The first one on the very questionable arrest of black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, the second on someone calling Thanksgiving, "The White Man's Holiday".
I will say that the first has me feeling disgusted, and the second one more annoyed and offended.
Gates is one of our country's great intellectuals--no matter what race you're talking about. His creds speak for themselves, with only a partial list here: Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa Yale graduate, 50 honorary degrees, a 1997 Time Magazine 25 Most Influential Americans. This man had earned his stripes. Yet, here's an "Yahoo.com" article account of what happened to him upon returning home from a recent trip:
"The 58-year-old professor had returned from a trip to China last Thursday afternoon and found the front door of his Cambridge, Mass., home stuck shut. Gates entered the back door, forced open the front door with help from a car service driver, and was on the phone with the Harvard leasing company when a white police sergeant arrived. Gates and the sergeant gave differing accounts of what happened next. But for many people, that doesn't matter. They don't care that Gates was charged not with breaking and entering, but with disorderly conduct after repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number. It doesn't matter whether Gates was yelling, or accused Sgt. James Crowley of being racist, or that all charges were dropped Tuesday. All they see is pure, naked racial profiling."(YAHOO NEWS, July 21, 2009. Headline: Analysis: Gates Arrest a Signpost on Racial Road.)
With 200+ years of history, who can blame this train of thought. Disgusting. Unwarranted. Injust.
But now to number 2, and this took me a week and a half to write about: an African-American calling Thanksgiving "The White Man's Holiday"--strictly because--as this person put it--people of "lighter pigment" who came over from Europe and then raped the land from the natives-- created it. One word for you there: HOGWASH. How about two: TOTAL HOGWASH! Talk about making a judgment strictly on the color of somebody's skin! And, folks, that's racism. And, you know what? It offends some of us "lighter pigmented" folks in our own way.
I told this person that none of my ancestors came over on those boats with the Pilgrims who are credited with creating the Thanksgiving Day holiday. In fact, most of my ancestors either came over in the late 1890s or were the first to ever set foot on the Americas back in the first part of the 19th-century as Vikings. I can also tell you this: NOBODY in my family tree EVER owned a slave. In other words, not all of us white folk come from the same stock. I bet this person never heard of Scandinavia--the part of northern Europe where the majority of my ancestors hailed from. So yes, I took offense at the blanket statement that Thanksgiving was "The White Man's Holiday" for the very reason people of color cry out for their justice: it was a judgment made on the color of my skin.
Furthermore, calling Thanksgiving "The White Man's Holiday" is as absurd as calling the Martin Luther King Holiday a "black holiday". Remember the part of Dr. King's great speech about, "not the color of a man's skin, but the content of his character"? That applies to all white folk, and the rest of the melting pot that is now America. I hold King in the highest regard because he was an outstanding human being.
I also had another person tell me 13-years ago that people of color are incapable of being racist because in general they are disadvantaged economically. I asked this person if that was people of any color--and that included white people. This person replied yes, to which I asked then that some of those economically poor white folks who donned white sheets as part of the KKK were incapable of being racist--based on her own premise. I also asked this person if athletes, entertainers and/or executives who earn ka-jillions for their talents were now racists because they're no longer economically disadvantaged. This person backtracked in a big hurry.
It's those kind of ignorant, blanket dogmas--no matter one's ethnic background-- that get in the way of race relations as well. Yes, I'm Scandinavian-American--"white" if you will. But I grew up going to integrated schools from kindergarten all the way through high school, and count more than a few African-Americans as my good friends. I was the only white guy on my state championship high school basketball team. So don't go playing the race card with me--no matter your background. It just won't fly. Some will try to say that these two instances of racism are not comparable because the atrocities of American slavery was far worse than anything a white man has ever been through. Once again, I counter: nobody in my family history every owned a slave. Again, not all white people are from the same stock. And if you insist on being ignorant, you're going to get called on it with me--no matter if you're red, yellow, black or white. Deal with it.
But if you can't get beyond the color thing, consider this: every single person on the planet has one color in common: red. It's the color of our blood.
I for one will continue to fight for the end of racism, and it's shedding light on ignorance that is the surest way to do it. Professor Gates? You deserved better. But so do a lot of white folk when it comes profiling a holiday like Thanksgiving. Both are instances of racism, and both are simply wrong.
As I have aged and been a part of many a diverse professional groups to include: Medical Development Committees, Bible Studies, Wellness Education, Secular and spiritual alike, I have found that even as a minority, there are ideas that I, or those that for whom this has not occured, cannot relate.
ReplyDeleteThese are far from comments to justify a racist attitude. I have been at the brunt of such in all seasons of my life. Rather, this is simply a facet that I am challenged to examine and become educated. There is not 'one' minority blanket, as our journeys are as customized as our character. I can be angry, or free... my choice.
The non-african american and native american (of which I am apart) population, really do have the challenge of ATTEMPTING to fathom a world into which we were born and either taken and forced into or robbed and pressed out of a land. Think of your present lineage. Your daughter or son looking back on their family tree at our journey and seeing struggles that, in their eyes will look burdensome, but not really all that shabby a route.
I know that wars,theft and rage have moved in and out of our ancestory all over the world in all of history, however, to be a constant reminder of the initial torment in a land that is to be our mutual nuetral ground, is, well, if we're truthful, unknown to us. All of which can and has been overcome; we choose to rise in attitude or be stifled and stunted. This is the NOW.
We can adopt the passion, we can stand for the cause,but the climb, I wonder, must be one of a different oppression. Not one that is more difficult, or more justified in anger, just 'different'. How can we imagine it if we haven't lived it?
Vince and I attended the same high school and I will wager that he, being of a balanced tapestry (a great gift to his teammates), may not have realized the slurs to someone not black or not white...the 'in-betweeners'. I saw in him a fair and universally kind spirited person. A rarity in life, much less during the 'demonic clutches' of high school. (good to know your rep and how ahead of your time you were, huh Vince?)
THIS is what we are called to present in our lifetimes: "Loving bigger and harder" (my personal motto), what we do not understand. I watched my barely speaking English parents, wake up and go to their jobs one to two hours earlier than they were expected and stay late, all for the very privilege and honor of being in our famed society. It is just that idea of honoring all that our parents and grandparents strove for on our behalf.
Wise up! Examine truths, throw out the rest! Fear is what motivates this ignorance and rage. I am discusted at Professor Gate's arrest. ! I am saddened as I recollect the edge of this type of behavior happening to my dad for just sitting in a Braums with his family based upon his color. I am just as cranky about a 'white man's' this or a 'black man's' that! At this point, my hope is that as our children are exposed to and encouraged to celebrate cultural diversity, rather than slam what is unknown to our personal worlds, time will eliminate the ignorance and fear. The only resolution is to gain wisdom and intrepid momentum!