Thoughts on Racism

 Shortly after moving to the Lowcountry  I heard a neighbor use the N-word as casually as saying "Good morning."  Hearing it felt like a kick to the gut.  I was stunned, not because I'm naive, but because I haven't heard the term used in so long. Nobody in my corner of the world—friends, family or associates would use it.  And when the neighbor did, I had a quick decision to make:  What should I say?  It was certain I couldn't let it stand.   I don't know whether the neighbor recognized the  disappointment and sadness in my voice when I said:  "I didn't think I'd ever hear that word again; it really hurts to hear it."  I definitely was the "skunk at the garden party."  And I'll gladly be the skunk any time I hear hate-filled words— intentional, casual or whatever frame they come in.  Even though I'm a native South Carolinian who grew up during segregation,  I probably could count on my fingers the number of times I heard that word growing up. I was fortunate enough to be around people who didn't talk that way—because they didn't think that way.  So, the shock was compounded by the fact it had come from the mouth of my new neighbor—gracious and welcoming, a "nice person" from what I could tell. 

 

 Recent news about celebrity cook Paula Deen got to me for many reasons.  I felt the "gut punch" watching her youtube "apology."  It's beyond the pale for a person to apologize for using "inappropriate" language after being caught making racial slurs.  I'm pretty sick of the word "inappropriate" and "I'm sorry if what I said offended anyone . . . ."  Maybe Ms. Dean was sincere; no doubt she was sincere in wanting to protect the $17 million dollars that celebrity has brought her.   The "inappropriateness" is the minor issue.  It begs this question:  What's in the heart, head, and history of a person who says such things?  If you have to even think about whether it's appropriate, there's a deeper problem.   When someone uses racist slurs to describe, to denigrate, another human being, there's a  lot more going on than "inappropriateness."  There's arrogance combined with a need to bolster one's self-esteem, to endow the self with "superiority" in a life that obviously is superior to none.   Someone said that the word "inappropriate" could apply to using the salad fork for the main course at dinner. 

 

 Racism is alive and well.   Now it's usually more subtle, more nuanced than in decades past.   Seems  the election of President Obama awakened some racist tendencies that had been hybernating like bears in winter.  And the bears were hungry when they dragged themselves out of their caves in 2008.   It was simply more than some white folks (from all over the country) could handle— a black man in the White House.   A man obviously smarter than most of his detractors.  More accomplished than their own white sons and daughters.   Just too much to take.   People in general, and a broad swath of the Republican Party, have done everything possible to discount and discredit our President.  He's not an American.  He's a Muslim (and they think that would be unacceptable).  Mitch McConnell's #1 legislative goal has been to block anything the President brings forward, no matter how good it would be for the country.  Where's President Obama's birth certificate?  No, not the one we've been shown, where's the REAL birth certificate?  It would be funny (and it sometimes it was, when Donald Duck Trump got into it) if it weren't so horrifying.   Did you notice?  I just denigrated Donald Trump.  I have my biases, too.  We all do.  Mine run toward  unfairness, hate, violence and injustice.  I'm intolerant of intolerance. And of hypocrites, although I am a recovering hypocrite myself on a couple of fronts.

 

I'm thinking that Paula Deen, with her over-the-top accent and Southernisms has no doubt represented Southern womanhood, Southern people to a huge audience.   She does represent the bias of many Southerners.  But not all of us.  God knows it's hard enough living in the recent political insanity of South Carolina.  Please don't paint every Southerner in the image of Ms. Deen.   The South is home to some of the best progressives/liberals you'd ever want to know.  There are actual arugula eating,  wine-drinking, marriage-equality-advocating, public education-defending critical thinkers here in the steamy South, too.

 

As I wait to hear the Supreme Court's ruling on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, I wonder how the justices can help but rule to continue these protections.  Sadly, the provisions in Section 5 are needed now as much as ever.  With so many states knocking themselves out to limit access to the voting booth, cutting the voting days and hours in ways that affect mostly minority voters, the crazy Voter ID laws,  and the redrawing of district lines to ensure the election of white conservatives—so many efforts to stifle the voices of voters who don't look like they look.  Voters who don't vote the way they "should."  In some  states there's lingering nostalgia about slavery;  some states periodically threaten to secede from the Union.  Again.   Yes,  every citizen's right to vote must continue to be protected by Section 5.  How could anyone doubt that?  

 

The day we all come to realize that we are all ONE—what a different place this world, this hurting State, will be.  Nobody will need to pause and think whether something they say is "inappropriate" because they won't have a need to do that.  We won't even harbor such thoughts because we won't feel any need to look down on others or to hate them.  We will understand that to hate others is to hate our very selves.  Simple as that.