“”Racism” is the trump card in the indictment of Republicans. But the cold fact is that the whole Jim Crow era in the South was dominated by Democrats. A higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats voted for civil rights legislation. Bill Clinton’s cabinet consisted overwhelmingly of white males while Bush’s cabinet has been the most ethnically diverse in history”. –Thomas Sowell, discussing a new book titled, “Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies” by Gregory Jackson, in which several liberal myths are debunked
Jul8th2006
For a critical look at what kind of card race really is read this….Someone who handles this issue seriously and not a simplified Republican vs. Democrat as if the parties plaforms or principal ideas have never changed. One only need look to the south as a case study and see how the southern democrats [Dixiecrats, case of clear cut racist] voted for, and who they vote for today. Better yet lets ask Sowell, what did the Republicans do or not do then to lose the support of the majority of African Americans?
What Kind of Card is Race?
The Absurdity (and Consistency) of White Denial
by Tim Wise
Recently, I was asked by someone in the audience of one of my speeches, whether or not I believed that racism–though certainly a problem–might also be something conjured up by people of color in situations where the charge was inappropriate. In other words, did I believe that occasionally folks play the so-called race card, as a ploy to gain sympathy or detract from their own shortcomings? In the process of his query, the questioner made his own opinion all too clear (an unambiguous yes), and in that, he was not alone, as indicated by the reaction of others in the crowd, as well as survey data confirming that the belief in black malingering about racism is nothing if not ubiquitous.
It’s a question I’m asked often, especially when there are several high-profile news events transpiring, in which race informs part of the narrative. Now is one of those times, as a few recent incidents demonstrate: Is racism, for example, implicated in the alleged rape of a young black woman by white members of the Duke University lacrosse team? Was racism implicated in Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s recent confrontation with a member of the Capitol police? Or is racism involved in the ongoing investigation into whether or not Barry Bonds–as he is poised to eclipse white slugger Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list–might have used steroids to enhance his performance?*
Although the matter is open to debate in any or all of these cases, white folks have been quick to accuse blacks who answer in the affirmative of playing the race card, as if their conclusions have been reached not because of careful consideration of the facts as they see them, but rather, because of some irrational (even borderline paranoid) tendency to see racism everywhere. So too, discussions over immigration, “terrorist” profiling, and Katrina and its aftermath often turn on issues of race, and so give rise to the charge that as regards these subjects, people of color are “overreacting” when they allege racism in one or another circumstance.
Asked about the tendency for people of color to play the “race card,” I responded as I always do: First, by noting that the regularity with which whites respond to charges of racism by calling said charges a ploy, suggests that the race card is, at best, equivalent to the two of diamonds. In other words, it’s not much of a card to play, calling into question why anyone would play it (as if it were really going to get them somewhere). Secondly, I pointed out that white reluctance to acknowledge racism isn’t new, and it isn’t something that manifests only in situations where the racial aspect of an incident is arguable. Fact is, whites have always doubted claims of racism at the time they were being made, no matter how strong the evidence, as will be seen below. Finally, I concluded by suggesting that whatever “card” claims of racism may prove to be for the black and brown, the denial card is far and away the trump, and whites play it regularly: a subject to which we will return.
Turning Injustice into a Game of Chance: The Origins of Race as “Card”
First, let us consider the history of this notion: namely, that the “race card” is something people of color play so as to distract the rest of us, or to gain sympathy. For most Americans, the phrase “playing the race card” entered the national lexicon during the O.J. Simpson trial. Robert Shapiro, one of Simpson’s attorneys famously claimed, in the aftermath of his client’s acquittal, that co-counsel Johnnie Cochran had “played the race card, and dealt it from the bottom of the deck.” The allegation referred to Cochran’s bringing up officer Mark Fuhrman’s regular use of the ‘n-word’ as potentially indicative of his propensity to frame Simpson. To Shapiro, whose own views of his client’s innocence apparently shifted over time, the issue of race had no place in the trial, and even if Fuhrman was a racist, this fact had no bearing on whether or not O.J. had killed his ex-wife and Ron Goldman. In other words, the idea that O.J. had been framed because of racism made no sense and to bring it up was to interject race into an arena where it was, or should have been, irrelevant.
That a white man like Shapiro could make such an argument, however, speaks to the widely divergent way in which whites and blacks view our respective worlds. For people of color–especially African Americans–the idea that racist cops might frame members of their community is no abstract notion, let alone an exercise in irrational conspiracy theorizing. Rather, it speaks to a social reality about which blacks are acutely aware. Indeed, there has been a history of such misconduct on the part of law enforcement, and for black folks to think those bad old days have ended is, for many, to let down their guard to the possibility of real and persistent injury (1).
So if a racist cop is the lead detective in a case, and the one who discovers blood evidence implicating a black man accused of killing two white people, there is a logical alarm bell that goes off in the head of most any black person, but which would remain every bit as silent in the mind of someone who was white. And this too is understandable: for most whites, police are the helpful folks who get your cat out of the tree, or take you around in their patrol car for fun. For us, the idea of brutality or misconduct on the part of such persons seems remote, to the point of being fanciful. It seems the stuff of bad TV dramas, or at the very least, the past–that always remote place to which we can consign our national sins and predations, content all the while that whatever demons may have lurked in those earlier times have long since been vanquished.
To whites, blacks who alleged racism in the O.J. case were being absurd, or worse, seeking any excuse to let a black killer off the hook–ignoring that blacks on juries vote to convict black people of crimes every day in this country. And while allegations of black “racial bonding” with the defendant were made regularly after the acquittal in Simpson’s criminal trial, no such bonding, this time with the victims, was alleged when a mostly white jury found O.J. civilly liable a few years later. Only blacks can play the race card, apparently; only they think in racial terms, at least to hear white America tell it.
Anything but Racism: White Reluctance to Accept the Evidence
Since the O.J. trial, it seems as though almost any allegation of racism has been met with the same dismissive reply from the bulk of whites in the U.S. According to national surveys, more than three out of four whites refuse to believe that discrimination is any real problem in America (2). That most whites remain unconvinced of racism’s salience–with as few as six percent believing it to be a “very serious problem,” according to one poll in the mid 90s (3)–suggests that racism-as-card makes up an awfully weak hand. While folks of color consistently articulate their belief that racism is a real and persistent presence in their own lives, these claims have had very little effect on white attitudes. As such, how could anyone believe that people of color would somehow pull the claim out of their hat, as if it were guaranteed to make white America sit up and take notice? If anything, it is likely to be ignored, or even attacked, and in a particularly vicious manner.
That bringing up racism (even with copious documentation) is far from an effective “card” to play in order to garner sympathy, is evidenced by the way in which few people even become aware of the studies confirming its existence. How many Americans do you figure have even heard, for example, that black youth arrested for drug possession for the first time are incarcerated at a rate that is forty-eight times greater than the rate for white youth, even when all other factors surrounding the crime are identical (4)?
How many have heard that persons with “white sounding names,” according to a massive national study, are fifty percent more likely to be called back for a job interview than those with “black sounding” names, even when all other credentials are the same (5)?
How many know that white men with a criminal record are slightly more likely to be called back for a job interview than black men without one, even when the men are equally qualified, and present themselves to potential employers in an identical fashion (6)?
How many have heard that according to the Justice Department, Black and Latino males are three times more likely than white males to have their vehicles stopped and searched by police, even though white males are over four times more likely to have illegal contraband in our cars on the occasions when we are searched (7)?
How many are aware that black and Latino students are about half as likely as whites to be placed in advanced or honors classes in school, and twice as likely to be placed in remedial classes? Or that even when test scores and prior performance would justify higher placement, students of color are far less likely to be placed in honors classes (8)? Or that students of color are 2-3 times more likely than whites to be suspended or expelled from school, even though rates of serious school rule infractions do not differ to any significant degree between racial groups (9)?
Fact is, few folks have heard any of these things before, suggesting how little impact scholarly research on the subject of racism has had on the general public, and how difficult it is to make whites, in particular, give the subject a second thought.
Perhaps this is why, contrary to popular belief, research indicates that people of color are actually reluctant to allege racism, be it on the job, or in schools, or anywhere else. Far from “playing the race card” at the drop of a hat, it is actually the case (again, according to scholarly investigation, as opposed to the conventional wisdom of the white public), that black and brown folks typically “stuff” their experiences with discrimination and racism, only making an allegation of such treatment after many, many incidents have transpired, about which they said nothing for fear of being ignored or attacked (10). Precisely because white denial has long trumped claims of racism, people of color tend to underreport their experiences with racial bias, rather than exaggerate them. Again, when it comes to playing a race card, it is more accurate to say that whites are the dealers with the loaded decks, shooting down any evidence of racism as little more than the fantasies of unhinged blacks, unwilling to take personal responsibility for their own problems in life.
Blaming the Victims for White Indifference
Occasionally, white denial gets creative, and this it does by pretending to come wrapped in sympathy for those who allege racism in the modern era. In other words, while steadfastly rejecting what people of color say they experience–in effect suggesting that they lack the intelligence and/or sanity to accurately interpret their own lives–such commentators seek to assure others that whites really do care about racism, but simply refuse to pin the label on incidents where it doesn’t apply. In fact, they’ll argue, one of the reasons that whites have developed compassion fatigue on this issue is precisely because of the overuse of the concept, combined with what we view as unfair reactions to racism (such as affirmative action efforts which have, ostensibly, turned us into the victims of racial bias). If blacks would just stop playing the card where it doesn’t belong, and stop pushing for so-called preferential treatment, whites would revert back to our prior commitment to equal opportunity, and our heartfelt concern about the issue of racism.
Don’t laugh. This is actually the position put forward recently by James Taranto, of the Wall Street Journal, who in January suggested that white reluctance to embrace black claims of racism was really the fault of blacks themselves, and the larger civil rights establishment (11). As Taranto put it: “Why do blacks and whites have such divergent views on racial matters? We would argue that it is because of the course that racial policies have taken over the past forty years.” He then argues that by trying to bring about racial equality–but failing to do so because of “aggregate differences in motivation, inclination and aptitude” between different racial groups–policies like affirmative action have bred “frustration and resentment” among blacks, and “indifference” among whites, who decide not to think about race at all, rather than engage an issue that seems so toxic to them. In other words, whites think blacks use racism as a crutch for their own inadequacies, and then demand programs and policies that fail to make things much better, all the while discriminating against them as whites. In such an atmosphere, is it any wonder that the two groups view the subject matter differently?
But the fundamental flaw in Taranto’s argument is its suggestion–implicit though it may be–that prior to the creation of affirmative action, white folks were mostly on board the racial justice and equal opportunity train, and were open to hearing about claims of racism from persons of color. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. White denial is not a form of backlash to the past forty years of civil rights legislation, and white indifference to claims of racism did not only recently emerge, as if from a previous place where whites and blacks had once seen the world similarly. Simply put: whites in every generation have thought there was no real problem with racism, irrespective of the evidence, and in every generation we have been wrong.
Denial as an Intergenerational Phenomenon
So, for example, what does it say about white rationality and white collective sanity, that in 1963–at a time when in retrospect all would agree racism was rampant in the United States, and before the passage of modern civil rights legislation–nearly two-thirds of whites, when polled, said they believed blacks were treated the same as whites in their communities–almost the same number as say this now, some forty-plus years later? What does it suggest about the extent of white folks’ disconnection from the real world, that in 1962, eighty-five percent of whites said black children had just as good a chance as white children to get a good education in their communities (12)? Or that in May, 1968, seventy percent of whites said that blacks were treated the same as whites in their communities, while only seventeen percent said blacks were treated “not very well” and only 3.5 percent said blacks were treated badly? (13)?
What does it say about white folks’ historic commitment to equal opportunity–and which Taranto would have us believe has only been rendered inoperative because of affirmative action–that in 1963, three-fourths of white Americans told Newsweek, “The Negro is moving too fast” in his demands for equality (14)? Or that in October 1964, nearly two-thirds of whites said that the Civil Rights Act should be enforced gradually, with an emphasis on persuading employers not to discriminate, as opposed to forcing compliance with equal opportunity requirements (15)?
What does it say about whites’ tenuous grip on mental health that in mid-August 1969, forty-four percent of whites told a Newsweek/Gallup National Opinion Survey that blacks had a better chance than they did to get a good paying job–two times as many as said they would have a worse chance? Or that forty-two percent said blacks had a better chance for a good education than whites, while only seventeen percent said they would have a worse opportunity for a good education, and eighty percent saying blacks would have an equal or better chance? In that same survey, seventy percent said blacks could have improved conditions in the “slums” if they had wanted to, and were more than twice as likely to blame blacks themselves, as opposed to discrimination, for high unemployment in the black community (16).
In other words, even when racism was, by virtually all accounts (looking backward in time), institutionalized, white folks were convinced there was no real problem. Indeed, even forty years ago, whites were more likely to think that blacks had better opportunities, than to believe the opposite (and obviously accurate) thing: namely, that whites were advantaged in every realm of American life.
Truthfully, this tendency for whites to deny the extent of racism and racial injustice likely extends back far before the 1960s. Although public opinion polls in previous decades rarely if ever asked questions about the extent of racial bias or discrimination, anecdotal surveys of white opinion suggest that at no time have whites in the U.S. ever thought blacks or other people of color were getting a bad shake. White Southerners were all but convinced that their black slaves, for example, had it good, and had no reason to complain about their living conditions or lack of freedoms. After emancipation, but during the introduction of Jim Crow laws and strict Black Codes that limited where African Americans could live and work, white newspapers would regularly editorialize about the “warm relations” between whites and blacks, even as thousands of blacks were being lynched by their white compatriots.
>From Drapetomania to Victim Syndrome — Viewing Resistance as Mental Illness
Indeed, what better evidence of white denial (even dementia) could one need than that provided by “Doctor” Samuel Cartwright, a well-respected physician of the 19th century, who was so convinced of slavery’s benign nature, that he concocted and named a disease to explain the tendency for many slaves to run away from their loving masters. Drapetomania, he called it: a malady that could be cured by keeping the slave in a “child-like state,” and taking care not to treat them as equals, while yet striving not to be too cruel. Mild whipping was, to Cartwright, the best cure of all. So there you have it: not only is racial oppression not a problem; even worse, those blacks who resist it, or refuse to bend to it, or complain about it in any fashion, are to be viewed not only as exaggerating their condition, but indeed, as mentally ill (17).
And lest one believe that the tendency for whites to psychologically pathologize blacks who complain of racism is only a relic of ancient history, consider a much more recent example, which demonstrates the continuity of this tendency among members of the dominant racial group in America.
A few years ago, I served as an expert witness and consultant in a discrimination lawsuit against a school district in Washington State. Therein, numerous examples of individual and institutional racism abounded: from death threats made against black students to which the school district’s response was pitifully inadequate, to racially disparate “ability tracking” and disciplinary action. In preparation for trial (which ultimately never took place as the district finally agreed to settle the case for several million dollars and a commitment to policy change), the school system’s “psychological experts” evaluated dozens of the plaintiffs (mostly students as well as some of their parents) so as to determine the extent of damage done to them as a result of the racist mistreatment. As one of the plaintiff’s experts, I reviewed the reports of said psychologists, and while I was not surprised to see them downplay the damage done to the black folks in this case, I was somewhat startled by how quickly they went beyond the call of duty to actually suggest that several of the plaintiffs exhibited “paranoid” tendencies and symptoms of borderline personality disorder. That having one’s life threatened might make one a bit paranoid apparently never entered the minds of the white doctors. That facing racism on a regular basis might lead one to act out, in a way these “experts” would then see as a personality disorder, also seems to have escaped them. In this way, whites have continued to see mental illness behind black claims of victimization, even when that victimization is blatant.
In fact, we’ve even created a name for it: “victimization syndrome.” Although not yet part of the DSM-IV (the diagnostic manual used by the American Psychiatric Association so as to evaluate patients), it is nonetheless a malady from which blacks suffer, to hear a lot of whites tell it. Whenever racism is brought up, such whites insist that blacks are being encouraged (usually by the civil rights establishment) to adopt a victim mentality, and to view themselves as perpetual targets of oppression. By couching their rejection of the claims of racism in these terms, conservatives are able to parade as friends to black folks, only concerned about them and hoping to free them from the debilitating mindset of victimization that liberals wish to see them adopt.
Aside from the inherently paternalistic nature of this position, notice too how concern over adopting a victim mentality is very selectively trotted out by the right. So, for example, when crime victims band together–and even form what they call victim’s rights groups–no one on the right tells them to get over it, or suggests that by continuing to incessantly bleat about their kidnapped child or murdered loved one, such folks are falling prey to a victim mentality that should be resisted. No indeed: crime victims are venerated, considered experts on proper crime policy (as evidenced by how often their opinions are sought out on the matter by the national press and politicians), and given nothing but sympathy.
Likewise, when American Jews raise a cry over perceived anti-Jewish bigotry, or merely teach their children (as I was taught) about the European Holocaust, replete with a slogan of “Never again!” none of the folks who lament black “victimology” suggests that we too are wallowing in a victimization mentality, or somehow at risk for a syndrome of the same name.
In other words, it is blacks and blacks alone (with the occasional American Indian or Latino thrown in for good measure when and if they get too uppity) that get branded with the victim mentality label. Not quite drapetomania, but also not far enough from the kind of thinking that gave rise to it: in both cases, rooted in the desire of white America to reject what all logic and evidence suggests is true. Further, the selective branding of blacks as perpetual victims, absent the application of the pejorative to Jews or crime victims (or the families of 9/11 victims or other acts of terrorism), suggests that at some level white folks simply don’t believe black suffering matters. We refuse to view blacks as fully human and deserving of compassion as we do these other groups, for whom victimization has been a reality as well. It is not that whites care about blacks and simply wish them not to adopt a self-imposed mental straightjacket; rather, it is that at some level we either don’t care, or at least don’t equate the pain of racism even with the pain caused by being mugged, or having your art collection confiscated by the Nazis, let alone with the truly extreme versions of crime and anti-Semitic wrongdoing.
Conclusion — See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Wrong as Always
White denial has become such a widespread phenomenon nowadays, that most whites are unwilling to entertain even the mildest of suggestions that racism and racial inequity might still be issues. To wit, a recent survey from the University of Chicago, in which whites and blacks were asked two questions about Hurricane Katrina and the governmental response to the tragedy. First, respondents were asked whether they believed the government response would have been speedier had the victims been white. Not surprisingly, only twenty percent of whites answered in the affirmative. But while that question is at least conceivably arguable, the next question seems so weakly worded that virtually anyone could have answered yes without committing too much in the way of recognition that racism was a problem. Yet the answers given reveal the depths of white intransigence to consider the problem a problem at all.
So when asked if we believed the Katrina tragedy showed that there was a lesson to be learned about racial inequality in America–any lesson at all–while ninety percent of blacks said yes, only thirty-eight percent of whites agreed (18). To us, Katrina said nothing about race whatsoever, even as blacks were disproportionately affected; even as there was a clear racial difference in terms of who was stuck in New Orleans and who was able to escape; even as the media focused incessantly on reports of black violence in the Superdome and Convention Center that proved later to be false; even as blacks have been having a much harder time moving back to New Orleans, thanks to local and federal foot-dragging and the plans of economic elites in the city to destroy homes in the most damaged (black) neighborhoods and convert them to non-residential (or higher rent) uses.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, has to do with race nowadays, in the eyes of white America writ large. But the obvious question is this: if we have never seen racism as a real problem, contemporary to the time in which the charges are being made, and if in all generations past we were obviously wrong to the point of mass delusion in thinking this way, what should lead us to conclude that now, at long last, we’ve become any more astute at discerning social reality than we were before? Why should we trust our own perceptions or instincts on the matter, when we have run up such an amazingly bad track record as observers of the world in which we live? In every era, black folks said they were the victims of racism and they were right. In every era, whites have said the problem was exaggerated, and we have been wrong.
Unless we wish to conclude that black insight on the matter–which has never to this point failed them–has suddenly converted to irrationality, and that white irrationality has become insight (and are prepared to prove this transformation by way of some analytical framework to explain the process), then the best advice seems to be that which could have been offered in past decades and centuries: namely, if you want to know about whether or not racism is a problem, it would probably do you best to ask the folks who are its targets. They, after all, are the ones who must, as a matter of survival, learn what it is, and how and when it’s operating. We whites on the other hand, are the persons who have never had to know a thing about it, and who–for reasons psychological, philosophical and material–have always had a keen interest in covering it up.
In short, and let us be clear on it: race is not a card. It determines whom the dealer is, and who gets dealt.
* Personally, I have no idea whether or not Barry Bonds has used anabolic steroids during the course of his career, nor do I think the evidence marshaled thus far on the matter is conclusive, either way. But I do find it interesting that many are calling for the placement of an asterisk next to Bonds’ name in the record books, especially should he eclipse Ruth, or later, Hank Aaron, in terms of career home runs. The asterisk, we are told, would differentiate Bonds from other athletes, the latter of which, presumably accomplished their feats without performance enhancers. Yet, while it is certainly true that Aaron’s 755 home runs came without any form of performance enhancement (indeed, he, like other black ball-players had to face overt hostility in the early years of their careers, and even as he approached Ruth’s record of 714, he was receiving death threats), for Ruth, such a claim would be laughable. Ruth, as with any white baseball player from the early 1890s to 1947, benefited from the “performance enhancement” of not having to compete against black athletes, whose abilities often far surpassed their own. Ruth didn’t have to face black pitchers, nor vie for batting titles against black home run sluggers. Until white fans demand an asterisk next to the names of every one of their white baseball heroes — Ruth, Cobb, DiMaggio, and Williams, for starters — who played under apartheid rules, the demand for such a blemish next to the name of Bonds can only be seen as highly selective, hypocritical, and ultimately racist. White privilege and protection from black competition certainly did more for those men’s game than creotine or other substances could ever do for the likes of Barry Bonds.
NOTES
(1) There is plenty of information about police racism, misconduct and brutality, both in historical and contemporary terms, available from any number of sources. Among them, see Kristian Williams, Our Enemies in Blue. Soft Skull Press, 2004; and online at the Stolen Lives Project: http://stolenlives.org.
(2) Washington Post. October 9, 1995: A22
(3) Ibid.
(4) “Young White Offenders get lighter treatment,” 2000. The Tennessean. April 26: 8A.
(5) Bertrand, Marianne and Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. “Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment in Labor Market Discrimination.” June 20. http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/mullainathan/papers/emilygreg.pdf.
(6) Pager, Devah. 2003. “The Mark of a Criminal Record.” American Journal of Sociology. Volume 108: 5, March: 937-75.
(7) Matthew R. Durose, Erica L. Schmitt and Patrick A. Langan, Contacts Between Police and the Public: Findings from the 2002 National Survey. U.S. Department of Justice, (Bureau of Justice Statistics), April 2005.
(8) Gordon, Rebecca. 1998. Education and Race. Oakland: Applied Research Center: 48-9; Fischer, Claude S. et al., 1996. Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press: 163; Steinhorn, Leonard and Barabara Diggs-Brown, 1999. By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race. NY: Dutton: 95-6.
(9) Skiba, Russell J. et al., The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionality in School Punishment. Indiana Education Policy Center, Policy Research Report SRS1, June 2000; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System: Youth 2003, Online Comprehensive Results, 2004.
(10) Terrell, Francis and Sandra L. Terrell, 1999. “Cultural Identification and Cultural Mistrust: Some Findings and Implications,” in Advances in African American Psychology, Reginald Jones, ed., Hampton VA: Cobb & Henry; Fuegen, Kathleen, 2000. “Defining Discrimination in the Personal/Group Discrimination Discrepancy,” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. September; Miller, Carol T. 2001. “A Theoretical Perspective on Coping With Stigma,” Journal of Social Issues. Spring; Feagin, Joe, Hernan Vera and Nikitah Imani, 1996. The Agony of Education: Black Students in White Colleges and Universities. NY: Routledge.
(11) Taranto, James. 2006. “The Truth About Race in America–IV,” Online Journal (Wall Street Journal), January 6.
(12) The Gallup Organization, Gallup Poll Social Audit, 2001. Black-White Relations in the United States, 2001 Update, July 10: 7-9.
(13) The Gallup Organization, Gallup Poll, #761, May, 1968
(14) “How Whites Feel About Negroes: A Painful American Dilemma,” Newsweek, October 21, 1963: 56
(15) The Gallup Organization, Gallup Poll #699, October, 1964
(16) Newsweek/Gallup Organization, National Opinion Survey, August 19, 1969
(17) Cartwright, Samuel. 1851. “Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race,” DeBow’s Review. (Southern and Western States: New Orleans), Volume XI.
(18) Ford, Glen and Peter Campbell, 2006. “Katrina: A Study-Black Consensus, White Dispute,” The Black Commentator, Issue 165, January 5.
Thanks for this quote, HP. I’m adding this to my site. Thanks.
both parties were racist in my opinion
This indictment of the Democratic Party is misleading. While it is true that the Democratic Party was the Party of racist, white Southerners from the Civil War through the Jim Crow era, it is just as true that those Democrats switched parties en masse during the era of the Civil Rights movement. This is widely recognized as the result of the Republican Party’s “Southern Strategy”, whereby policies were adopted that appealed to bigoted southern whites, thereby winning Southern voters to the Republican side - as things stand today. Ken Mehlman, the Chairman of the Republican Party, recently apologized to Black Americans for this strategy. For Sowell to turn a blind eye to this historical fact is deceptive, to say the least.
I dont think he is turning a blind eye but merely trying to bring balance to the whole discussion. As Gustavo said above: they were both racist.
I can’t help making one more comment. Sorry.
Sowell’s statement that Bush’s cabinet is more diverse than Clinton’s is instructional on two counts:
First, Isn’t it the case that Sowell himself is dead set against affirmative action - roughly defined as the use of race to favor employment of minorities? If so, why does Sowell hold up the Bush cabinet as a model of diversity and a shining example of what Republicans have done? Isn’t this precisely the sort of hiring practice he would rail against if it were done by a Democrat? Excuse me for saying so, but it seems to me that Sowell believes diversity by Republicans is good, but diversity by Democrats is bad. That doesn’t make sense.
Second, I suspect I’m not the only one who recognized that this Cabinet comparison is a classic example of cherry-picking one’s data. To illustrate, ask yourself these questions: Which party was the first to have a black cabninet member? Which party was the first to nominate a black supreme court judge? Which party was the first to elect a black member of Congress?
Obvious Answer: The Democratic Party.
What Sowell has done is he has chosen the exception to the rule, and promoted it as if it were the rule. It is not.
Both Republicans and Democrats do cherry-picking on historical facts, but it is still a fact that this Republican administration is the most diverse in the history of the United States.
As for your first point, the difference is that Sowell and those of us on the right do not think they were chosen because of their race but instead were chosen because of their qualifications. No affirmation action going on here.
Yes, both parties cherry-pick facts, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t - as individuals - consider the whole of the facts, and reach reasonable conclusions. My reasonable conclusion is this:
In my lifetime (the only era that really matters) Democrats have consistently done more to represent the interests of minorities in government than have Republicans.
I have come to this inescapable conclusion after reasonably weighing what I believe to be the whole of the facts. Agreed?
Nope, disagree. But then again, I am probably much younger than you.
Hmmm… Disappointing. I assumed you would agree. But everyone is entitled to their opinion. (Even us old folk)
I find that Sowell makes statemnts that are true on the surface and if you don’t know much about history or are to lazy to examine them further they are true only on the surface and upon further examination it is only true in the literal sense and not the substantive sense.
As pointed out, most Dixiecrats like Thurman switched to the Republican party as a reaction to Democratic Presinet LBJ’s civil rights acts, voting rights acts etc as they were actively recruited by the race baiting Republican Southern strategy which Republican Chairman Mehlman admitted as a formal policy of race baiting within the party for a half a century.
True, Bush has a diverse cabinet, more relevant is what has the cabinet done to better the lives of minorities. Can you name any policies that the cabinet has imoplemented that has helped minority members.
I sure as hell can list a ton that has hurt minoritiies from Alberto Gonzalez’ secret deals and acquiescense on untold secret surveilance plans that have stripped Americans rights to privacy. To the thousands of lives of minority soldiers that Donald Rumsfield has ruined in the war that he has mismanaged. To Condeleeza Rice’s consistent fibbing regarding “No one expected planes to be used as weapons or Bin Laden to strike in the US, or the nucleur buildup of Iran and N Korea since she is Secretary of State endangering the lives of millions of Americans. To Ellen Cho’s deregulation of businesses and loosening of labor laws which have harmed immigrant low wage workers. To Energy Secretary Bodman’s disastorous energy policy resulting in record setting gas prices. To Tres Sec Snow’s fical policy which will result in a record defecits after inheriting a surplus from the previous administration. This debt will be paid by the children and grandchildren of minorites and non-minorities. Last but not least Sec og Homeland Security who didn’t leave his Bird Flu symposium while an entire cities poulation, disproportianately minority drowned.
Tie that to the fact that most government experts citethe fact that being a cabinet meber in the Bush administration is like practically being a figure head, most policy decisions come from VP Cheney and the Political aparatus under Rove until recently.
Thomas Sowell is addressing a different audience than most authors. If you talk to the average joe on the street, specifically the average black citizen, you will likely get a distorted view of the two parties: the Republicans are painted as racists and the Democrats as not. Sowell is trying to counter that and throw some balance to an often unbalanced discussion. Personally, as I said above, I think both parties were racist back then and to try and separate which one was more racist is futile.
Sure, the Republicans participated in the southern strategy and tried to make political gains on the dissatisfaction the south had with civil rights legislation, but does anybody honestly think the Democrats were any different? Does anybody honestly think Democrats were somehow immune to racism and were pursuing their goals out of true altruism for blacks instead of playing politics just the same? Even Lyndon B. Johnson, while he was appointing Thurgood Marshall in one hand was calling him the N-word behind his back! Clearly it was politics on both sides that mattered most…
It’s true that modern day Democrats pander to the black caucus more than Republicans do, but we have to remember that blacks give Democrats a little above 90% of their vote. In other words, Democrats have to pander to the black caucus whether they are racist or not, and so to say they are doing it out of mere altruistic reasons is to ignore the political necessity of it. On the other hand, Republicans don’t have to appeal to the black caucus like Democrats do and yet they still have the most diverse cabinet in the history of the United States.
As far as what administration is better for blacks and minorities in general - as I have posted before on this blog the unemployment rate for blacks is lower than it was under the previous administration and home ownership and small business ownership amongst blacks is at record high levels. Call me naive but I think having a job and owning a home (and owning your own business!) are much more important to blacks and minorities than any spying Alberto Gonzales et al has done, and this, despite the fact that Republicans get less than 10% of the black vote!
As a child of the South, I can say that the Republicans still earn the racist stigma. I’m not referring to statistical evidence, rather, just the anecdotal stuff you can’t possibly ignore. From the far extreme you’ve got white nationalists and other blatent racists who eagerly back the Republican party. Then you’ve got the two-faced racists… the random members of the suburban base who are probably friendly with the blacks they encounter in the office, but spew sporadic racism in their personal life. The upper echelon of this group makes up the still strong “country club” Republicans which to this day openly exclude non-whites from their tea parties. Then there are the institutional blunders like Hurricane Katrina, the purported disenfranchisement of black Floridians in the 2000 election, Republicans speaking at universities with reputations of racism, Republicans speaking at the birthday parties of prominent racist figures from the pre-Civil Rights Era. One could argue details from Florida and Katrina all day but that doesn’t change the perception of the average Black American citizen.
That’s not to say that I think the Republican party or the Democratic party is any greater or lesser in the racism pool. From a pragmatic point of view, it’s just extra complication that is largely unnecessary. I don’t believe in vast conspiracies to bring “bring us down.” They have bigger fish to fry… and why just exploit and oppress black people when you can oppress all people?
As a business person, I wouldn’t stop myself at a race… and I accept that this entire system is built on the same basic principle.
Yawn. I’m tired. Good night everyone!
A quick example of how Republicans are working hard to uphold the rights and the interests of minorities:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060712/ap_on_go_co/immigration_voting_rights
Bonus! A funny story!
Years ago I lived in Utah where a judge of Japanese descent named Judge Uno was up for re-election. After listing the candidates, instructions were given, first in English “Vote for One”, and then in spanish “Vote por Uno”. (rim-shot)
True story.
Your story helps explain why english only ballots can be helpful and can serve a public interest….with that said though, while I personally prefer bilingual ballots, on a larger scale, I am in general agreement with Republicans desire to let the “emergency” provisions of the Voting Rights Act die, heres why.