Race and Gender Issues

A few days ago I dropped by Rachel’s Tavern, and while I was there I read an article titled Let’s Get Back to the Real Issues, a short discourse on race and gender issues. When I finished reading I posted the following comment in the “comments” section:

“I don’t mean to play down the issues you listed, but until we solve the bigger problems of population numbers, global warming, energy alternatives, and a sustainable economy, tackling relatively minor problems is unlikely to make a whit of difference to the quality of anyone’s life.”

A reader who uses the handle Lyonside posted this response to my comment:

“OK Phil…

“So, how do we get that sustainable economy, alternative energy technology, etc. when a greate than expected part of the minority population is affected by drug abuse, high crime rates, poverty, poor education, lack of job opportunities, etc. in part caused and abetted by a racist society, which leads not only to high incarceration rates, but to a drain of intellectual and economic potential. How many people who with the right education and support could SOLVE those big problems are affected by crime and drugs and poverty, get discouraged by a school system that is underfunded and understaffed, and never get to explore their own potential?

“The personal is the local is the national is the global.”

While I was preparing a measured response to Lyonside’s questions, Lyonside followed up with this comment:

“BTW: I’m pretty sure Phil Hanson’s post qualifies as one of the “Ways to Derail A Racism Discussion” list that gets bandied about: ‘Why do you care about X issue when there are so many OTHER issues in the world?’

“Like we can’t expect both?”

This was my response to Lyonside’s first comment:

“Lyonside:

“Legalizing cannabis hemp would be a good place to start, as hemp has the potential to solve many of society’s most pressing problems.

“Hemp is a voracious user of carbon dioxide throughout its growth cycle, making it the ideal plant for carbon sequestration. Due to its high cellulose content, hemp would also make an excellent feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production (thus far enabling the plant to fight global warming in two ways).

“Biofuels made from hemp will also play a role in achieving energy independence by reducing our need for foreign oil. It will also minimize our use of coal, a notorious greenhouse gas emitter.

“A sustainable economy can be based on legalized hemp. At the time hemp was banned, in 1937, an estimated 25,000 different products could be manufactured from various parts of the plant. In addition to these, how many more products could be made using modern technologies and processes? A hemp-based economy presents new opportunities for financial gain and promises to create millions of high-tech, mid-tech, and low-tech jobs that currently don’t exist.

“When hemp is legalized and society doesn’t fall apart, people will be more likely to support drug legalization across the board, thereby causing the collapse of illicit drug trade and removing the establishment’s primary excuse for incarcerating black men.

“New opportunities for financial advancement bring about solutions to many of the problems Rachel cited. As I hinted at in my previous post, when you take care of the big problems, the little problems simply go away.”

Lyonside then responds:

“Um, no, society is not overprosecuting/overincarcerating black men because of MARAJUANA [sic] or any other substance.

“Our society overprosecutes black men because of systemic racism. Statistically more whites use and deal drugs than blacks or other ethnic minorities, and if dealing are usually situated at a higher level in the chain. But black and brown people are disproportionately investigated, arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated. In some instances the sentencing, bail limits, and availability of substance abuse treatments, also shows racial bias.

“Other systemic problems that feul [sic] the drug trade are poverty and lack of education. Those problems stay even if drugs were legalized. And there’s no guarantee that legalization would make anyone less racist.

“Little” problems, hunh? You must not be black or brown.”

In the first place, it was not my intention to derail any discussion of racism, only to derail the notion that small problems outweigh big problems in terms of importance and priority. In completely missing the points I made in both of my comments, Lyonside prompts me to ask: Are people of color impervious to global climate change?

Lyonside makes the classic mistake of focusing so intently on small problems that the larger problems go unnoticed—as if all things aren’t connected. It’s exactly the same mindset that allows a few trees to block one’s view of the forest.

What good does it do to address an issue that’s harmful to some people while ignoring an issue that does even more harm to everyone?

Granted, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and a lot of other isms and phobias are reprehensible and disgusting behaviors, but I fail to see how taking people out of the frying pan that such behavior has placed them in and casting them into the fires of global environmental collapse and global economic meltdown in any way betters their situation.

Racism: Victim Complicity?

Fifteen years ago, the following exchange took place on a Seattle loading dock:

“Occum fody braid, mon, occum fody braid.”

Startled by the voice as I banged across the dock plate with a handtruck bearing trays laden with snack pies, I turned to see a heavy-set black man, in his late fifties, standing on the ground next to my trailer, hands planted firmly against the dock. “I’m sorry,” I yelled, “I couldn’t hear what you said. Would you mind repeating . . ..”

“Ahsayd occum fody braid, mon, occum fody braid.”

“I don’t understand . . .”

“Yodeefer, sump’n? Ahsayd occum fody braid, debraid, debraid, mon, juzz gimdy braid.”

So far, I haven’t understood a word this man has said, but there’s enough communication going between us that I can understand that his initial mild arrogance is progressing through various phases of surliness to outright hostility. I sense that if I don’t do something to placate the man, this situation is going to devolve into a physical confrontation.

“Oh, well, why didn’t you say so. Actually, I’m not a Gai’s employee, so I’m not authorized to take any action on my own. Let me get the dock supervisor. I’m sure he’ll be glad to take care of everything for you.”

It wasn’t until later that I learned the man wanted to pick up a load of three-day-old bread for a local food bank.

Thus, we come to Earl Ofari Hutchinson’s article posted on AlterNet, today. Earl laments that black males are victimized by a 40% unemployment rate, citing racism as the cause. But how much of black unemployment can be attributed to racism, and how much of it is culture related?

In academia, in business, in the public spotlight, perception is everything. Ineptitude with language reflects negatively on one’s (perceived) level of intelligence.

Racism played no part in preventing Ken Boddie, Rhonda Shelby, Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Marsha Thomason, Gabrielle Union, Dennis Haysbert and Halle Berry, all of whom are black (or, maybe, just lovely shades of brown), from achieving success. Character, talent, determination and perceived intelligence carried them every step of the way.

A white person meeting with a prospective employer for the first time doesn’t have any better chance of getting hired than a black person if he carries to that meeting a shitty attitude, bad manners, disrespect and a propensity to mumble unintelligibly. Most white people get it. Many black people don’t.

When people try to surpass inbred redneck Texas hillbillies in mangling the English language (as if such a thing were even possible), they can expect to be unemployed, as they rightly deserve to be.