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Why Race Still Matters
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Mar 25, 2008 Posted by Rich Harwood
It has been nearly a week since Barack Obama gave his speech about race in America, and I can already feel the nation's focus on race starting to slip away. Many have interpreted the speech through the lens of campaign tactics: "Was Obama successful in getting Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his incendiary comments off the front page?" And yet, in our hopes to embrace a post-racial politics, we may miss the very discussion on race that remains essential to our society and politics.
Let me start by saying that I do not believe a so-called "national conversation" on race is the way to go, if that means a repeat of former President Clinton's effort on this matter. Remember the national commission he appointed, which soon became embroiled in endless issues about its focus? That initiative had all the negative trappings of a high-falutin' blue-ribbon panel: formal hearings with far more posturing than conversation. After a much ballyhooed launch, the commission landed with a thud.
Nor am I ready to believe that any "new and improved" national conversation will be enough to really move the nation forward. My fear is that any such effort will be too far removed from the realities of people's daily lives. Instead I worry it will become entangled with program staff, organizational charts, endless strategy sessions, with little real engagement taking place between and among citizens. Indeed, such efforts can miss the larger point: our engagement must start where we live, in our communities, with people we can see and hear and feel, where we can hold each other accountable for what we say and do. Otherwise, the discussion can become an abstract endeavor, with success gauged by the number of participating cities, the number of people in attendance at public forums or who participate in online discussions, the number of press clippings garnered, instead of something rooted in people's real experiences and emotions. Relevance and meaning can too easily become the victim of good intentions.
Just last week I was reminded again of the true nature of the engagement we need on race in America, when I led our Public Innovators Lab in Baltimore, where more than 40 public innovators from community groups, national foundations, public broadcasting stations (radio and TV), school systems and city government were present. In one of the small groups, the discussion turned to race. (Indeed, wherever I go, I find that the conversation often turns to race; it is a topic that begs to be discussed among people throughout our society.)
I have found that there are a number of keys to moving the "race discussion" forward. In suggesting them, I do not pretend to hold "the answer" to this dilemma, but I do believe progress is possible, and here are just a handful of insights that I believe warrant our attention:
1. We must know that the topic of race itself brings to the fore different questions for different groups in society. For instance, most whites I have encountered want to talk about "race relations," where the basic thrust is, "Can't we all get along better?"; while many blacks want to focus on "racism," seeking to address fundamental, underlying questions of past transgressions and prejudice in society. These are two different conversations, which we will need to air out and ultimately bridge if any progress is to be made. But let's be clear: the latter conversation is much more difficult to hold, and will require both courage and humility on everyone's part to step forward and listen, and to engage with others on matters that will test our resolve and ability to stay at the table.
2. After some discussion, many whites often say something like, "Can't we move on now?" Indeed, in yesterday's Washington Post, a man, sympathetic to Obama's speech, was quoted in a follow-up article to the speech saying, "We need to get over it." Meanwhile, many blacks want to work through issues from present and past, not simply mention them, talk for a bit, and then move on. Time is of the essence here: in our desire to embrace a post-racial politics, we must not seek to move on too quickly, and risk undermining the very goals of engagement we purport to hold dear. Indeed, we must not seek to smooth over real differences, or even merely come to "respect" them, but to understand and live with them, even embrace them.
3. Not everyone is ready for this conversation. A national conversation that seeks to engage everyone, everywhere is a fantasy that will only leave us disappointed and defeated. We must find people who are ready to engage and who know that it will be difficult at times, but who nonetheless are prepared to step forward. I believe that it is important to find both whites and blacks who want to engage together, and who are willing to stay at the table and not retreat in fear when their conversations hit rough spots, which they inevitably will.
4. It is important to actually do something together (the size and scope of the action does not matter as much as the action itself), because conversation alone cannot create the bonds of trust and relationships that we need. Deeper connections will emerge only by rubbing shoulders and finding solutions together to common challenges, demonstrating to ourselves and others that progress is possible.
5. We must be open to engaging in a space riddled by ambiguity, which this conversation surely is. Real differences exist; but so too do common aspirations and hopes. We must be willing to engage in discovering both, which will require genuine give and take, even a fair number of false starts in our attempts to move ahead. In situations like these, we must guard against settling for naive pronouncements about "Can't we all just get along," and understand the very ideals upon which this nation was founded, such as "All men are created equal" and "Freedom for all," and find ways to make them real today.
6. We must reconcile ourselves to the fact that our engagement on race will require us not simply to be uncomfortable, but that real pain exists. We cannot simply gloss over such pain, or appropriate it by trying to "identify" with one another or to "hold" one another's pain; instead, we must seek to genuinely hear one another and to understand to the best of our abilities the pain that does exist. Let us know that this will not be easy.
Now, I know that some people will write back to me because I have framed my thoughts in black/white terms, and that I have not taken into account gender or various ethnicities here. Please know that I recognize this shortcoming and that I welcome such comments.
Still, my point here is not to offer a solution for all ills in society, but rather to make this central point: we need a discussion on race in America, and let us not fall prey to ginning up some national conversation machine that becomes nothing more than empty talk. Rather, let us focus our efforts on a genuine, deep engagement where we live, where we can see and hear and feel one another, where it is possible to stay at the table together over time, and where we can make a real difference.
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Re: Why Race Still Matters
Apr 8, 2008 | Ed Wojcicki | edwoj54@yahoo.com
I know a man in Massachusetts who created something called the Lilllian Way. It's a little booklet, and it's a simple concept. Henry says white couples should invite just a few couples into their living rooms for a conversation and let people tell their stories. Henry believes telling stories is a key to understanding, and I think he's right.
I attended an inaugural Lillian Way meeting in Springfield, IL, when Henry was living there. I am white, and I was stunned to hear a black man with a PhD say that he won't buy gasoline after dark in our city because, well, just because he won't.
The Lillian Way is so simple. It allows us to see and understand people of other races in new ways. No organizational charts, no strategy sessions, just conversations among real people.
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Re: Why Race Still Matters
Mar 26, 2008 | Doug Garnar, Broome Community College, facilitator for Civic Engagement | garnar_d@sunybroome.edu
Prior to the surfacing of the Obama/Pastor Wright controversy, I worked with several other faculty to offer two "open sessions" for faculty/students/staff/administrators to discuss "security issues"---our president was poised as he subsequently did to arm 10 "peace officers"---a first time event in which security people will have guns in the 61 year history of our college. During the course of one of these session several African American professional staff people and a number of African American students went beyond the issue of security to their feeling that minorities are generally marginalized in both the community and on our campus---It was a painful moment in that this was the first public utterance of such feelings in my 37 year tenure at the college. Just prior to our Spring Break I sent copies of the Obama speech to top administration, key staff/faculty and student leaders about whether or not there would be an interest to plan some conversations on campus to address the issues raised several weeks earlier. Because we are on spring break I do not know what the outcome will be. Though one African American staff person did see me today most willing to work with me to enlist others to help plan for such conversations. There is public work to be done on our campus----a commuter campus with about 5300 students (over 96% who are white). The campus is indeed a mirror image of the local community. I would be interested in knowing what experiences others at commuter community colleges might have in this area. In the final analysis we at BCC will have to develop our own solutions but hearing from others would be helpful.
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Re: Why Race Still Matters
Mar 25, 2008 | S. Jackson | selma4w@earthlink.net
Thank you for the insight. I agree that it begins in our neighborhoods. I have been reflecting on race and I am reminded of experiences as a child that made me feel less than and at the same time made me promise to myself that I would live in communities of color and make it better. I have kept that promise to myself, but vestiges of racism still exist and the election this year gives us a chance to address our ills and move closer to "a more perfect union".
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Local conversations
Mar 25, 2008 | Julie Fanselow | jfanselow@everyday-democracy.org
Rich, as always, thank you for this thoughtful post. From my perspective here at Everyday Democracy (formerly the Study Circles Resource Center), we are especially happy to see you emphasizing the need for local conversations about racism, as well as lasting dialogues which recognize that race isn\'t something we can talk about once then move on.
I also agree with you that it\'s REALLY important to be sure that we\'re not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. At Everyday Democracy, we are working harder every year to help communities tie their dialogues on race to substantive, lasting institutional change
People reading this who\'d like to learn more can find a free, downloadable copy of our \"Facing Racism in a Diverse Nation\" guide at our website, http://www.everyday-democracy.org. (Click on racial equity under issues.) It\'s available in English and en Espanol.
Here\'s to rubbing shoulders and finding solutions together!
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Re: Why Race Still Matters
Mar 25, 2008 | Neil Richardson | ananda001@aol.com
Rich,
Another insightful blog…I agree with all you’ve shared and yet I am dumbfounded about the possibilities to move into this kind of dialog or invent some kind of “process” to get us there whether it be large or small... Certainly, we don’t need Anderson Cooper on tv pointing out a map of cities engaged in the “national dialog on race relations” with a quantitative analysis showing how things are “progressing” ,on the other hand, to do this on our own as an individual with our neighbors and co-workers is beyond most of our capacities…not to mention, let’s say I become more enlightened…there are another 200 million people that look like me who will also need to be enlightened or whatever you want to call it and given their certificate of “racial enlightenment.” I may be considered cured of ingrained stereotypes with my certificate and yet others may determine I need more work.
We also know that a lot of issues people consider to be issues of race are actually about class. In my mixed neighborhood, in the District of Columbia, people with college educations are more inclined to mix with people like them…and social groups/affairs are quite diverse in most respects except level of education. So, my dinner parties are usually near equally filled with blacks, whites and Latinos; race is irrelevant. The chasm between the races in the District exists between the very wealthy who embrace a certain set of values and the very poor who also embrace a distinct set of values. As a whole, I do not believe white folks are willing to change their set of values much and the same can be said of black folks. I don’t think the District is unique in this case.
I also do not think that people, white and black, who need “race therapy” the most, are ready for it. So now, my mind wanders into the place where I wonder what the critical mass or tipping point might be to affect change. One thing for sure, in order to accept the personal responsibility for change each of us will need great will, greater humility and the greatest amount of courage to take the necessary risk and embrace the change that will be necessary. Thanks for giving me something to ponder…