Charleston, Racism and the President
The New York Times published an article with the byline Obama Lowers His Guard in Unusual Displays of Emotion. Perhaps President Obama, nearing the end of his second term, is relieved. Now he can be more of himself. During his first campaign, the President addressed race in a well-received speech in Pennsylvania. Early in his first term, the President reacted to the police/Henry Gates encounter emotionally, no doubt compelled by his own knowledge of encounters between Cambridge police and African American students when he attended Harvard Law School. After that discussion, both race and emotion pretty much disappeared from the President’s public persona.
Until now.
Having experienced a sustained barrage of racially motivated responses to his presidency, and now unrestrained from re-election concerns, President Obama has the ability to be a black man who can address one of the most serious and deep rooted problems in the U.S. While the discussion will further poke the beast that is racial bias, expanded public discussion is necessary as a first step toward change.
The Charleston shootings are not merely proof of racism in the U.S., the shootings are evidence that as a nation we have capped racial “progress”. Yes- no doubt Mr. Roof had some level of mental illness when he committed the horrendous murders- but the fact that he focused on black individuals, a black community, and a black church, lays bare the heightened level of racism in the 50 states. A person such as Mr. Roof does not focus his hatred on African Americans without cultural support to do so. Flying the confederate flag, not just in South Carolina, racist jokes, subtle racism and implicit bias reveal a country that is all too willing to leave racism unaddressed and in doing so, perpetuate it. Sometimes the anger that victims of all sorts feel most is not toward the perpetrator, but toward those who stood by without helping. Raise the topic of racism and many deny the problem. Some will shift focus of the conversation to “black on black” crime or “reverse” racism. Denial of race discrimination does not help.
The demonstrations following Ferguson were impressive. The country has experienced dozens of recent instances of unjustified aggression by police toward black men and women. Now we have a slaughter in an historically black church. We come together for memorial services, protests and other public demonstrations of support for our sisters and brothers of color. But how many of us examine the attitudes and actions – or lack of action- that contribute to racism’s perpetuation.
When we permit school systems to ignore the history of race in this country and when we fail to demand fierce institutional change in order to eliminate the devastating consequences of bias, we become the covert perpetrators of racism.
As the President reminded us this week, simply not saying the “N” word in public is insufficient. The President is able to discuss race now. I hope he continues the discussion. What about the rest of us?