I am watching this show tonight and am of mixed mind about it. I do think it is a good thing that somebody is finally having some kind of forum to address these issues (maybe Olberman or Maddow might have been better, but this is what we have, so credit given where due).
I don't know who were the idiots who thought that, by electing a black President, all the racial problems were suddenly resolved. But it is still true that Obama's election is a clear milestone in American (and even world) history re our progress toward more racial harmony. And today is a good day to celebrate.
What I find interesting, and the most consequential (and also the most dangerous to discuss), is the comment (and audience vote)re Harry Reid's (light skinned...no negroe dialect)comment. Mr. Joyner agreed with the comment, but said it wasn't ok for Reid to say it because he is a white man. By a large majority, the audience agreed with both; i.e., it was certainly correct, but a white man can't say those things. And just now as I am listening, an audience member refers to "white people" as if we are all the same. We are not any more all the same than any other race. But all white people have to carry the burden of our nation's racist past. No matter how we live or what we believe, we have the stigma of being white to most everyone who is a person of color. And I totally get why that is true. It isn't fair, but I still get it. If I was a person of color, I would not find it easy to trust white folks, either.
But now here is something we really do have to address in our society and our party. How can white people show support for inclusion when we clearly have separate and unequal "acceptable" language for saying the same thing, even while we are showing support and acceptance, even for our President? (I sure do recall the discussion of Obama as the Jackie Robinson of politics, and most of us, white and black, know what that meant. But there wasn't much controversy at the time. There sure is now, which should have been expected.)
We have a problem. I don't know how to address it.
Let me give a bit of my own history for you to see where I am coming from. I know there will be some who dismiss me (as they have before) as just a white woman trying to say the "some of my best friends" argument re race. But, that is actually part of the progress I think we need to get through right now. Now is the time for us to address this in a new way. (Personally, I have been dealing with these issues since I was 7 years old. Not that anyone cares. But I do.)
We liberals are offended when we hear whites generalize about black people. Anytime we hear someone say "Black people [do, say, are...], whatever, we know that such generalizations can't be true for "all" or "every" of any race, and that is just offensive on its face...and mostly that is absolutely true. I am personally offended every time I hear such sterotyping and I ALWAYS call out the offender.
However, we don't apply the same offense of generalizations about white people when spoken by people of color, (for many a good reason) and I and you know that it is true. And, in fact, I have heard several times on this program I am watching (and in every day life, as I am sure most of you have, as well) some of the black forum participants generalize about white people's views, and no on called them on it. Maybe that's ok. I don't know. But my personal life experience tells me otherwise.
White people, without a doubt, do not hold homogenous views based on our race or anything else. The two parties today sure show that that isn't true. So, is it really accurate to imply that all white people feel the same way about people of color? No, it is not. But even though African Americans vote Democrat in huge majorities, even white Democrats haven't convinced racial minorities that they should really, really, really support Democrats. I get it.
I totally understand why the beliefs of people of color are what they are. Those of us who are white share a horrible legacy that is attached to all of us because of our race, and because, no matter when or where we were born (even like me, family emigrated in the 1870s after the civil war, poor farmers, struggling in the hostile North Dakota environment,... too much history to give here) or whatever our individual beliefs or economic status, we share white privilege. Even me, who never felt personal privilege in my own life, but compared to too many of my African American peers, I without a doubt had. And the resentment that is born of that fact is the history we can't change soon enough, no matter how liberal we are.
Having said all that, it still upsets me to hear African American people generalize about white people as if we are all exactly the same, just as they certianly resent being stereotyped as black people. (Really, are Republican and Democratic white people all the same? Not in my world.) I know they know we are not all the same, and often in discussions generalization is common and not necessarily indicative of prejudice or racism. Sometimes generalization is just an easier way to speak of what we experience in our lives. I get that. But, I do expect people to apply the same standards of public discussion that they apply to others to themselves. (It's a Golden Rule kind of thing my mother taught me.)
Let me give you an example from my life experience and how this kind of thing can be just as personal and hurtful for this white woman as it can be for anyone else.
I was born in 1955 and all my years growing up included the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the gay movement...all kinds of people seeking equality and justice, embraced without question or issue. And that is who I am. Directly as a (poor) youth, as a female. But I also lived in an intergrated community for the time. My family included my Chinese-American brother (my mother's son, different father). Inclusion and integration was normal for me when I was very, very young. It just wasn't part of my experience to see racial minorities as any different from me at all. I know that isn't how most white people were raised, but I was. So, I think I have a unique view of the times. (And one reason why I see stereotyping of white people as just as unfair as sterotyping of any other group.)
Two years before I was born, my parents lived in St. Louis, Missouri...my older sister was born there in 1954. My pregnant mother was kicked off of a bus because she gave her seat to a black woman who was both pregnant and had a baby in her arms. My mother saw that woman as more deserving of a seat than she was. They were all kicked off the bus. (I am so glad I was born in California.)
So, that's just a sample to give you the idea that I was not raised with racism in any way. Not all white families of the time were (or are) alike (as so many of you surely know). And we should not all be stereotyped as racist, just because we are white.
Fast forward to 20 years ago. I am in my early 30s and came out as a lesbain when I was 23. Then I met this most fascinating woman... She is African/Native American and she is wonderful in all ways. We have been together nearly 20 years, but the first year was difficult.
I had to learn more about her culture than she did about mine, for obvious reasons. During the course of events, I learned about a black lesbian group in SF and thought, wow, what an opportunity for me to join and learn more and make our relationship better. I did not anticipate that I, as a white lesbian, would be refused attendance at any meeting or event of the black lesbian organization. In fact, I was asked, why would I want to attend?
Not the first, nor the last, but what I learned in the first years of our relationship is that the black and white lesbian community (and what can only be extrapolated, is true throughout the country in every community), is that we still have self-segregation. And no one race can be blamed for it. It is simply the legacy of our national history. I haven't found a way to make that different. It is very entrenched in our society.
I learned a good lesson in a simple situation. Our (white) lesbian community for decades has tried to "integrate" and find ways to be inclusive. But the reality came down to this: You give a dance for lesbians of all races...and who will ask you to dance?
Well, the first expessly and purposely integrated dance my lesbian organization conducted was pretty well attended by a diverse group of lesbians. I personally asked a number of black lesbians to dance with me. Not one would.
Ok, maybe I wasn't attractive enough or something (although, I thought I looked pretty good at the time). But I didn't see any other "integrated dancing" at that event, so I don't think it was me.
The bottom line. These issues are problematic across racial lines and there is no easy answer. We are all complicit in the problems if we choose to do nothing to fix them. And we have to talk to each other. It isn't any longer a white problem or a black problem or a gay problem. It is an American problem. And if Obama has given us any message, he is absolutely right about that. And he should know, just as I do, that those of us who cross the lines of race...we know that the problems are not just of one race or gender or sexual orientation. We all share this problem.
I have no answers. I can just illustrate the problem as I have experienced it in over the last 50 years.
End of rant.