Over the last few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about something Eric Holder said back in early 2009, soon after he was confirmed to serve as Attorney General:
Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.
This statement rang in my ears as I read recent articles in The Atlantic Monthly about the de facto re-segregation of urban public schools, and a new theory for seeking racial reparations; as a once-respected African-American entertainer and educator, who had argued for the exercise of greater self-responsibility in African-American neighborhoods, fell from his perch amid continuing accusations of past sexual assaults; as the NFL clumsily dealt with domestic violence accusations involving two African-American players; as a confrontation between a young, white police officer and a young, unarmed black teenage robbery suspect in Ferguson, Missouri, turned into a national event and a local tragedy; and when both the District Attorney of St. Louis County and the President of the United States on the same evening called on our country to engage in a dialogue about the causes of such confrontations and our reactions to them.
And I’ve thought to myself, “am I a coward for not saying or doing something about our continuing racial divide?” “If I am to say something, what should I say and to whom should I say it?” “Would anything I say or do make a difference?”
Cowardice is a reaction based on fear. I can honestly say that I have no fear about discussing this issue (so, at least applied to me, I believe Holder’s statement was wrong). Instead, as a white, male American conservative of Anglo-Saxon descent, my concern is that even if I had something to say, no one would listen because distrust rather than fear controls our perceptions of, and our ability to discuss, race relations in this country.
Based on this assumption that the root problem is distrust, I am not even going to try to engage in a discussion at this moment with an audience that is not predisposed to listen and discuss this issue with someone like me. Instead, I want to start by sharing some thoughts with fellow conservatives and Republicans about this dilemma we refer to as “race relations” in America and the distrust that exists. I do so with the hope that, in some small way, sharing these thoughts might cause some of the readers of this website to think about this issue and start to engage in the dialogue our leaders are soliciting, because any meaningful dialogue eventually must have our input.
All of my thoughts are based on the following, painful observation.
Although there are many causes for the deep distrust that exists between African-Americans and our larger society, we Republicans need to look in the mirror and shoulder some responsibility for the current predicament. Like the wish granted to George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life, the vision of the America of Ferguson, Missouri—or of hundreds of other neighborhoods across the country—presents us with the reality of communities that most Republicans and conservatives abandoned decades ago. Like the George Bailey who didn’t exist, we weren’t there as these communities were left alone to succumb to progressive social experiments that helped them decay into Pottervilles. While we moved to gated-communities, luxury high-rises, suburbia or small towns, and to the better schools and safer streets that our tax dollars would buy, we weren’t there to help build the businesses, serve on the civic and school boards, and form the private associations that provide the social capital necessary to maintain vibrant, productive communities. Our absence left behind too many of our African-American neighbors to fend for themselves as their neighborhoods turned into urban Pottervilles that, at their worst, became Detroit. What we watched on TV on the Monday evening before Thanksgiving from the safety of our distant living rooms was Ferguson as Potterville in full bloom.
As I’ve tried to say over several years on this website, you can’t sustain a society of free people—Reagan’s “Shining City on a Hill”—without sustaining relationships between neighbors; you can’t build such relationships without trust; and you won’t trust someone you don’t know. Our whole Madisonian theory of federalism only works if we know and trust our neighbors. We Republicans no longer know our neighbors in communities like Ferguson, and, predictably, they don’t trust us or our ideas.
While we supported the expansion of legal protections of civil rights for all of our neighbors, we disengaged from their lives just when they needed us to help them use their new access to their God-given rights to assimilate and prosper in our society. Yes, I said “assimilate.” You see, through centuries of bondage and Jim Crow, African-Americans were never given the same opportunity and support to assimilate into the American society that other waves of immigrants were given. Regardless of the spectacular accomplishments of a few like our current President, the perception of and the reality for most African-Americans is that they still live parallel, segregated lives from the rest of society. And the unfortunate result of this reality has been predictable—it was even the excuse the supporters of Jim Crow used to enforce segregation.
To explain what I mean, I am going to refer to something that very few people would dare to reference today–the majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson. Unfortunately, few people–even few law students–have really read it (just like few have read the Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade opinions–but everybody has an opinion about them). Most people rightly read only the first Justice Harlan’s dissent, if they read any portion of the case at all. Harlan’s opinion was right on history and principle, and the country would be better off today if we had adopted his clear reasoning as the law of the land in the 1890’s. However, the majority opinion, though legally and morally wrong (and in most passages, abhorrently so), discussed a painful truism about people’s preferences of association, which should be read and understood by people of goodwill who honestly want to have a dialogue about the current state of race relations.
The majority noted in Plessy that changing preferences of association would take time and require a voluntary change of attitudes, which government was ill-equipped to force on individuals:
The argument also assumes that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured to the negro except by an enforced commingling of the two races. We cannot accept this proposition. If the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality, it must be the result of natural affinities, a mutual appreciation of each other’s merits, and a voluntary consent of individuals.
(emphasis added). What the majority ignored (besides morality, the Constitution and the Civil War) was that law could and should be used to break down barriers impeding the races from assimilating, and do all it can to promote assimilation; but it was right, unfortunately, that the ultimate work of assimilation would still require private, individual action. And assimilation is hard work—a uniquely American task, embodied in the motto E Pluribus Unum.
Assimilation doesn’t just happen, and it certainly won’t happen in an atmosphere that separates and alienates neighbors from each other. Even when it has worked in this country, it took a generation or two for each new wave of immigrants to assimilate completely.
After all these centuries, after all the promises we’ve made and the laws we’ve passed, isn’t it time now for us to make the effort to get to know our African-American neighbors, to build the relationships with them that lead to mutual trust, and then to engage with them in the great American experiment of self-government—that is, to take the hard actions needed in our communities and our states to assimilate our African-American neighbors into America? Isn’t time that we go back into these communities as friends and mentors to help break the cycle of progressive social experiments that have left generations of young men and women under-educated, under-employed and over-incarcerated, and placed too many Darren Wilsons and Michael Browns in life-or-death confrontations?
Yes, if we offer our hand in neighborly love, it must eventually be accepted by our neighbors for assimilation to finally occur—but the “fear” of being rebuffed must not stop our effort. It may take time and will require a lot of effort, but it is the right thing to do.
The midterm election results gave our party—the Party of Lincoln, Reagan and Kemp—a gift: the opportunity at the state and local level to give a new birth of freedom to all Americans—including our African-American neighbors. Let’s finally accept this gift with all the challenges and hard choices it presents. If we do accept this gift and meet the challenge of assimilating all our neighbors, we will be a lot closer to leaving a “Shining City on a Hill” to all our children. And, in the end, isn’t that what we’ve been fighting for over all these decades?
Ed Vidal says
Yes, and so long as you are reviewing the history of race relations in America, consider that the situation has gotten worse since the Great Society began in 1965, and it has gotten even worse since America elected our first black President in 2008. Go figure!
Manuel Barrera says
Really Ed, not for me, but then I went to a school district that sent whites to one school, browns to another, and blacks to another one.
Really Ed, not for me, but then again I was told by the counselor, Mr. Sanders, “Don’t waste your time going to college it won’t make a difference.” My first degree is in Auto Mechanics from Del Mar Tech.
Really Ed, not for me, constantly stopped when coming back from the border as all the white looking folks were waived through.Really Ed, not for me, constantly being stopped by the police without reason, including having a gun pointed at my head when I drove up to pick my wife up from the police academy.
Really Ed, you blame social security, medicare, and medicaid for our problems?
Would you have walked some time in my shoes and those of many others, you may have a different opinion as to what was good.
But then again when I worked at Olin Mathieson, during the 70s I wondered why Blacks could go no higher than shuttle operators?
Come to think about it at that time most Blacks had been here far longer than most Whites, they were brought as slaves, not allowed to immigrate here until recently. Unlike Ted Cruz my ancestry goes back to the 1700s in what is now Texas. It was a Barrera that was an original founder of Laredo.
Really Ed how did you you arrive at that conclusion that it was better in the 60s for us minorities? I don’t see any signs that say no Blacks allowed anymore. Several Catholic churches in the east end are there because the “Mexicans” were not allowed in the White churches.
Really Ed, how did you arrive at that conclusion? Do you accept social security and medicare those great welfare programs? You know most of us will get a lot more from them then we put in, you do know that? How do you explain all those white women who never had a paying job getting social security?
Really Ed it was so much better in the 60s?
Ed Vidal says
Comrade Barrera,
My observations were based on the empirical evidence from illegitimacy rates, labor force participation and recent polling, but what amazes me is how Mexicans and Central Americans continue wanting to come to America, after all the reports of mistreatment that you and others must be sending back.
Based on your reports, I would expect them to be flooding into Cuba, Venezuela or Argentina, or happily staying at home. Maybe those 43 Mexican students at a teachers college who were arrested by the local police, on the orders of the mayor and his wife, and turned over to narco-traffickers who killed them and burned their bodies would have told a different story.
Janet Thomas says
Ed, great points. Unfortunately with someone like Manuel it’s probably falling on deaf ears. There’s a certain percentage of people in this country who think they’ve been done wrong and been kept down by “The Man”. I’ve offered to buy many of them a one-way ticket to Cuba, Venezuela, any other socialist country or any muslim country of their choice. I’ve never had anyone take me up on the offer.
Ed Vidal says
Maybe we need to start deportations? Not only of unlawful aliens, but also of ungrateful natives!
Manuel Barrera says
Ed and Janet, my fascist buddies, I see you are back to the 60s argument love it or leave. I think I am much more content with our present situation than either of you so you are free to leave which country do you prefer? By the way if I could talk my spouse into moving I would certainly consider Colombia or Costa Rica.
Ed I may take you up on that one way ticket if my spouse changes her mind, so stay alive an unhappy.
But I did notice that both of you basically resort to name calling, my being a communist lover can certainly be inferred from the comments you both make.
Those type of arguments come from small minds or lazy minds. Why don’t either of you address the statement that I made?
Ed look in the mirror you are full of hate for Obama and certain other groups that do not agree with your views, I suggest that you self deport to a place where the government acts and thinks like you. Good luck finding one.
Janet Thomas says
Ed, I’m sure you achieved a since of self satisfaction with your hand wringing about the plight of the poor African-Americans in this country. As you pontificate to we lesser humans from your gated ivory tower about race relations and what “we” should have done or what “we” should do, you sound more like a sanctimonious liberal than the conservative that you claim to be. I’ve lived in an area that’s 86{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} hispanic for the last 18 years and the majority of my work has been in black and hispanic areas for longer than that, so your obvious guilt-ridden rhetoric is laughable to me. As far as other minority groups having it easier than the blacks, go back to the 1800’s when the Chinese were brought to this country to work the railroads. You might want to read an honest account of what they went through and where they are today. You’re hysterical over the lack assimilation, new flash Ed, people are self-segregating. Like you, the social scientists are hysterical about it also. The blacks are moving back to the areas they grew up in – yes even some of the well educated blacks. For all of the government mandated preferences given to blacks, Affirmative Action, forced bussing in the 1960’s, racial quotas in schools and the work place, etc., the blacks are in worse shape than they were pre-Great Society. Sorry, this is not the fault of we evil white folks. But I’ll tell you what, since you’re so obviously guilt ridden about what “we” haven’t done, I’ll find you a place to live in Acres Homes so you can nurture then out of the misfortune that’s been forced on them and after living there for a month (if you could make it that long), let me know how you feel then.
Foolish Memo says
Can you make your point in 3-4 sentences?
Janet Thomas says
Even bullet points would have taken more space when you’re dealing with an issue like this and when you’re dealing with the liberal mind set.
Jeff Larson says
“What the majority ignored (besides morality, the Constitution and the Civil War) was that law could and should be used to break down barriers impeding the races from assimilating, and do all it can to promote assimilation; but it was right, unfortunately, that the ultimate work of assimilation would still require private, individual action.”
Having laws that required separate fountains, separate restrooms, and separate sleeping cars for “coloreds” was a violation of the right to peaceably assemble guaranteed by the 1st Amendment. If there were “barriers impeding the races from assimilating”, those laws were those barriers.
Forced race mixing is every bit as wrong as forced race separation, and for exactly the same reason.
I live on a street with 10 houses. Two of those houses are occupied by black families, two by Hispanic families, and one by a legal immigrant from Europe. We all get along fine, and there isn’t any crime to speak of.
We don’t have police patrols going up and down our street, staffed by police who consider our street to be “Injun Country”, either.
Ed Vidal says
Jeff Larson is on the right track. Jim Crow was enforced by state and local government regulation, and would not have lasted if left to private preferences. Same today, when policies like affirmative action drive people apart.
loren smith says
Ed, You said, “Cowardice is a reaction based on fear. I can honestly say that I have no fear about discussing this issue…” Then, in the very next breath, you said, “Based on this assumption that the root problem is distrust, I am not even going to try to engage in a discussion at this moment with an audience that is not predisposed to listen and discuss this issue with someone like me.” A White Conservatives talking to Repubs about race relations is like taking a selfie; satisfying but uninteresting and a bit exoteric. Same thing with a liberal Dems talking to Blacks about race; like touching a bobble head and gaining confirmation in it’s reaction. Seems to me it would be better to have an honest discussion with each other. Let’s talk football. About two thirds of all NFL players are Black. Why? Because they are better athletes than Whites. What, you think it’s because they have harder heads? You said, “as the NFL clumsily dealt with domestic violence accusations involving two African-American players.” You chose to use the example of NFL football players and domestic violence because Eric Holder’s words “rang in your ear”s as you read the Atlantic Monthly article. Are you implying that NFL players are more prone to domestic violence than the general population, or are you saying that Blacks are, as a species, more atavistic? Maybe you are just taking a word selfie with the bobble head that is the hatred many conservatives have for the man, (and Obama by proxy) because of his race. Let us have the courage to talk honestly with each other about race. By the way, where can I get my hands on a JJ Watt bobble head?
Manuel Barrera says
As to the other Ed, Ed all those non cowards, let us talk about the Westheimer School District. “In 1977, group of citizens in western Houston tried to form Westheimer Independent School District out of a portion of Houston ISD. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected the appeals after formation of the district was denied.”
Wonder why they were trying to do that?
Wonder where the term White flight comes from?
Let all the non cowards begin the walk not just the talk.
As a school teacher at the time, I wondered why all the best Black teachers were sent to the White schools after the integration? I wondered why we got some of the worse or new teachers? I used to teach in a Black school.
Emmett says
We have the luxury of describing the problem as “mistrust” and not “fear,” Ed. We are white American males in 2014. The vast majority of us have absolutely nothing to fear.
mharper42 says
Manuel Barrera: “How do you explain all those white women who never had a paying job getting social security?” Wives of any race are able to take their deceased hubby’s SS, whether they ever worked in a paying job. How come you don’t know that? And what does it have to do with race friction, anyway?
Manuel Barrera says
What makes you think that I did not know. When social security was enacted what kind of job do you think a Black man had? What do you think his salary was? The wife’s SS is based on the husband’s income. Of course I knew that it applied to everyone but not everyone was equal, were they?