Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 11, 1992 TAG: 9201130226
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT B. COURTNEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
ONE MAN'S EXPERIENCES IN RACE RELATIONS (MINORITY VICTIMS ARE ABSENT)
A ROANOKE Times & World-News editorial (Jan. 3) offered several suggestions for an improved Roanoke Valley, providing interesting observations on regional tourism and government-industry consortia. Naturally, education was mentioned, though only with the cursory pitch for funds - it would have been more to the point to address parental indifference or perhaps the execrable standardized test scores (particularly at the graduate level) of the educators themselves.The editorial concluded with a few paragraphs regarding race relations, highlighting widespread black resentment over purported discrimination, while dismissing the white backlash as a product of demagoguery. Evidently, discrimination now exists if it is "felt," vs. evidenced. Further, white suburban enclaves, the editorial stated, cannot escape the fallout from inner-city ills.
A cleverly worded, if not balanced, threat. After all, can white flight to suburbia be anything but craven racism? But who wrote that editorial? I picture a white editor ensconced in suburban home lounging before a roaring fire, forgiven by catharsis - ah, the vision fades.
It's time for a new vision, and one that doesn't rely on the fabrications of television minidramas sensationalizing Klan intrigues of the 1950s, or on the self-serving euphemisms of hastily tenured academics. Please permit an individual account of race relations; I assure you that it will be both honest and lucid, though a trifle pointed.
After being raised in Los Angeles County and Fairfax County in the Kennedy tradition of racial consciousness, which was basically to think positive thoughts of historically oppressed blacks while not letting on that I noticed a difference in skin color, I encountered intense racial hatred when transferred to a neighboring high school that featured an explosive synergy of racial and economic distinction.
I found I wasn't alone. White cheerleaders were attacked. One of my friends was hospitalized after being beaten by a group of blacks.
Eventually there was a race riot of sorts, with most white students playing a passive role while black support staff joined black students and struck at will. All of the black students couldn't have been involved, though it certainly seemed that way. For whatever reason, the affair went largely unreported.
I experienced a more positive side of race relations in rooming with a black student for two years while pursuing a bachelor's degree at Virginia Tech. Fortunately, both he and I worked to pay for school, which may have formed the basis for our friendship. But I was surprised at his social outlook: With a background similar to my own and better job prospects, he felt that he was discriminated against by society at large.
At the urging of my black friends, I wrote a few investigative stories in the school newspaper about the university's inability to attract and retain a significant number of black students. (Virginia Tech has since adopted an Orwellian approach toward enforcing "racial sensitivity.") These and other articles were rewarded with a poetic justice; when applying for funding at the American Press Institute in Reston, I watched in amazement as grant after grant was placed aside because I was neither black nor Hispanic nor female, nor one of the dozen other "minorities" that constitute the overwhelming majority of citizens in this country.
After school I had to return to Fairfax County to find work. I remember when one of my colleagues sought affordable housing in Northeast D.C. Apparently his effort was viewed negatively; he was held up at knife point by a black neighbor and told to leave. He stayed, the last I heard.
These experiences don't make for a quixotic view of race relations, nor do they feature the minority victim so often seen in Hollywood creations. But they are real.
I await the day when the profiteers of racial conflict will say "enough" and cease obstructing work toward more productive ends. Already, as a white male, I know not to apply to any position that carries the letters "EOE/AA"; already I see women and other "minorities" interviewed more readily, hired more rapidly, and given higher compensation when granted employment (I can verify this in my field); already I see the state and federal governments preferentially staffed with minorities, giving insignificant weight to individual performance. Then there are minority business points awarded on government contracts, minority grants through the misappropriation of art and science foundation funds, etc.
To return to the editorial: Rather than deal openly with racial tension, its writer settles for the prevalent "blame white men" mentality. Whom does it serve? Not me, considering my experiences.
White men and women in their 20s and early 30s, without houses or much of anything to lose, already are enraged over the slanted coverage of interaction between the races. We have little interest in maintaining a tepid, anxious status quo, and less in inheriting racial animosities created by those whose lifestyles are maintained by harping on the issue.
But the editorial also is of little service to my black acquaintances. Often hearing of discrimination, they will believe it. If anything, they will increasingly lose confidence in the face of seeming bias, and thus become statistics - people who feel racially oppressed.
The Roanoke Times & World-News was correct in reporting that a want of racial harmony will plague the Roanoke Valley's economic development. I know several recent graduates, white and black, who rejected the local job scene for precisely that reason.
But racial harmony will not be achieved through partisan reporting that seeks to offset a previous generation's misdeeds, any more than it will be solved by quisling gerrymandering. If you are unfair, you foster resentment; if you make others swallow that unfairness, you foster shame and ultimately, hatred. Some day you may be held accountable.
Scott B. Courtney is pursuing a graduate degree at Virginia Tech in material science and engineering.