Her costume was assertively African. The colors, the cut of her dress, the accouterments — in every detail it spoke loudly of her heritage. It was actually quite attractive.
He sat in a folding chair on the platform, his impassive blue eyes scanning the audience while the lady spoke. Nothing about her words surprised him; she was nothing if not consistent. In her element now, she played the audience, saying all the things she said before in countless other speeches. Every gesture, shift in the tone of voice, even down to the blinking of her eyes, was carefully scripted. The only variations were the many different ways of expressing the theme of racism.
Finally, she turned to him directly. “And Mr. Brolin, I believe it is racist of you to propose such a thing.” She moved from the podium and sat down to hoots, cheers and scattered applause. The booing was rather muted.
Nothing in his face or movements evinced the least bit of agitation. He stood and walked to the podium. “Thank you, Mrs. Jackson. Food for thought. I know a lot about racism, myself.”
He paused, and was rewarded by audible sounds of surprise and scorn. “My people face racial oppression, too. Your ancestors were brought to this nation in chains, and treated as property. Mine were here already here when the Caucasians of Europe invaded, and we were simply slaughtered.”
The mood of audience was very unsettled now. “Do you assume simply because of my blue eyes I cannot claim a minority heritage? That goes to very heart of racism itself. My appearance is deceiving for the simple reason many of my ancestors were not racist, but felt the differences were of no consequence. Yet today I can easily take my place on the Tribal Roll. I choose not to, simply because I find it has been reduced to mere political propaganda.
“Instead, I simply maintain my ties to my Native American heritage by promoting the values I learned from my elders. My proposal is not a White thing, but a tribal thing.”
Turning to his opponent, he asked, “Should I assume your ancestors understood living under a tribal social structure?” Her face was a frozen mask of anger, as she stared straight ahead without meeting his gaze. In that brief pause waiting to see if she would answer, the chorus of laughter, cheering and applause rose swiftly in the audience.
Fools. He is a blue-eyed white man.
So what he says doesn’t count.
Racism impacts greatest on people who don’t look white.
Therefore an African-American would have a much more visceral experience of racism which the African-American could never escape, regardless of whether or not the African-American spoke perfect “standard” English and was 100% culturally American. But a caucasian German-American, French-American, Italian-American, or Swiss-American would not face such racism, because they could pass for a genuine “true blue” white American, whereas an African-American is easily seen as a different race.
Brolin may be Native-American, but he has the freedom to pass for a white man any time he wants, to “opt out of racism” in a sense, to blend in with the whites. He has no idea what American caucasian-bred racism feels like for an African-American, Mexican-American or Chinese-American.
This is not to deny that racism doesn’t exist in all nations, or is not instigated by all races. But the fact that Mr. Brolin can easily “opt out” of racism by blending in with the blue-eyed white Americans doesn’t give him a leg to stand on when he claims he has experienced significant PERSONAL racism.
Put another way: in America, race is all about appearance. Appearance-wise, he is white. Therefore he does not have to endure overt racism every waking day.
Apparently you missed my whole point. It’s not about the everyday experience of the individual, over which policy can never have any control. Nothing by politics will fix that, so political policies which aim at fixing it are evil from the start. Politics to fix sin will never, ever happen, and it’s a sin to try it. Politics to mitigate it somewhat will ever have only limited success. God says we make laws to recompense evil actions, but He supports no laws aimed at fixing attitudes.
Okay, your point makes sense, and in that context I agree with it somewhat. Politics cannot fix attitudes, I agree. But politics CAN mitigate things, like you said. Mitigate it a lot in some cases, for example by establishing laws that make the situation much better and safer for the oppressed.
Just think about how Civil Rights established laws that makes it illegal for racist whites to physically or psychologically mistreat blacks. Granted, racist whites may still harbor racist attitudes today, but at least they can’t go and act on those attitudes by physically abusing blacks or sending them to the back of the bus — it is now illegal, thanks to politics. So I disagree that “it’s a sin” to try to reduce racism through politics.
Also, my point still stands about how in the USA a white-looking person will never experience racism like a nonwhite-looking person, even if the white-looking person is black, Mexican, or Asian in ethnicity.
Anyway, thanks for the discussion.
You are mistaken. Your point stands only if you recognize it works both ways. There are places I can go just a few miles from my home where my blue eyes will get me in trouble just for being there. It is most decidedly racism, and the folks there tell me that. Indeed, this happens when I enter a black community, a Latino community, or a Southwest Asian community. This is not theory; I drove a cab in those neighborhoods. Civil Rights did not reduce racism; that is a lie. It claims it even today, but it only gave an excuse to institutionalize a batch of measures which simply turned racism upside down. It’s still racism.
If all you see is “white privilege,” you are blind. It won’t matter who started it, because it’s up to us today to fix it. What I hinted at in my story was the fix is something which goes far, far back into ancient times when God first commanded mankind to form governments. God expects us to separate into tribes on the fallen human level. We are supposed to be tribal, because that is the very best social structure we can have after the Fall. The only way you can have any hint of mixed cultural and racial identity is in Christ, and in Christ alone. Without Him, no human institution can make it work. Period. That’s what God says. All else is a lie.
Oops, that should say “Hispanic” and not “Mexican” in my last post. Thanks.