ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 26, 1996 TAG: 9611260059
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELIZABETH LANKFORD
ALMOST EVERYONE acknowledges that our society has a "race problem." Some people believe the problem is that our "superior" Judeo-Christian white culture has been wrongfully invaded by nonwhite races. Other people - more, I hope - think that the problem is racism itself. I happen to be one of these.
Racism is an ugly thing that must be dealt with if our country is ever to be at peace with itself. It is woven so well into the fabric of our culture that we are all affected by it. Unfortunately, we have not been able even to begin to do anything about it. We have been looking in the wrong directions, distracting ourselves with an elaborate blame game. We have been so busy pointing fingers that we have no time and energy left to tackle the actual problem.
Who is to blame for racism? Just about everybody has an answer to that question. Those who live in the North readily point to white Southerners. Racism is the legacy of the generations of slavery carried out on ante bellum Southern plantations. The Northerners are right about this.
But the Southerners, in their turn, claim that racism is actually the fault of the Yankees. The KKK and its extreme anti-black sentiments were spawned by the horror and cruelty of the Reconstruction, and then reborn by the vast social upheaval of the civil-rights movement. The Southerners are also right.
Who else? There are those who would lay the blame on the shoulders of the African-American community itself. Some say that racist attitudes are encouraged by African Americans who kowtow to the white establishment, smiling and shuffling themselves and their entire race into second-class status, instead of fighting for their rights.
Others say that racist attitudes are encouraged by African Americans who react to their rage and anger with violent acts, causing whites to fear the sight of black skin. I have heard people lay racism on the shoulders of those fortunate African Americans who manage to rise up out of obscurity and make something of themselves, leaving their poor neighborhoods for the suburbs without a backward glance. The contention is that, instead of using their newly earned resources to help the entire race, they become selfish and distance themselves from their old friends.
I have also heard that racism is fueled by African Americans who succumb to the lure of easy money by getting in on the drug trade and other areas of criminal behavior, thus reinforcing the racist belief that dark-skinned people are born to aberrant behavior.
Perhaps of all the people who we as a society seek to blame for racism, these are the only ones who can, and should, be let off the hook. It is a common, and unfortunate, practice in our society to blame the victim.
Who else do we blame? The white community, of course, is responsible for racism. The obvious groups of people, like the KKK, with its burning crosses and slogans of hate, provide us all with easy targets. So, too, do poor white families living in trailer parks who ignorantly assume that they have a higher position in society than poor black families. These are great scapegoats, because it is a simple matter for many of us to feel morally superior.
But less obvious are the everyday people - even left-minded white liberals who know better. Like me. I'm a liberal, middle-class, white woman who, in spite of myself, cannot forget or ignore the fact that someone I am talking to has brown skin. Do I notice when the person I am talking to has white skin? Of course not. I am to blame for racism.
My grandmother, a woman I dearly loved, was also to blame. She referred to the black man who mowed her lawn, and helped her out with various other odd-jobs, as, "nice for a black person," never suspecting that there might be something wrong with such a loaded sentiment.
What else? Communists suggest that capitalism is to blame, because of the deprivations it engenders and the liberties it takes with human lives. On the other hand, capitalists insist that the welfare system is to blame for creating a situation in which generation after generation of black families are made dependent on government aid. This causes the resentment and animosity of those of us who have to work for a living, thus strengthening racist attitudes. (Never mind the fact that most families on welfare are white women and their children.)
There are more. I could go on and on pointing fingers, here, there and everywhere. But why? What does it solve to know who is to blame for the problem? Will it make us feel better if we can establish blame in the correct place? Will it free us, then, to actually seek solutions? If that is the case, then I will be presumptuous and I will provide the answer.
I know who is responsible for the racist attitudes of this society. I am. You are. We are the enemy; all of us are responsible for the racism that pervades every part of our culture. Racism is as American as apple pie and outdoor barbecues. The first step in healing is for us each of us to acknowledge our own responsibility. Now, can we please move on?
Elizabeth Lankford of Christiansburg is a library assistant at the Blacksburg branch library.
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