Race II - White Guilt

I have so much rolling around in my head lately. Abortion, race, politics, war...it's hard to know where to start.

The first place I would like to start is with is Bill Bennett, Rush Limbaugh, Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder, and John Rocker. We all have something in common with those individuals. That thing that unites us is our shared abilities to say or write things that are really stupid. For some people saying one stupid thing can unfairly ruin a career or bankrupt a reputation. For others a statement better left unsaid can become the color by which that person is always painted when their names are brought up in conversations. I don't want either to be the case for me or anyone who comments on any of the topics I will be throwing out for discussion. That being said lets be measured in our comments and gracious in our tone as we really seek to look at some tough issues that we have to deal with as Christians and citizens.

I highly doubt that any of you actually took the time to listen to the entire 2.5 hours worth of discussion regarding race that the Heritage Foundation hosted a few weeks ago. Some of it was very hard to sit through, and some of it was quite thought provoking. Here is the my previous post setting up this whole discussion complete with link to the audio file I am referring to.

One of the more thought provoking ideas came from the panelist Shelby Steele. In his discussion on the state of race relations and "race debate" he took a route that was unfamiliar to me. He said as witnesses to each others shame (white and black) no one group of people are given a moral authority by which to talk about race and race relations. Therefore real racial discussions are paralyzed and entrenched in the status quo. White people are guilty of slavery, discrimination, and being oppressors. Blacks are guilty of disproportionate poverty, crime, and underachievement caused partially whites.

Steele puts out the idea that programs and discussions dealing with race in our country are done to assuage the collective "white guilt" that white people feel and are not necessarily done for the greater benefits of Blacks. He states that Lyndon Johnson's famous speech at Howard University in 1965 that set the course for "The Great Society" was meant for white people not blacks. Johnson articulated the remedy for the collective white guilt, and that was going to be the programs and legislation that made up the great society.

He continues that blacks live with a strong desire to have moral authority of their race. Because of that they embrace "protest" as a hallmark identity. Doing that requires them to capture the fruits of white guilt on a ongoing basis. That white guilt held the promise of life that could experience some sort of compensation for 400 years of injustice and oppression. This is why he doesn't totally fault blacks for reaching for what whites were offering them as reconciliation during the civil rights movements and subsequent decades of affirmative action. But he calls them to re-assert their individuality through being people of character who neither seek or want "the way" made easy for them through the taking or exploiting of "white guilt".

Steele writes a paper on this in greater detail that I have linked here. The focus of the paper deals with affirmative action (which is more specific an issue than I want to get into). The heart of the paper and his argument is this "white guilt" thesis.

I find Dr. Steele's argument persuasive in a broad global sense. In working with my teens (who come from a very different culture and ethnic background than I did) I have often felt this distance between how my words are intended and how they are received. I am conscious of my upbringing and perspective and I have felt that the experiences and opportunities given to me as a young person somehow weaken my authority to talk on matters of race, poverty, or other urban issues. I know my teens love me and respect me, but that has been earned over ten years of being involved in their lives. Yet, I still sense at times a distance that I feel paralyzed to really address and frustrated at it's existence.

Another resource that takes an opposite, and equally persuasive tact, on race relations is Dr. Cornel West book "Why Race Matters". It has been a while since I have read it, so I plan on brushing up on it a bit, and then reflecting on it for my next post on race.

In the end I would like to say that the only sufficient moral authority is God. Conservatism, liberalism, activism, or sectarianism all try to gain the moral authority to speak on issues regarding race. This is done, often times, by proving the LACK of moral authority of another group of people. This sinks the whole discussion before it even gets started. With God as the moral authority then we all gain the right to speak on matters of race, provided that it through the lens that God intends for us to have with regard to the Lord's creation.

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In reference to the "Thug Day" at a high school in Dallas that tine pointed me to I have to say that I am not surprised. I have been to that high school many times and lived in that community for a year during my internship at Preston Road. All though they didn't have that tradition at the school when I was there, the people of that community and especially the teens have a skewed perspective regarding people of color, the poor, and the "blue collar" worker.

Thug day is a day when the Seniors at Highland Park High School (which is 94% white with 5 blacks, 30 Hispanics, and 20 Asians) dress as pimps, "ho's", gangsters, or like hip-hop stars. One teen showed up wearing a "wife-beater" and carrying a leaf-blower. He was told to put the leaf blower back in his car, but no other action was taken. On so many levels this kind of thing is offensive, but what I kept coming back to is that had these teens been in an environment that was more racially mixed or where they were on the same socioeconomic level with people of color then this day would never had happened. It would have never of happened because the types of people the teens were mocking wouldn't have found it so funny and would have probably had something to say about it.

I know the teens in Highland Park are extremely sheltered by their wealth (median family income is $200,000) and that wealth prevents them from interacting on a level field with people of different races. Life in that part of Dallas is such that your only interaction with people of color might only be when they are servicing your yard, giving you a Big Mac, or washing your car. So I think about a kid who has had no honest interaction with a person of color on a daily basis. Where do they get their information about who blacks or hispanics are? They get it from music, TV, and movies. I think that is very unfortunate and sad since content aimed at teens often portray people of color in a negative or one dimensional way.