The Rebound of Racism

I came across an interesting article last week about racism and whether or not it ever went away (on iZania.com). I thought immediately that it was a truly silly question. Of course racism never went away; it got swept under the rug like so many other controversial issues that lack remedies. If anything, racism has gotten progressively worse and one has to be blind or oblivious to not recognize it when it sits perched on our shoulders everyday.

I have yet to do background research on the author of the following piece, but I thought I'd post his article anyway just to get some responses on this topic. So, here goes; let me know what you think! (Any grammatical errors in this piece are not mine, although I did a little cleaning... :) Also, not all of his views are necessarily mine. Keep that in mind; I only want to start discussion and raise awareness. This is not an issue that is going away any time soon.)

Race Dialogue Is Back, But. . . Did Racism Go Away?

America is talking about race again. With Crash winning the Oscar and Ice Cube co-producing a series on race called Black/White on FX, race dialogue is back! But did racism ever go away? Or did it just change forms and go underground? It has been well documented over the past five years (since the turn of the century) that the racial disparities of the last half of the 20th Century are still very much in evidence today. In some instances, they are greater than they were 40 or 50 years ago. These studies, that come from everywhere -- major universities to private research institutions to civil rights -- all said the same thing: that race is still very prevalent in American society, whether we talk about it or not. So, since race differences never went away, can we also assume that racism never went away? Of course, we can. Thus the need for a renewed race dialogue.

America is not colorblind. It’s so blinded by color that it just can’t see racism. Like looking into sun with Ray-Bans, the glare doesn’t make that object in front of you disappear. You will still run into it if you don’t make an adjustment in your vision. America never made the adjustment. That’s what the movie, Crash, is about . . . our refusal to acknowledge race until it confronts us.

Race dialogue took a decade long hiatus (since President Bill Clinton’s attempt to raise a national dialogue on race almost ten years ago) as America came up with race “fatigue” after the Soon Ja Du, Rodney King, and O.J. Simpson racial episodes of the early 1990s. Of course, Clinton’s efforts were an attempt to bring forth what some called the “Third Reconstruction,” to address the racial disparities left over from the unfinished work of the 1960’s war on poverty that was interrupted during the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations. By the time the Reagan Revolution had come along, Reagan declared that poverty had won, and it was time to end “race policies.” By the time George Herbert Walker Bush came into office, America had developed colorblindness, public policy initiatives were “race neutral,” and any discussion about race, race differences, and most critically, racism, were now persona non grata in social circles and viewed as politically incorrect in the public domain. Nobody wanted to talk about race anymore, and opinion leaders went through great lengths to convince us that race no longer mattered. Foolish proclamations were made by a new phenomena, the Black Conservative—a new type of Negro that was used to deflect any discussion on race and racism. One such fool, Larry Elder, went on national television (20/20) and said, “There is no racism in America.” When I want comic relief, I don’t put on Steve Harvey, or Cedric The Entertainer, or D.L. Hugely. I put in that tape of 20/20.
. . . Colorblindness was a ploy that refused to acknowledge race, but racism is as plain as it’s ever been. Thanks to the arts, we again smell the stench of racism. Now it’s time to take out the trash.

Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of 50 Years After Brown: The State of Black Equality In America (Kabili Press, 2005). He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com

I will be happy to discuss this with anyone over email, phone or on this comment board. Happy thinking!