classify the actions of groups like ISIS as terrorism, we should consider Roof a terrorist too, and not give him the benefit of the epithet “mentally ill,” which we generally do not grant to Muslim terrorists.

 How  should we deal with Roof? I have long maintained that execution is not a useful option. My opposition to capital punishment is not based on idealism, but on pragmatism. Not only is it ridiculously expensive, but it is also too benign. At 21, Roof may live another 60 years. Wouldn’t it be better retribution if he were locked up in a maximum security prison, surrounded by and confronting other inmates, many of them black (and this is another aspect of the subject of “race”)?

3) The Confederate flag: This flag still flies in several Southern states, for example on top of state capitol buildings such as the one in South Carolina, where the recent mass murder occurred. There is now a movement afoot to remove this flag from that state’s capitol building. Governor Nikki Haley has called for this. Fine. It’s about time.

The Confederate flag reminds me of Nazi Germany’s Swastika flag. It is said that it represents Southern cultural tradition, rather than slavery. Wrong. Its meaning can no more be dissociated from slavery than the Swastika can be dissociated from the Holocaust. One could debate which of the two was the greater evil - slavery or the Holocaust. Let’s say it’s a tie. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. They no longer fly the Nazi flag on top of the Reichstag in Berlin. Neither should they fly the confederate flag on top of Southern state capitols.

4) Obama's words: Correct.

A few months ago, I heard this blues singer on Sacramento’s KXJZ radio. The song’s refrain was: “Why am I so black and blue?” “My only sin was to be born with black skin.”

© Tom Kando 2015  leave comment here