Two weeks ago, readers of this page found, in the stead of the usual smattering of political manifestos and campus diatribes - of which this author has contributed his fair share - a series of columns discussing issues of race and diversity, issues all too often left untouched due to their monumental baggage. It is this unwillingness to confront issues of race that I would like to address as I provide my contribution to the discussion.
It often seems like the only way to begin such a discourse, rather than to state a thesis, is to tell what most establishes one's perspective on the matter. So, let's get that over with: I'm a white kid from a bleached-white suburban town in northern New Jersey.
Upon leaving that protective sphere of homogeneity and entering a more representative portion of the world, it became pretty clear that things weren't as simple as they had been back home, and my views on race and class would need some revision. Needless to say, a few years of riding around on the Baltimore City bus and working at restaurants in the Inner Harbor helped to force what would have probably otherwise been an uncomfortable transition.
Of that which has become clear to me during this transition, one thing stands out above all: By and large, white people don't know how to deal with race.
Now, when it comes to race, most whites want one thing. They want to be absolved of the sin of slavery. This is a pretty tall order, but it's what they [we] want. And I believe there is a true, sincere remorse for the past, though not the ability to articulate it properly.
In exchange for this grand pardon, white people were, and are, willing to do what they conceive to be a lot. I believe whites would do almost anything if they knew it would lead to this end. In the past, some whites have pointed to examples like affirmative action, the Civil Rights Act or some of the other white political or social involvements in the civil rights movement as acts of contrition.
In the face of no easy path towards their goal, I think many white people have tried to delude themselves with thoughts that these efforts will be all that are necessary, that reconciliation can come on the cheap. Well, if the developmental bubble in which I was reared, or our dearly departed housing bubble, can tell us anything, it's that no delusion, however blissful, can last forever; eventually it will burst.
The fact is the dignity of a people cannot be bought for a few trifles or mere contrivances; it must be earned through a true offering of respect. The problem is that the language and the forum do not exist for this exchange to take place. They have yet to be discovered. In their absence we are left with the awkward, untenable status quo of our modern society. Thus, as it stands, whites have no foreseeable way of obtaining their desired absolution.
So, what do we do when we try for a goal and cannot find the path to take us there? We can keep trying to find it or we can form a new strategy to get us where we want to be.
Or we can just ignore the whole situation and pretend it never existed in the first place. But, to do this we would need something really big to hide it all under. Maybe if we had a big white rug, we could sweep all this ugly dirt and baggage under it and then we wouldn't have to see it anymore.
Well, I guess that could work, if not for a few problems. Anyone who's ever had a white rug knows how easy it is to sully its veneer with muck and dirt; a white rug will always be the first to be tarnished by its stains. Plus, what happens when someone decides to look under the rug and sees all that's hidden beneath? Some of that is bound to get out, and there's only so many times you can sweep Don Imus, Dog the Bounty Hunter and the Jena 6 back under the rug.
White people lack the tools to deal with race, and so we choose, by and large, to ignore it, rather than try to deal with it. To cover it up or pretend it was solved through some past efforts, rather than to work towards the creation of a language that could begin the real healing process. It is only through this communication that we will find our lost path.
Instead of this, though, we have our white rug of silence to keep all the dirt covered. Well, perhaps it's time that we take notice of newer trends in interior decorating. Let's pull up the old rug and put in the effort to refinish that beautiful hardwood floor. Hey, if nothing else, it'll increase the resale value in this God-awful housing market.
