IV. The Decline of Racism

Tuesday, June 26 4:32pm

Me dicen que hablo español como un dominicano. But as I sit thinking in broken Spanglish about how best to avoid being dragged yet again to Wal-Mart with two generations of sale-hungry mothers, it occurs to me that en Tennessee, no hay nadie que habla español in any accent. At least not that I’ve seen. And it makes me think about the diversity in the area donde vivo and how if I ever leave, I’ll have to get used to the white majority most people assume this gringo was raised with. Where I live, there are three major ethnicities: Black, Latino, and White, in alphabetical order, all of which inhabit increasingly-fuzzy-bordered areas of the smallest New York county (besides each of the boroughs in NYC). And the one school district in this county that incorporates each of these areas in pretty much equal parts happens to be the one I attend. So everything in this entry is based on that relatively rare perspective.

This only entered my mind as I spoke with my grandfather about how the town used to be almost all White, three blocks Black, and not Hispanic whatsoever. His attitude seemed to be, although he didn’t say so explicitly, that the change has been a bad thing. Of course, growing up with Black and Spanish friends whom I consider totally equal, I find that extremely racist. Among my friends, we describe people’s race with no reservations. “She’s black with brown eyes and a mark on her hand”, “He’s white with brown hair and blue eyes” – just like any other attribute. Nobody finds it offensive if you’re looking for someone you haven’t met and you ask what race they are – it’s a descriptive physical feature. Do people of different races act differently? Of course. It’s a politically correct lie to say they don’t. But it’s not because of the actual skin color. If a Black baby is born in a totally White area, will they still like the stereotypical fried chicken and rap? I doubt it. And I find it hard to believe that because my skin is white I came into this world worrying about the latest Abercrombie fashions. No.

It’s the environment you’re brought up in that decides these characteristics. People make the connection between certain races and certain traits because people in the same environment tend to be of the same race, and ties between residential areas tend to be through families, who tend to be of the same race. So it is not the Black skin of someone that predisposes him to liking hip-hop, it’s the Bronx neighborhood he was born in which happens to promote it. The misconception occurs when people assume that all Black people, even if they’re not from the Bronx, automatically like hip-hop. An excellent illustration can be found in Freedom Writers, (an excellent movie which you should see if you haven’t) where the one Black girl in the AP English class, when asked for “the black perspective” of The Color Purple, thinks out loud, “What, Black people learn how to read and we all miraculously come to the same conclusion?”

Of course, everything breaks down in high school. Kids from unimaginably different backgrounds sit in the same row, eat in the same cafeteria, and write the same papers for the same grades. Now this can go two ways: either you get gang war and racial tension (watch the opening scene of Freedom Writers), or – in a rare realization of the “melting pot” America is supposed to be – there can be harmony. And I’m never one to be idealistic, but a lot of people don’t realize that the obviously-calibrated-lack-of-racism on TV (look for it in commercials – there’s almost always one Black, one White, and usually an Asian or Hispanic person) can occur in real life. I personally think that it comes from parents, at least until their children are mature enough to consider the matter themselves. If the parents haven’t lived in the area long enough to have seen ethnic changes, and develop related prejudices, then the kids will have no reason to inherit them. This increasingly common phenomenon results in a generation of tolerance – the generation I believe is this one.

continued: Thursday, June 28 3:09pm

Living in the next generation will suck. People born after 2000 (for example, my nephew Nick) will have so much more to worry about: the whole damn planet, apparently, is slowly (but oh so surely) turning into a world which incorporates both sides of the phrase "hell and high water". But as we head for higher ground, the social problems we pose ourselves will be brought out into the open as the running begins.

Especially racism.

I’ve heard it put that race implies difference and difference implies superiority, which is one of those things that makes sense even though you wish it didn’t. I’d have to reread Blink to get the name of it, but there is a test that you can take online that measures how much of a correlation your mind draws between White and good, and Black and bad. The book analyzes different groups’ results, and apparently even Black people subconsciously think they are inferior, or at least considered so by the society they live in. So it is everyone’s individual responsibility of to direct their actions consciously when in contact with people of another color. This extends to all our sensitive characteristics: religion, weight, gender, preference, etc., but the difference in ethnicity where I live is so blatant and widespread that it is by far the most prevalent of these, and therefore must be treated with the most effort. I say “effort” not because it is particularly difficult to refrain from derogatory comments and actions, but because –especially for those who aren’t predisposed to tolerance – it requires active effort to treat everyone equally. You have to know your own self well enough to know how you act around “your own people”, and apply the same behavior when you aren’t. The reason I believe that mine is the first generation of tolerance is that more and more kids and teenagers are realizing the need for this effort.

But I really wish adults would get a damn clue.