A Colorblind Society: Can We Achieve It?

Not in my lifetime (age 67); but perhaps in the next generation or two.  But if we are going to get there, we have to make some changes.  Those changes will have to come from our government; with a full and honest understanding of the limits that government might achieve.  Those changes will have to come from we the people; with a full understanding that we live in the present and not the past.  And most important of all; those changes will have to come from our children.  They must be nourished and raised with an understanding of equal respect and dignity for all, regardless of skin color.  They should grow into adulthood with a clear appreciation for the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”  How can Mr. King’s dream be achieved in America today?

What is the status of racism in America today?  We always want to quantify and compartmentalize elements of a topic that we consider; it is what we do.  But racism does not lend itself well to this approach.  Racism has a long and complex history and like the coronavirus, it has proven impossible to eliminate entirely.  Is there systematic racism in America?  Do we perpetuate this racism?  Is that perpetuation intentional or a byproduct of our behavior?  These are fundamental questions that need honest answers.

Without a doubt, there exists in our culture and society an element of racism.  I was born and raised in rural Kentucky.  I went to elementary and high school with a small number of black children.  During my college days, I had many black friends.  In my small rural community, there was no discussion of racism; we all seemed to co-exist in a fashion that engendered tranquility.  But looking back on those days; I can see that being a white boy was a lot different than being a black boy.  I enjoyed certain latitude in my behavior that my black peers did not.  I took it for granted.  I never thought about it as white privilege; but that is exactly what it was.  Now with the luxury of age and experience, I can only begin to understand how my black schoolmates lived within an environment of being not quite equal to their white companions.  Oh sure, we played ball together and got into mischief together; but the consequences of mischievous actions going south for me were much different than they were for my black playmates.  I did not know that then.  I took for granted that they felt just like me.  Michael might be black; Joey might be white; Jose might be brown…we were all the same ball team and were only interested in winning.  We were all quite comfortable in our places; or at least I thought we were.

Now that I am grown and have lived a full life; I can better understand the burden that my black acquaintances have carried for their entire lives.  I have known and worked with, been close friends with, people of color who were smarter, more ambitious, and frankly better people than I will ever be.  I admire and respect them for their accomplishments; just as I admire and respect the accomplishments of my white acquaintances.  But it has been late in life that I have realized that many of my black friends that have proven to be so successful in life have had to live with a far greater challenge than the one that faced me. 

I have black friends who have achieved far greater professional status than me; far greater wealth than me; and have been almost universally embraced by their friends and co-workers.  Yet these same people have lived, and continue to live, a life where some people look at them and consider them less than equal.  They are sometimes treated a bit more distant by a store clerk.  They are looked upon differently by a police cruiser or an officer in uniform.  They occasionally encounter inexplicable amazement that they have achieved so much in their lives in spite of their skin color.  In short, they have lived under a shadow that I never knew about or had to deal with.  Is this systemic racism?   Perhaps…but it did not come from a system; it came from people.  People like you and me.

As long as our culture and society continues to constantly harangue the unfairness of the racism I have been speaking of, it will be impossible to get beyond it.  Our governments from top to bottom are obsessed with race and everything they do is tinged with it.  The  federal government cannot legislate law that will change bad people into good people.  The government cannot legislate morality.  The government cannot change the attitudes of people who are locked into a position of racial hatred and resentment.  They can deal with these when they expand those bad attitudes into real action.  But that is it; they cannot change, in Mr. King’s word, the content of a man or woman’s character.  We live in the present.  Until we can cease the effort to saddle descendants of bad people with the sins of the father, we are simply treading water.  All of our fathers have sinned.

As long as we have race-baiting scoundrels who perpetuate racial injustice as a vocation and not a legitimate cause, it is going to be difficult to get past it.  Racial injustice can only be effectively addressed in one way.  That is through a society and culture that maintains, both through law and practice, a colorblind approach to the way it treats people.  Equal opportunity and status is the bedrock principle for addressing racism.  We cannot change people’s hearts; that is best left to God.  We can stop discriminating against people who might be black, or brown, or even white in the case of reverse discrimination.  The government and its laws can do its best to establish a level playing field for all people; beyond that, it is the responsibility of each one of us to achieve what we may.  We must stop looking at people in terms of their color and consider people on their behavior.

Will this remove racism?  Certainly not overnight and quite likely not in my lifetime.  Are we now simply validating Einstein’s rule of insanity by repeating the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results?  Are there so many people, black and white, in our country that are profiting from racism that it is in fact too big to fail?  Can we sever the impossible threshold that some have set in the areas of penance for past sins?  Can we come to terms with the fact that most of our leaders in the history of civil rights were imperfect creatures who struggled to do the best they could in the times where they were placed?  We had no saints then and we have no saints now.  The best we can hope for are leaders who have that character mentioned before; have a true desire to move this nation in the right direction; and have the transparent ability to see people in a way true to Mr. King’s famous quote.  But consider for a moment how, as adults, we are raising our children.  Are we leading them to solutions or are we simply ingraining the very problems we need to solve?

I am not black and cannot claim to understand living as a black person.  But I do have enough common sense to understand human nature and how children, of all colors, are impacted by their environment.  The black community must somehow deal with those among them who perpetuate the focus on racism for nothing more than profit and profile.  I am not a consumer of Hip Hop music or its culture; I have read about it, listened to some of it, and tried to understand where it is coming from.  I have an eclectic taste in music and enjoy many different varieties of musical style.  Go anywhere in music and you will find themes and trends that are not entirely desirable.  The power ballads that were so popular decades ago were produced by white personalities portrayed as bad boys with bad habits.  The promotion and affection for those habits came out in the production of their music.  But they did not dominate an ethnic slice of America as Hip Hop does today.  One thing is undeniable; kids are influenced by their music.  Even young adults are greatly influenced by their music.  My own children won’t take the time to read my blogs (perhaps to their credit); but put the manufacturing process of sausage on a podcast and they will (no pun intended) eat it up. 

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The Hip Hop culture can hide behind the musical trends and characteristics it expounds.  It is no doubt a unique and interesting musical journey.  But there is equally no doubt that it promotes, almost exclusively, a culture of violence and one that diminishes and disrespects women.  Read the lyrics.  This content is eaten up by black youth and unquestionably contributes to the large number of unwed mothers in the black community and the disturbing amount of black on black violence in the black community.  The end result is a huge influence on an ethnic portion of America that is promoting tendencies that will impede their growth as responsible adults.  My question to the Hip Hop culture is this: If you continue to disrespect yourselves, how can you demand respect from others?

And what about our liberal white parents who are instilling a false sense of guilt among their children for past atrocities that they have absolutely no context to understand?  The kids are told that they somehow owe something to their peers who are not white.  They are told that they are somehow burdened by their white skin and need to somehow repay for the transgressions of their predecessors.  Implicit in this attitude is the unintended consequence of placing within these white children the idea that they must look upon peers of color as someone who is different; someone who is entitled because of their skin color.  At some point, the notion must become blurred into one that tells them that their acquaintances of color need an advantage to succeed; a head start in the race of life. 

Nothing can be further from the truth.  What children of color need is the level playing field of respect and opportunity.  What all children need is that innate and natural ability to look upon each other as human beings.  They need their culture to support this notion not by emphasizing racial distinctions, but by eliminating racial distinctions.  I know from my life experience that all things being equal, people of color are no different than me.  Some will rise and be successful and some will fail.  Some will be people of character and some will lead lives of turmoil.  The point is for us as a people and as a nation to achieve that “all things being equal” place.  If we can focus on that, life will take care of the rest.  Our children can fix this if we allow them to.

There are elements of racism that can only be effectively addressed by the black community. 
Only they can marginalize the race hustlers that are getting rich off of racism.  Only they can expose the Hip Hop culture for the cancer that it is.  There are elements of racism that can only be effectively addressed by the white community.  Only they can bring down the racist bigots that occasionally sprout up.  Only they can change their behavior to help remove the systemic racism that exists in our society.  The government needs to change its focus on racism to equity and opportunity.  We must then leave it to our children to achieve the colorblind society that we all desire.