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Why Whites Can't 'Get Over' Color
By Luke Visconti
June 19, 2008
Question:
This is in reference to the article, Are Whites Too Sensitive? I have read articles that this company has put out stating, What Not To Say To Blacks or What Not To Say To Latinos and so on. How come all of a sudden there is an article written saying we (whites) are too sensitive? [Is this] just because, for once, in the last 4 months I have been signed up to receive these articles, there is an article about whites and what maybe some whites feel.
I am a white female and I can tell you that I don't talk about blacks for fear I will be called a racist or be called to the table, especially in the workplace, for discrimination. We (whites), at my company, are not allowed to talk about blacks or any other ethnic group because we would get fired. I will say that whites are very sensitive now because we are discriminated against. Blacks can have the NAACP, BET (Black Entertainment Television), Black History Month, United Negro College Fund, etc. If white people were to start something like the before mentioned there would be a huge uproar.
I know there are white extremist groups out there but I am not talking about extremist groups. Another point I would like to make is blacks that keep bringing up how their ancestors were slaves need to look a little more into history books. Blacks were not the only ones who were slaves, all races have had slaves, and even whites. I have heard many times from blacks in my community that they did not ask to come to America. Well, my answer to that is of two fold...Nobody is forcing anyone to stay in America, you are free to leave whenever you please (and that is for every race), and, nobody took YOU personally from Africa or Asia or Spain or Italy or from anywhere else. My ancestors are from other parts of the world and I am proud to be an American. I would not have everything I have now if they decided to stay where they were.
I love the fact that America is a big melting pot, full of color and different cultures. Why not embrace that instead of constantly bickering over it. We need to start looking into the future instead of constantly looking behind us and pointing the finger at people who were not even thought of in the times of slavery. Yes, it was a terrible thing to have happened to anyone's ancestors but until we get over the past we will never fully get along. I teach my children not to see the color but to see the person. It is getting harder to do when all they hear about in the news, school, or articles is color. Get over the color! We are all Americans and instead of fighting between ourselves, we need to worry about turning our country back around. There are important issues out there that if we do not address them and come together, then we could say goodbye to our freedom.
Answer:
Thank you for your e-mail.
As a member of the baby boomer generation, I found your e-mail to be a real blast from the past: Your one e-mail covered most of the race-based malarkey I heard growing up. Questioning this dogma may lead you to a better place - it did for me.
Given your current state, I would most strongly recommend you avoid racial discussions at work. This is good advice for most people. Your e-mail gives ample reason why many people will say something worthy of being fired. I don't think you intended it to be offensive, but I'm afraid much of your e-mail is.
I'll start with your comment about the NAACP, UNCF, etc. Black people founded these organizations to counter discrimination directed against them by white people. Keep in mind that the discrimination people faced today is NOTHING like the discrimination that existed when these organizations were founded. In our recent past, "discrimination" included thousands of African Americans being lynched and lawful bigotry like segregation.
The UNCF was founded to support our nation's network of Historically Black Colleges and Universities -- the sole source of higher education for Black Americans until the 1960s. Black people had practically no access to "mainstream" higher education.
The NAACP was founded because legislation was passed in the early 20th century that prevented Black people from voting. Another reason the NAACP came together was lynching -- until federal legislation was passed in the 1920s, thousands of Black people were murdered by hanging. The reason why federal legislation was important is that the local white-run law enforcement and judiciary proved to be incapable of prosecuting the white murderers. The NAACP was also instrumental in desegregating public higher education -- with the help of the NAACP and the intercession of the federal government, James Meredith became the first Black student to be accepted to the University of Mississippi. He graduated in 1964.
Black Entertainment Television (BET) was launched and is still commercially viable because of the overwhelming lack of diversity in "mainstream" media. "Mainstream" media can be more accurately called white media. For example, there are practically no Black people featured in The New Yorker magazine, and no major Black characters on mega-hit television shows like "Friends" or "Seinfeld," which were set in New York City (the city's population is 26 percent Black).
A few years ago, a major retailer sponsored an entire issue of The New Yorker and ran New Yorker-style cartoons as ads. One of the ads was a subway scene - with ALL white people (if you are familiar with New York, you will know that this is laughably impossible). This wasn't an isolated mistake -- around the same time, the parent company of The New Yorker mounted a sequence of billboards on a building in Manhattan. The theme was how people enjoy reading magazines. However, out of more than one dozen images, there was only one non-white person - an Asian woman looking at a magazine (with a white person on the cover). Now you know why there are magazines like Black Enterprise and JET.
Please don't think this is isolated to one retailer or one publishing company. Exclusion of people of color is a consistent theme in media and the ad agency industry. For example, I recently visited another major New York media company, to discuss "diversity." At the time, they had 35 corporate vice presidents -- one white woman and 34 white men (all non-Latino). Representation like this takes real effort to accomplish in New York -- a city whose population is 65 percent Black, Latino and Asian.
BET exists because "mainstream" media is exclusionary. It's their loss: BET has earned hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars over the course of its existence.
I was sad to read your comment that you "have heard many times from blacks in my community that they did not ask to come to America." You also say that if your ancestors did not immigrate to the United States, you "would not have everything I have now if they decided to stay where they were." I was sad because you don't have a good grasp of the history of our country that you (and I) are proud of.
With the exception of recent Black immigrants from countries in Africa, Black Americans -- African Americans -- are descendents of enslaved people. Enslaved people were taken here against their will and were subjected to the worst deprivations that people commit against each other. Tribal languages and histories were lost because white slavers forced families apart and purposefully prevented enslaved Black people from learning to read and write. Slavery lasted for more than 200 years in our country and legalized discrimination lasted almost another 100 years during the Jim Crow era. You may want to read up on this. I suggest Frederick Douglass's "My Bondage and My Freedom" as a start. If you want to learn about one of our nation's finest periods of history, I suggest you read the three books Taylor Branch recently wrote about the Civil Rights movement.
Your demand that we "Get over the color!" is an expression of white privilege. It's only possible to "get over" it if you are in the majority culture. Assuming you're white, YOU can "get over the color!" but it's simply not possible for people of color to get over who they are, what that means and the damage our society has purposefully done over the centuries by color.
You close with an illuminating contradiction. You can't celebrate "color and different cultures" and embrace the "melting pot" at the same time. The "melting pot" is about subjugating your culture and forcing a person to "melt" into the white culture.
Melting who you are into a pot is not what makes a person American. What makes a person an American is embracing our Constitution, which empowers and protects our individual ability to remain ourselves.
The power of our nation is that we have the ability to embrace other cultures while uniting under the principles of human and civil rights. Our country is not perfect, but it has consistently been better than most places on the planet. There are HUGE disparities that are defined by what "color" a person is - and gender, disability, orientation, etc. I will also say that melting into a pot obliterates the advantages that different cultures and cultural approaches to problem solving contribute to innovation.
When you hear criticism, you may want to consider that it is displeasure over our country's inability to completely live up to the promise - and potential - of what truly makes us American. The more we work toward that ideal, the more "we will get along."
P.S.: I am withholding your name because it's fairly unique and I'm sure you would be easily identified where you work. That's not my concern -- I just don't want to dissuade other people who think like you do from writing us.
More Ask the White Guy >> Readers' Comments
Posted: Saturday, Oct 04, 2008
Why Whites Can't 'Get Over' Color
Thanks for your sensitive response to this defensive "colorblind" white woman, as well as the comments of others. I appreciate that you welcome this sort of communication. It is a good reminder, and good model, for how to speak up to racism when we are confronted with it. As an anti-racist activist, I am always concerned with how to really engage the large percentage of white folks who are unconsciously racist and defend themselves like the writer above. It is easy to talk to white folks who are aware that we have all been trained in racist attitudes, beliefs, actions, and that it takes consistent awareness and practice to become increasingly aware and sensitive, and to become an ally in dismantling white privilege and racism. I find speaking up effectively to people like the writer above is an important skill for me to develop. Since I live in the SF Bay Area, can live in the delusion that most white people are at least trying to dismantle their own racism. But mainstream, well-meaning, subtle and not-so-subtle racism is a tough one - the coming election is case in point about what is at stake in successfully challenging knee-jerk white racism. It is often a daunting proposition to try to get through to these folks, because just being judgmental and bashing them (which is what I always feel like doing), or finding myself gagging on my own wordlessness doesn't cut it. Somehow I have to generate enough compassion to connect with them, patience with their reactions and my own, and humility in my inability to effectively wrap words around what I am committed to. And I can't just "other" them, and disidentify myself with "those racist white people", because I come from that, and still harbor deep racist conditioning, no matter how much I've worked to cast it off. When I am confronted with the above (and the election seems to be surfacing more of that sort of racist thinking), I am forced to recognize how far we have to go to fulfill the goals, vision, and dreams that were held so hopefully during the Civil Rights Movement. We must persevere. Our very humanity depends on it, as well as the future of our country.
Nancy Arvold
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Posted: Friday, Oct 03, 2008
Why Whites Can't 'Get Over' Color
It's really isn't easy to step over an open wound. Blacks and Whites are all direct casualties of racism. In a marriage if one spouse cheats, or abuses another spouse it takes time to heal. Their friends and family must help bring them back together. Not take sides or throw salt in wounds and try to displace either spouse to take advantage of the estrangment. The fact that Blacks are here at is a not so subtle reminder of the effects of slavery. Most Europeans and South Americans know which country they go back to. American Blacks would need a great deal ofcash and lots of time to find where they came from "before they could go back to where they came from. For one post to say "I would not have everything I have now if they decided to stay where they were". Is very narrow-minded. America is a big powerful and generous country but usually to foreigners. Sometimes to the extent that it neglects many of its own, for examples American Veterans. I agree with this post that we must go forward and stop looking back. Many have done that or we would have had more all out revolts or civil wars since the abolishment of slavery. Going back where one came from would be a lot easier if one had a clue as to who they were and where they came from Africa,is not a country, its a continent and many non-blacks as well as blacks don't know this simple fact. It is also true that there is a double standard for making jokes about Whites, and criticizing them. If folks can joke about whites, then they should be able to take it back. It should go both ways. Somehow this gets lost in the bathwater. My grandmother's father was a white Welshman. My first known female relative on my mothers side was from Ireland, yes there was white slavery, she was a barn slave. But I ask if you are tired of hearing about it, try living it. Just as quick as people are to claim bias, racism or sexist, those who engage in discrimination find ways to prey on the ignorance of others who are being infairly blamed for it. I was also raised not to look at color and had a rude awakening while visiting GA one summer. At the age of 7, I was walking along a clay road with some friends when a station wagon full of teens stopped asked me which way was the pool. When I walked up to the station wagon I was spat on told that was the pool and called NGGA. Up north, most of my class were White. I lived in a neighborhood with Chinese,Polish, Nigerians,Pakistans,Cubans,Jews, Italians, Germans,Irish,and Puerto Ricans. Never once had I been spat on or called a NGGA. My parents worked hard on getting me past the trauma. Today's America is wearing a new suit but underneath, it has not bathed so as nice and kosher as things appears, it still has work to be done. I spend my spare time writing to various organization in and around the American African communities to not be so quick to pin Racism or Sexism on slights from non-Blacks to instead look at the situation and be objective many times an offense is the product of narrow-mindness that had nothing to so with race or gender. If we put as much energy into goodwill and tolerance as we do into being defensive and offensive, we would be the America that we love and were raised to be part of.
Tweetie Adams
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Posted: Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008
Why Whites Can't 'Get Over' Color
Yes, White America says, "Get Over It." Yet, everytime a man of color attempts to improve himself or his community, obsticles are thrown in his way. We can hedge from the fact that the political climate in America is not racially motivated if we want to, but if we remove our blinders and face reality we would clearly see that everything from the neighborhoods we live in the the area that billion dollar marketeers advertize is race based. If senator Obama was white with the level of education that he possess,MeCain would be voting for him himself. Obama is a perfect example of a Black man who refuses to use the colored card, but the Clintons did when they saw that Hilary was loosing. That is the way White America is. They will tell you that they are colored blind until they start competing for the same position. Then as soon as they loose they want to blame it on afformitive action or reverse discrimination. They get together in ther little groups and use the "N" word and think it is funny when they seee an ignorant black person who mis so beaten down by racism until they call themselves the "N" word. Laws had to be passed to protect so called "Black People" from the majority of the citizens of country and had those laws not been passed, people of color might be extinct as the so called "American Indian." When Melcolm X refered to the White man of America as the Devil he was assinated. I do not waqnt to segragate any group of people into any one catagory but this whole problem of racism has and will continue to pepetuate itself until we are all the same color or when no two people are the same color. And by then, we will find another reason to hate eachother.
John Gibson
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Posted: Monday, Sep 29, 2008
Why Whites Can't 'Get Over' Color
It is fascinating and sad to view the phenomena of increasing racism, particularly the racism existing between "Blacks" and "Whites" in the United States of America. A few short decades ago there was a burning hope in the philosophy and teaching espoused by one Martin Luther King Jr. when a central theme of the Civil Rights Movement was that people should be judged by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin. From the evidence of what is being manifested in American Society today especially in the political arenas leading up to the presidential election, it is amazing that racial polarization is more prominent and bald faced than it was more than 30 years ago.
Michael Delaney
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Posted: Thursday, Sep 18, 2008
Why Whites Can't 'Get Over' Color
In the last few weeks, I've found that I can't turn on the news without hearing somebody's accusations of another person being racist or sexist towards them. It's been getting completely rediculous and has now reached past that point, as nobody can say anything negative about minorities or women without it being called racist or sexist. Earlier in the election, "is race still a factor" was a common theme of the CNN nightly news when they were first talking heavily about Obama, and I think that if they all just left it alone, then it would cease to be an issue. I have nothing against Obama as a candidate, but I believe that if we are going to get past the issue of race, the first thing that we need to do as a nation is to stop talking about it. Not in a sense that we need to go into denial, but in a sense that we need to stop accusing each other of making comments and criticisms solely based upon a minority member's status as a member of that minority and just assume that it's being made because it's a true assessment. The same goes with sexism. I have nothing against Sarah Palin, but her use of sexism as a shield in some cases wasn't a very attractive thing for a candidate in this race to do.
Tom Jackson
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