Newspaper Op-Eds

She was tall, slim, elegantly coiffed and stylishly dressed.  A successful consultant, she had amassed so many frequent flyer miles that she could upgrade to first-class on almost every flight.  And yet every time she boarded a plane and started to bear left into the first class cabin, a flight attendant would automatically, politely steer her back toward coach.  This happened not once or twice, but virtually every time she flew. Usually, she would show her boarding pass and the flight attendant would apologize and direct her back to first class.  Sometimes the flight attendant would stare long and hard at the boarding pass before letting her proceed to her assigned first class seat.  Did I mention that she was African American?

When I tell this story to White friends, they find it amazing.  African American colleagues nod knowingly.  It is another example of a phenomenon that is invisible to most White people, but altogether too familiar to African Americans. It is akin to being stopped for DWB (“driving while Black”). It is the experience of Hispanic and African American students on my own campus at Muhlenberg College, who routinely encounter the incorrect and hurtful assumption by their peers that they are academically under qualified and on financial aid.

Not every incident of racism involves shouted slurs or burning crosses. Many such incidents may even be unconscious.  Most of us have a mental image of the way the world works and for most Americans, when it comes to race, that image includes unacknowledged assumptions about people different from ourselves and how they fit into the scheme of things. Black athletes and performers – some spectacularly wealthy and successful - are a familiar and generally accepted part of our reality, perhaps because they are easily comprehended exceptions to the “norm”. Non-celebrity African Americans driving luxury cars, living (or even walking) in upscale neighborhoods, and speaking to White people from positions of power and authority are not perceived as the norm – and thus are suspect. 

I know.  I was raised in a time and town where race hatred was unknown – as long as everybody played their assigned roles and stuck to the script.  When they didn’t, things got volatile. 

That’s why saying we’re not prejudiced because we like soul food or rap music (as David Brooks suggests in his 9/18/09 New York Times column) doesn’t hold up.  It’s also why Rush Limbaugh’s dismissal of Jimmy Carter’s recent remarks on racism is disingenuous. Of course it’s not racist to “disagree with President Obama” on the issues, Mr. Limbaugh. The issue is not disagreement – it’s disrespect. 

There are many Americans for whom the image of a well educated, articulate, African American man running the country simply does not fit into the worldview with which they grew up and are comfortable and familiar.  When the emotions aroused by that disconcerting fact are combined with legitimate political differences, their behavior has transgressed the boundaries of civil discussion and rational debate and become something much uglier.  Comparing the President to a monkey or to Hitler, irrationally questioning his citizenship, calling for him to be “shipped back to Africa”, toting automatic weapons to town hall meetings, carrying signs that call for the elimination of “Obama, Michelle, and their ugly daughters,” keeping kids home from school so they won’t have to hear the President’s speech to schoolchildren – these are not rational responses to the important policy differences that require vigorous and thoughtful debate.  These are the voices of people who are having a difficult time realizing that their assumptions about the natural order of things aren’t working anymore, a realization that makes them profoundly uncomfortable.  And I suspect that it is easier to shout angry insults than it is to do the hard work of researching facts and developing reasoned counter arguments.

When Barak Obama was elected, the public pride and delight of African Americans was extraordinarily moving.  For the first time in our country’s more than 200-year history, a Black man had been chosen for the country’s highest office by a majority of the nation’s citizens – citizens of all races.  Why should we have such a hard time acknowledging that those who had grown comfortable seeing a president who looked like them throughout their lives might suddenly feel disoriented and upset?

If I had not met some extraordinarily bright, talented, provocative, and patient friends of other ethnic backgrounds over the years I would probably be locked into the same vision of the natural order of things that I learned as a White boy in the 1950s south. As it is, I still sometimes find myself tripping over ancient preconceptions, surprised by my surprise when things don’t fit that childhood picture. Ridding ourselves of ingrained prejudice is extremely hard work, but it’s work we all must undertake. This is a teachable time for Americans.  Let us debate the important problems that face our country and government’s role in solving them.  But let’s reject those unwarranted assumptions we all grew up with and respect each other, even when we disagree.