Stating the Obvious: We SUCK at Talking About Race

TalkingFacesBlkWht

It was a blessing and a curse to have access to cable this week (although Twitter would have given me a glimpse into the nonsense whether I liked it or not). In the last week, there have been a few shake-ups to the usual routine of filling the airwaves with a day’s worth of partisan maneuvering in Congress and the top three YouTube sensations. That’s right. This week we’re getting down and dirty. It’s time for our strictly situational, truncated, and intellectually shallow dive into conversations on RACE. This is real talk, people. This is what we do in a post-racial society, right?

Ugh.

Sadly, these golden opportunities for insight and profundity have led to so much stupid it has been mind numbing.

Oh man. Where do I begin…

Paula Deen. She stepped in it somethin’ awful. Should we be upset at her for saying “nigger” that one time 30 years ago (One time. Right…)? I mean that plantation wedding idea was pretty thorough and awful, but she still needs her livelihood! Why can’t she say “nigger” and rappers and Black people and Alec Baldwin can?! It’s Black people’s fault for putting that word out there. And why can’t white people say it?!

And bless the hearts of Trayvon Martin’s family for having to endure a criminal in-justice system that facilitates the criminalization of Black male bodies, even when they are the clear-cut victims of heinous crimes. So a Florida court (and our national news outlets) has entertained the notion that a 17 year old, unarmed boy who was profiled and stalked by a self-appointed watchman was the aggressor, a thug, a boy deserving of death for being suspended from school or facebook nonsense related to weed and other teenage talk or for having been in a fight at another point in his life. And the only defense against a Black man in this country is a bullet, right. Right. Being suspicious of a grown man following him and for reasonably engaging in self-defense doesn’t count – not yet at least. But you know what does? Saying “cracker”. That’s right. Trayvon called Zimmerman a “Creepy Ass Cracker.”  Yup! Trayvon injected RACE into this! Not Zimmerman profiling  Trayvon! And “cracker” is just like saying “nigger” right? CNN stomped the streets of New York and did a whole 3 minute, in-depth study on this. It was magical. Turns out folks are just more offended by the word “nigger”. I wonder why… But guess what else. Zimmerman is HISPANIC! Never mind that he identifies himself as white. The point is that Zimmerman mentors little Black children and he has not been  invited into Whiteness, so he’s a minority himself who is clearly unaffected by racist assumptions that permeate our consciousness in the United States. We are so insightful.

Then, CNN, sans Soledad O’Brien, is trying to keep their butter knife level of cutting edge social commentary. We’re up in arms about all these “niggers” and “crackers”? Let’s talk about it! That graphics department did a great job of trotting out “The N Word” in black letters with a red background. Ominous. I didn’t watch it. Went for a walk instead. Something tells me that new, properly contextualized understandings weren’t reached in one hour of programming (with commercials).

It’s like a perfect storm of pain, defensiveness, myopia, and that annoying trend in a college class where everyone starts their contribution to difficult discussion with “Well, in my experience…” Just all around NOT HELPFUL.

I am an educator. I like context. I seek foundational understanding. I enjoy making meaningful connections that illuminate critical perspectives on a topic. The media-led national discourse on all things controversial takes an “all in” approach. Specifically with race, the goal seems to be to not offend, so all voices and experiences get equal time and weight. How do we highlight the historical facts and social functioning of race, no matter how uncomfortable, in a way that allows us to move forward and reach for new, more in-depth understanding? Such understanding would allow us to weigh the roles and decisions of various actors in our history toward a concept of power, which flows through individual interactions and sustains systemic structures, but is readily denied in our individualistic, boot-strap notion of U.S. society. It starts with education and cultivating a common language to discuss these deeply entrenched matters. Should race education (NOT just diversity or difference appreciation exercises!) be taught in public schools? My goodness, yes. Intentionality is key. Otherwise, there are no meaningful gains and we end up reacting to the next reckless wielding of “nigger” in the same stunted ways.

*Coming from our Societal Central Air Unit, we can also find the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, subsequent restrictive voting laws, and continued debate over Affirmative Action and the Supreme Court’s non-decision that leaves it in tact (for now). Then you got the Cheerios commercial, and Johnny Depp saying things out of his face about fixing racism with his depiction of Tonto. And then a few throwbacks that are still fresh enough to reference, including LL Cool J and Brad Paisley’s “Accidental Racist,” That “Being White in Philly” article, and all of the comments sections for all of this…you know. The good stuff.