It was gracious of your black House colleagues to give you the benefit of the doubt. They were willing to say they didn't know if you were racist, but they were equally clear that your tweet was. I want you to hear this from a fellow white south suburban male. They were being polite. Yes, you are racist.
Also hear me clearly when I say this: so am I.
Here's what you said.
I'm no great basketball fan. I'm not even much of a pro sports fan of any kind. But even I would notice if the NBA folded. You weren't making a statement about sports. You weren't even really talking about crime. You were talking about race, and, as you discovered, for many of us this was clear. I understand how you felt surprised by it. Thankfully, after enough uproar, I suspect you really did hear the prejudice beneath your words.
You said this afternoon,
In the last 24 hours, I’ve had the opportunity to re-learn one of life’s lessons: whenever any of us are offering opinions, it is best to refer to people as individuals as opposed to groups. Last night, I publicly commented on the NBA and I sincerely apologize to those who I unfairly categorized. The NBA has many examples of players and owners who are role models for our communities and for our country.
I'll take you at your word that you relearned a life lesson. And it's up to those you say you "unfairly categorized" to accept your apology or not. But I wonder if there's more to learn. Because even your apology speaks the language of racism. Making it about individuals instead of groups is a step in the right direction, but then you turn around and immediately go back to group-speak, with your "many examples of players and owners who are role models." It's a bit like saying, "I can't be racist; some of my best friends are black."
Here's where you and I both struggle. We're white males. We live in a culture where we get an automatic pass where others don't. Sure, we have to work to succeed. And at times we fail. But our ancestors built the court and tilted the floor in our own favor, and we maintain it. That whole 3/5 of a person thing originally in the Constitution? That was us staying a step ahead. Granting voting rights only to white, male landowners? Again: we were privileging ourselves. The Reconstructionist horror of "seperate but equal"? Orwellian doublespeak. We've addressed some of the most egregious imbalances. But we have a very long way to go.
Even our language favors us. We invented it, after all, and when we taught it to those we colonized, we elevated our own version of it so we could use it to maintain power. Just try "axing" a question sometime on the House floor, and you won't be praised for reviving a good, Old English word used by Chaucer and the first-ever English language Bible (the Coverdale) "axe and it shal be giuen you..." You'll be accused of sounding like, well, you know...
Here's the thing. Even when we don't ask for it and aren't aware of it, you and I both benefit from the structural, institutional racism we've inherited and that we perpetuate by pretending it's the norm, the standard, the status quo. We ensure that we will continue to score layup after layup, because we and our ancestors made sure the lane on our side of the key would stay clear.
The most elementary and most widely accepted sociological definition of racism is this.
Racism = Prejudice + Power
I'm a racist simply by virtue of my prejudices being supported by institutional power. I don't want to face my own prejudices. They are embarrassing. I'm rightly ashamed when I make assumptions about people because they are different from me. But the thing is, our culture rewards my prejudices and not those of, say, a young African American man in St. Paul who's had a brush with the law. He may be as prejudiced as you or me. But he's not racist. The power structures of our culture don't give his prejudices the same authority ours have.
When was the last time you were denied a car loan, or the privilege of writing a check in a grocery store? I would imagine it's been a while. These things happen to white people sometimes, but they happen to people of color constantly. You and I get the benefit of the doubt so often we just take it for granted. It's the norm. But only because we're white.
I don't mean to harp on this (that's sexist language, by the way, as long as we're noting prejudices). But you're racist because you're white in a system that favors whites. I'm racist for the same reason. It doesn't do us any good to deny it. What does some good is figuring out what we can do about it. That's something you and I can both control.
Here's a start: we can both learn from what you did earlier today
- by trying to understand where our own prejudices are supported by the systems of power we benefit from without even knowing it
- by sincerely apologizing for our complicity in a system we designed for our own benefit
- and then by doing everything in our power to clear away the obstacles for others so the playing field can someday be truly fair
Of course, that will mean supporting some things that are pretty unpopular, especially with others who share both our spoken and unspoken prejudices and our institutional access to power. It means advocating for
- an increased minimum wage
- universal health care
- universal access to preschool education
- fair access to safe low-income housing
- an impartial judiciary
- fair sentencing legislation
- anti-racism training for law enforcement and all public officials
- increased funding for public schools, especially in diverse and poorer neighborhoods
- job training programs
- and much, much more
It's a big job. And you're in a position to do something about it legislatively. Just like I'm in a position to do something about it as a citizen and as a pastor. It goes way beyond simply apologizing for a tweet. As a representative, you have the power to start leveling the playing field.
I'm looking forward to seeing how you vote on bills that have the power to dismantle the powers of race privilege and restore justice to the disenfranchised. Do that and you'll take another step toward repairing the racial breach in our social fabric. Help your constituents see that by doing so you're standing up for ideals of true human equality and opportunity, of fairness and freedom. They'll understand. They believe in a level playing field, too.
You've shown a willingness today to look at the inadvertent but real racism inherent in a tweet. The House is in session. Bills are being considered. What will you do next?
I'm looking forward to seeing how you vote on bills that have the power to dismantle the powers of race privilege and restore justice to the disenfranchised. Do that and you'll take another step toward repairing the racial breach in our social fabric. Help your constituents see that by doing so you're standing up for ideals of true human equality and opportunity, of fairness and freedom. They'll understand. They believe in a level playing field, too.
You've shown a willingness today to look at the inadvertent but real racism inherent in a tweet. The House is in session. Bills are being considered. What will you do next?
