Category Archives: Racial Equality

Circular Politics

We took our grandchildren to the Newseum today, and I would recommend it to anyone contemplating a trip to DC. It is a fabulous museum–not at all a dusty repository of newsprint, but an interactive, living testament to the practice of journalism. For our 8 and 10 year olds, there were numerous “games” and short films that buried instruction in entertainment–snapshots of the past as seen through the eyes of those who covered the events.

One of the short films focused on the Freedom Riders, the Birmingham boycott and Selma. Our grandchildren were shocked and uncomprehending, and we had a long talk about the treatment of African-Americans, segregation and the Ku Klux Klan.

The film clip also showed President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act. The voice-over explained that in many Southern states, ways had been found to keep black people from voting, necessitating a federal law securing their right to cast their ballots.

All I could think of was how contemporary this sounded.

Indiana passed one of the first so-called “Voter ID” laws, justified by a need to reduce a non-existent “voter fraud,” but actually intended to suppress the vote of the poor and minority citizens who vote disproportionately for Democrats. Other states have followed suit. Most recently–and most brazenly–Governor Rick Scott of Florida ordered a draconian “purge” of that swing state’s voter rolls–so draconian, and so indiscriminate (hundreds of eligible voters found themselves summarily removed from the rolls), that the state’s county election officials–Republican and Democrat alike–refused to implement it, and the U.S. Justice Department has sued to halt it.

States may not be able to employ the Poll Tax any more, but these measures have proved to be very serviceable substitutes.

I thought about that while I was assuring my grandchildren that the law signed by President Johnson secured the right to vote for all our citizens. What I didn’t have the heart to tell them was that when you close a door that is being used by dishonorable people, they’re likely to find an open window to wriggle through.

Jefferson was sure right about one thing: eternal vigilance really is the price of liberty.

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It’s a Mad, Mad World

Well, I see that a new poll has found that 51% of likely GOP primary voters believe Obama was not born in the United States. (The poll did not offer a breakdown between those who believe he’s Kenyan and those who don’t think Hawaii is part of the U.S.) The percentage of “birthers” was even higher among those with a positive impression of Sarah Palin.

It is really rather amazing to see the tenacity of this assertion, especially in the face of so much evidence to the contrary. Equally mystifying are the large numbers of Republicans who continue to insist that the President is a Muslim (many of the same people who condemned his former Christian pastor).

I think there is really a simple explanation for both accusations. We live at a time when it just isn’t considered acceptable to use the “N” word, or to be forthrightly bigoted against African-Americans. And that, at least, is progress. But it presents a dilemma for the folks whose real problem with the President is the color of his skin. Better–or so these folks evidently think–to cloak your racial animus by attributing your disapproval to the illegality of his election, or to your opposition to (okay, bigotry about) his “real” religion.

It must be really awful to live with so much fear of people who don’t look like you.

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How Small and Ugly Can We Get?

I received this email from a colleague with whom I team-teach classes from time to time. It speaks for itself.

“One of my IUPUI journalism students was enjoying coffee at a Greenwood, Indiana Starbucks while chatting with his friend José. They were speaking Spanish. A woman interrupted them saying, “You need to start speaking ‘American’ or go back to the hole in Mexico you came from.” My student laughed at her, an admirable response when confronted with blatant racism.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident for my student.  Carmel and Fishers police have stopped my student for DWB–driving with brown skin. Racial profiling is alive and well in Indiana. Indiana has a racist heritage that will take many more generations to be eradicated if, indeed, it will ever be eradicated. My only hope is the woman in this incident has no children to whom she can pass along her hatred of others.

At one time the Klan flourished in Indiana. Hangings were social events followed by pictures of the hangings being sent as post cards to friends. Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and many others of their ilk spout their opinions in inflammatory language. Sarah Palin knows who the “true” Americans are, according to her. Unfortunately, a climate of hate speech and lack of civility feeds the courage of those, like the Starbucks woman, who are prone to racism. She apparently speaks “American,” a language that I am not familiar with. My student is a winner of a highly competitive college scholarship who speaks three languages, including English, fluently. The woman who accosted him is fluent only in hate.”

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Follow the Money

In today’s political environment, a smart politician quickly learns that using the right language is more important than doing the right thing. In most cases, the electorate won’t know the difference, because the real business of government is done through that most boring, least-understood, least reported-on mechanism—the budget. If we really want to know what is going on, we have to follow the money.

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Rules in Black and White

It was a warm and sunny spring day, and the park was filled with families and children playing. At the eastern perimeter of the park, on a low fence constructed of railroad ties, three young African-American boys sat talking quietly. An IPD patrol car pulled up directly in front of them; the officers got out of the car and demanded…
Continue reading “Rules in Black and White”

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