In a recent blog post of mine, Confessions of a Barack Blocker, I outlined how race plays a role in the political and legislative opposition to Barack Obama. Admittedly, posts like these are gratifying because they make me feel like I’ve won an argument without having to listen to the bee-ess on the side of those essentially arguing for more racism. They are also gratifying because there is a feeling of educating all of those people in the middle who are more open to what I consider the truth. On some level I have an ideal that no one who reads my stuff can resist seeing the error of their ways, precipitating a new era of peace and harmony akin to the aspirations of the opening tune to the play “Hair.” It may sound arrogant on my part, but I’m just being honest.
On the other hand there are also feelings of futility. Once the gratification wears off I come to a realization that my posts don’t change anyone’s mind. For example, anyone who has previously defended racially motivated tactics such as voter ID laws would not undergo a conversion as a result of reading my blog. Likewise, those people in the middle are not in the middle just due to lack of information, but also because they are equally open to ill logic as they are to logic.
Over the past week I have seen two Facebook exchanges on race that were encouraging and discouraging at the same time. These posts had links attached to videos concerning black males and law enforcement. Many of the comments were sympathetic, but in the comment chain of both posts were responses that avoided of the topic at hand by practically celebrating the fact that “95% of black males die at the hands of other black males and not cops.” Like many people, I used to respond to these strangers and try to set them straight, but in my experience I have found that they are not out to seek the truth. They are angry people who are out for vindication for whites being blamed for racism. So whatever the allegation is, they will pushback with an unrelated stat or article that goes to the point that black people aren't infallible.
Progress of the race debate has the potential to be disheartening, but there is hope. In the debate over electoral politics as well as the fight for gay rights, it is often pointed out that younger generations don’t have the same stomach for intolerance as previous generations. They are exposed to people who are different from them at higher rates than the people that came before. They are friends with those people and have sympathy for more of their fellow humans. Come to think of it, I wrote this post some time ago titled What Repulses the Youngest of Voters.