Race Still Matters

It was my first year in Tuscaloosa Alabama.
“That’s a damn shame.”
I looked around. “What is?”
She nodded towards a table across the room where a couple was sitting.
“I don’t get it,” I replied.
“The girl,” she said.
I glanced back over and took a second look. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
She laughed. “We call girls like her damn shames.”
I was a little slow, but then it clicked. The guy was black, the girl was white.
A few moments later, she added, “It’s not a race thing, it’s the culture I have a problem with” followed up saying “Hey, I have black friends.”
A recent Associated Press/Yahoo poll asked some questions on a subject many find uncomfortable—race.
The 2,000 plus respondents were broken down in multiple demographic groups, most notably by the color of their skin.
Out of a list of positive and negative attributes, white Americans said “complaining” described blacks “extremely well” the most. Conversely, “keep up their property” described blacks “extremely well” the least.
Overall, both white and black respondents primarily attributed “nicer traits” to the opposite race.
At least seven percent of all people polled said a black family moving next door to where they lived would upset them.
At least 25 percent of all people polled said black leaders asking the government for racial equality in the work place would upset them.
At least 10 percent of all people polled said a black person serving as president of the United States would upset them.
Are these percentages still too high? Is it a problem that we still have to ask these questions?
Out of all the people polled, eight percent said they disliked blacks, ten percent disliked Hispanics and two percent disliked whites.
Perhaps the most interesting result of the poll was how blacks and whites view racial discrimination.
Charles Babington, Associated Press Writer, writes, “When asked ‘how much discrimination against blacks’ exists, 10 percent of whites said ‘a lot’ and 45 percent said ‘some.’ Among blacks, 57 percent said ‘a lot’ and all but a fraction of the rest said ‘some.’ Asked how much of America's existing racial tension is created by blacks, more than one-third of white respondents said ‘most’ or ‘all,’ and 9 percent said ‘not much.’ Only 3 percent of blacks said ‘most’ or ‘all,’ while half said ‘not much at all.’”
Seventy percent of blacks have felt admiration for whites “very” or “extremely” often. Twenty percent of whites have felt the same.
Thirty-eight percent of whites agreed with, and 25 percent disagreed with, the statement, “It’s really a matter of some people just not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder, they could just be as well off as whites.”
The American Dream tells us that we are each in control of our own destiny, not a class structure.
The late comedian George Carlin once said, “It’s called the American Dream cause you have to be asleep to believe it . . .”
According to the May 2000 Human Rights Watch Report: Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System, blacks constitute 13 percent of all drug users, 35 percent of those arrested for drug possession, 55 percent of persons convicted, and 74 percent of people sent to prison.
Author Daniel Lazare in his essay Stars and Bars discusses Marked by Devah Pager.
He writes, “Working with two pairs of male college students in Milwaukee, one white and the other black, she drilled them on how to present themselves and answer questions. Then, arming them with phony résumés, she sent them out to apply for entry-level jobs. The résumés were identical in all respects but one. Where one member of each team had nothing indicating a criminal record, the other's résumé showed an eighteen-month sentence for drugs. To help ensure that the results were uniform, the résumés were then rotated back and forth among the testers.”
“The results? The white applicant with a prison record was half as likely to be called back for a second interview as the white applicant without. But the black applicant without a criminal record was no more likely to be called back than the white applicant with a record, while the black applicant with a record was two-thirds less likely to be called back than the black applicant without.”
These are just a few examples of racial inequality, but feel free to examine unemployment levels, infant mortality rates, special education placement, wealth, etc.
I have been told my entire life by suburban friends and family that racism is dead, the struggles were overcome, everything is equal, and if it is unequal blacks are to blame. I cannot count the number of times I’ve been told that black people have it easier than whites in modern society.
According to them, if my skin had more pigment I could get any job I wished, free housing, free school and I wouldn’t have to work.
The usual counter to this is “Do you know any black people?”
But in this day and age, most everyone has a few examples to give. It’s almost mandatory that they do. Some even go the extra mile, as if somehow collecting one friend of each minority group will make them the most anti-racist person on earth.
I have yet to find statistics that show blacks have an easier time living out the American Dream than whites.
How much interaction do people of different races really have, particularly in the South? The ethnic differences between inner-city and suburbs are obvious enough to not merit a reference. With clear physical boundaries present, how can someone say they “like the race and not the culture?” Do they genuinely understand both the race and the culture, or is that just a safe thing to say?
We are only 40 years removed from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., 16 from the LA riots, 10 from the James Byrd dragging/beheading, and two years from the Jena Six incident. This isn’t ancient history we’re discussing.
Racial issues aren’t gone, they’ve evolved. Gut feelings of mistrust are still there even though separate schools aren’t. Slang is no longer publicly shouted, but subtlety insinuated through mediums such as jest.
The real damn shame is not only that racial inequality still lingers in society, but that some people need reminding of it.

—By Allen Reed