Republicans Have Become Incapable of Discussing Race (UPDATED)

The day before the Iowa Caucus, Rick Santorum uses blacks to illustrate a point about government creating dependency in order to win votes.  The statement is on video and its pretty clear at least to me that its what he said. Here is the "cleaned up" version of the CBS video posted at HotAir.com which Ed Morrissey reviews and declares Santorum didn't say black peoples lives:

Santorum has now also said that he didn't actually say that. I think he's lying to the public and I think he's lying to himself.

When people like me reacted to Santorum's statement, conservatives rushed to his defense with the wildest of arguments: He didn't say it.  Its right there on the tape, but no, you didn't hear what you thought.  Its become the Rodney King video of presidential campaign politics. The denial is unreal. Here's how a commenter at NPR on the story explained it all away:

I worked on developing speech synthesis and speech recognition technology for a number of years and learned a lot about speech articulation and human perception. I am a Romney supporter but it is clear to me that Senator Santorum stumbled when attempting to say the phrase "peoples lives" so he paused after the first attempt and repeated the phrase "peoples lives". If you read his lips you can see that he mangled the first attempt to say the word 'people; and only the second half of the word people came out with part of the word 'lives' which is why he corrected himself. Since both the b sound and the p sound are made on the lips (the only difference is that the vocal cords "hum" with a b sound) the 'pl' sound when mangled sounded like a 'bl' sound. However if you listen to the recording and watch his lips he was not attempting to make an 'ack' sound but lots of listeners heard "black" because mentally they associate "black people" with public assistance. It was not Senator Santorum that was prejudicial, it was the listeners.

 Got that?  Its basically just in our minds.  Our brains, all of our brains, are just playing mental auditory tricks on us, making us hear our own prejudiced thoughts. Look at the extraordinary mental gymnastics going on in the above statement to negate what you clearly see and hear in the video.

As an aside, and a tip for others who need to defend themselves against a charge of prejudicial speech,  using as a defense all the great things you've done for black people is the wrong response.  If you have to tell all the great things you've done, you've already lost.  If Santorum were smart AND he truly had done some things in the black community that were beneficial, there would be a black person willing to say so.  You let them say all the good stuff you've done.  Just a little PR tip for free.

That Santorum would make a statement that suggests that blacks are largely on welfare and that welfare comes to us via money taken out of the pockets of white voters by government is not surprising, shocking or unusual.  That is a persistent meme on the right.  If I sat down with a Tea Party member or your average poster at Hot Air, they would would largely agree with that supposition.

What this episode really illustrates is how completely incapable of a principled discussion about race the GOP has become. Where does this denial come from? This refusal to face the issue and discuss it? Part of it is black folks fault. For years, we cried racism for so many things, sometimes deserved, sometimes not and we won the war.  White people think being a racist is evil and they are horrified to even have it suggested about them. Herein lies the problem now.  If you even suggest a critique of a policy or statement which alludes to a racial element, you are assumed to be making a charge of racism.  But because the terminology has been used so indiscriminately, we no longer have any shared understanding of what that means.  So now if you call someone a racist, or something milder such as suggesting that their behavior, words or opinion is motivated by race in some way, it is interpreted as an accusation that they are essentially akin to a Klansman and bear an irrational hatred to blacks.  Its like calling someone an evil caricature or cartoon.  And since most people are NOT Klansman, the accusation or critique is dismissed as though that's what you suggested.

Take Santorum.  He's obviously NOT a racist. But what he said in Iowa is clearly influenced by racially stereotypical ideas that are not grounded in the facts.  That is something that should be called out and discussed.  The issue isn't whether Santorum is a racist.  The issue is that his thinking has been shaped by faulty racial stereotypes and we should talk about that so that its surfaced and he can correct his thinking.

Conservatives however can never reach a discussion of the merits, because they are too busy defending themselves and saying that they are not evil Klansman.  They simply deny the charge, whatever it is, rather than engage the issue.  Now, it is simply become routine to adopt a posture that says any charge that suggests I'm influenced by racial stereotypes is defacto an accusation that I'm an evil racist and since that's obviously not true, I don't even have to make a principled response to your charge, I can just dismiss it. Its become an easy way to avoid having a real discussion about the memes regarding black people that are commonplace in the minds of conservatives.  That avoidance has rendered the GOP incapable of discussing the issue in any self critical way, to its detriment.

Cashing In On An Unworthy Prejudice

It 
I've been enjoying some vacation time with the family, so the Juan Williams kerfuffle caught me by surprise.  There's foolishness to be had all around.  We'll start with NPR. They fired Juan over the comments  he made on the Factor and did it in a pretty ham handed way.  Juan has 10 years plus in with NPR and apparently he didn't even rate an in person dismissal.  He got fired over the phone, Sherrod style.  NPR's public statements following the firing were pretty asinine and made them look and sound like complete liberal idiots.  They made a complete mess of it and when you combine the timing of these events with their announcement of a multi million dollar gift from the Daddy Warbucks of leftwing causes, George Soros, the optics of this sorry mess go from bad to much worse. No need to feel horribly sorry for Juan, he seems to have landed on his feet with a juicy Fox Networks $2 million contract to cushion his fall from liberal grace at NPR.
I find NPR's predictable and boring liberal overreaction less troubling however than Williams' comments and what they  suggest is  happening in the American psyche.  Its never a good look when you have to start a sentence with "I'm not a bigot" and thats your first warning that stupid is about to ensue.  Williams said that when he saw people dressed in Muslim garb on a plane, he gets nervous.  Conservatives from Palin to Jim DeMint are defending Williams' comments as an honest statement of his "feelings', one shared by many others, while decrying the political correctness that heaps condemnation on anyone who voices it.
The outrage over his being fired for the comments has merit, but defending what he had to say has very little because when you listen to it, it makes very little sense.  Everyone is interpreting his comments as seeing Muslims on the plane make him nervous, when what he actually said was that  seeing people in Muslim garb meant they had  chosen to identify themselves first and foremost as Muslims and that made him nervous.  What he's expressing is a prejudice.

Many are defending Williams' comments by pointing out that the 911 killers were Muslims and therefore this prejudice Juan expresses is justified.  No, its not.  A Muslim terrorist isn't going to attract your attention by identifying themselves with Muslim garb. The 911 killers did not wear Muslim garb.  The idiot shoe bomber did not wear Muslim garb.  The even more deeply idiotic underwear bomber did not wear Muslim garb.

Its an unworthy prejudice, albeit one that has an explanation.  But its still unworthy.  Its guilt by association.  Its the conflation of Muslim identity with terrorist identity. The fact that the 911 killers were Muslim does not change the unfairness or unworthiness of it.  Especially given that we Americans don't have the most fine grained filters.  I work with someone who is of mid east origin. He has a notable accent.  Should I feel nervous about working with him? He doesn't wear Muslim garb, but he has an accent and looks like one  of them.  I can admit to wondering about his origin, his thoughts about terror, is he part of a sleeper cell? They are unworthy thoughts based on assumptions most of which are probably wrong.  The truth is, I don't really know anything about him.  He might be Arab, might not.  He might  adhere to Islam or he could be a Christian. His people might hail from a country that is a staunch ally of the US against terror.  I don't know.  And he's done nothing to cause me to question his motives or integrity other than be himself.

When Juan looks at Muslims on a plane in typical cultural attire and gets nervous, he's indulging in an unworthy prejudice that calls into question their very humanity based on nothing more than them  just being themselves.  He's jumping to the conclusion that they might be killers of the first order more or less because they got out of bed that morning. Thats what we are doing when we indulge similar  unfair prejudiced thoughts.  Its isn't shocking that we feel this way.  Prejudice is as old as the species. It was a horrible event.  We are flawed human beings and we muddle along the best that we can.

Whats troubling is that Juan and seemingly those on the right who are so vociferous in his defense and practically crow about how they share his feelings, don't recognize it for the unworthy prejudice that it is, nor acknowledge the need to resist it's indulgence.

BTW, with Williams gone, NPR has no African American news analysts at all.  Seems to me that might be worth a comment or two from the NAACP's and National Action Networks of the world. 

Related articles

• Sean Carman: NPR's Missed Opportunity (huffingtonpost.com)
• David C. Wilson: Juan Williams' Teachable Moment: He Simply Didn't Accept he Was/Is Prejudiced (huffingtonpost.com)
• "Ellison: Juan Williams ‘dishonored his legacy’ with remark about Muslims" and related posts (minnesotaindependent.com)
• Conservatives Come to Juan Williams' Defense (cbn.com)
• NPR Fires Juan Williams: Enough! (blogcritics.org)

Reflections on "The One"

In the service of the presidency

I've been pondering a variety of impressions and vibes being thrown off by this historic transition that is occurring.

I marveled and laughed out loud as I watched a clip of President-Elect Obama's visit to the White House to speak with President Bush and saw the unmistakable swagger of a black man as Barack Obama walked down the hallway with the President. Brothers and sisters all over the country noted it too, from my mother in Ohio to the brothers at the barbershop down the street.

I thought about the inspiration that Obama is giving to black men in America. I believe its out there, a palpable, tangible upward effect on the psyche of brothers, the presence of a black president. I know that I'm aware of it. Its not a sudden thing, but a slowly growing feeling. Forget "I wanna be like Mike". I wanna be like Obama. I'm catching thoughts running through my head like quicksilver..."Obama did it. Now you gotta do your thang".

I wonder if something akin to it but in a weird reverse way, might be happening in the minds of white people. Is Obama's triumph causing some whites to gradually begin to perceive black men in general in a different, more positive fashion? Will bosses and managers who didn't perceive potential in the brother that worked for them take a second look with a new eye? Might their not occur a major shift for the better in perceptions of black men, fueled by the success of Obama, that lifts all boats as it were. Will his success become the standard for what society assumes black men are capable of? I wonder.

I've thought a time or two that I'm glad to have a president who has some "cool" factor. I'm glad to have a president (at least for now) who's election was greeted with joy and thanksgiving and good will around the planet. I'm glad to have a president that makes the world think that America is still on the path of perfection in the pursuit of its ideals.

Lastly, I wondered about life in the White House for the next four years.

As the Obama's prepare for their installation as the First Family of the United States, I wondered about the feelings of the White House residence staff. Many of them are African American, some who's family's have had a long association in the service of the presidency. After so many years, to serve an African American First Family in the White House must seem a thing to marvel at. With what feeling of pride and earnest, sober bonhomie will they greet their arrival?

Williams Sisters Experience Emblematic of Blacks at the Pinnacle of Anything

Bangkok Post : SPORTS PLUS

Pictured left: The Williams sisters playing for the Wimbledon doubles championship. I love the way they look like they are whispering about how they are going to kick their opponents ass Compton style on this next point.

The Williams sisters make their way to the Wimbledon finals, beating everyone before them and racking up impressive stats while doing it, only to get to the final and have their athletic integrity impugned with the suggestion that they rig the contest when they play against each other. Major tennis figures like Navratilova complain about how its disappointing the top seeded players didn't make it to the finals and there is discussion in some quarters about how the ranking system should be changed.

If they could be accused of cheating to get into the final they would be, except not even their worst detractors can argue when they defeat players one on one on the world tennis stage. Instead of being celebrated for their talent, determination and skill, they are damned as often as they are cheered with back handed praise from the likes of Navratilova, who seems oblivious to the racial undertone of her comments at times.

As has often happened in history, when blacks break into an arena they previously have not had the opportunity to compete in and excel, they often find their achievements downplayed or the rules of the game changed in an attempt to re-level the playing field against a paradigm shifting black achiever.

Comparisons of frankly lesser players to the Williams abound, like the ever present debate you find in online forums over who was better, Henin or Venus? Never mind that Henin has no Wimbledon titles and Venus has..uh, FIVE! In fact, the Williams sisters record speaks for itself:

Serena - 8 Slams with 2 Wimbledon titles
Venus - 7 Slams with 5 Wimbledon titles (3rd in the Open Era behind Martina (9) and Steffi (7).
Williams Sisters - 7 Slam titles in doubles with 3 Wimbledons.

Players with this history of accomplishment in the sport however still have to deal with insinuations that their matches between each other are rigged and that their father decides the outcome. That their contests between each other have lacked the intensity of battles against others is true. However, you don't have to impugn their athletic integrity to explain that. They are two siblings who love each other. Who wants to destroy their own sister in front of a world wide audience the way they take down their other opponents? That their prior matches against each other have seemed emotionally ambivalent is no mystery.

With maturity in the game and in their own lives, this Wimbledon final packed all of the intensity and competitiveness we hoped for. But what has impressed me and made me proud in the past and continues to do so is that they remain first and foremost, sisters and family. The game is not more important than their relationship. That this is true has always been an obvious and evident fact. Never perhaps more true than this Wimbledon competition, where their growth as young women and siblings was clearly on display. They asked no quarter, nor gave any in this match. They both wanted it and they played each other hard, with Venus coming out the victor. But the relationship is always there. Venus celebrated less than she would have were her opponent anyone else, and Serena, known for being fiercely competitive and a sore, though sportsmanlike, loser, was surly, but less so than she might have been otherwise. And a short while later, they were on the court together playing for the doubles title with the game faces pictured above in evidence. I would not want to face off across court with the pair in this picture.

I'm proud of their achievements, of the way they have excelled in a tennis world that while it may give them their due, does not do so with any wholehearted grace. But I'm even more proud of how they have held up the banner of black family and sisterhood while in the global spotlight.

What do you think is more impressive about the Williams' tennis career, the tennis achievements or the sisterhood they have displayed on the road to becoming champions?