Other People’s Children
By Callimachus | Related entries in Education, RaceThey were told to sell their house and move.
Imagine this situation. Two black children, a brother and a sister, enrol at a school which is predominatly white. they are subject to racial slurs and other harrassment. They are threatened and assaulted. In one instance, after the girl is threatened, her white nemesis is forced to apologize — only to return to school three days later with a weapon, threatening to kill the girl.
What do you think would happen?
We know the answer. There would be marches, protests, outaged community members appearing at emergency meetings to demand that action be taken. State and federal officials would intervene. There would certainly be changes inthe school and district administration, designed to change the “festering culture of racism” that had been permitted to arise in the school.
Well, that isn’t what happened at one school in Peoria, Illinois. But then again, the victims were white, and the perpetrators were . . . well, the columnist is too PC to actually tell us what race the perpetrators are. Doing so might be construed as racist, I suppose.
This is one of those situations that makes some Americans get all indignant while others shrug. Some of us think that if we set national standards for fair treatment and non-discrimination, they ought to be applied regardless of race or creed. Others think such policies are there only to protect minorities from the crushing power of majority numbers, and are dismayed when, say, blacks are persecuted under “hate crimes” laws for attacking whites. (There are third streams running as well: my friend wonders why there are no Jews in so many “multicultural” celebrations and programs).
It seems to me this diverging reaction is one of the fundamental differences in the American character.
Being white gives you advantages from birth in the number of minds you don’t have to personally change and the number of prejudices you don’t have to waste time dispelling.
On the other hand, I know what it means to be a white minority in a city neighborhood. And to raise a kid in a place where every bully he encounters is going to have darker skin than his. It makes me more alert to race than someone who doesn’t encounter it daily. It leads me to assume certain things about certain behaviors; that’s a survival skill. It also makes me more sympathetic than perhaps I otherwise would have been to a black family in a mirror-image situation. And it confirms my belief that if the government wishes to continue to work toward anti-discrimination, it has to be color-blind.
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 and is filed under Education, Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 20th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
“Being white gives you advantages from birth in the number of minds you don’t have to personally change and the number of prejudices you don’t have to waste time dispelling.”
I love that thought. I agree that color blind is the way to go. I have found in the northeast that with the exception of hoodlums and drug infected areas people are too busy to concern themselves with race issues as a high priority. Most issues that I have run into or witnessed are situational as opposed to systemic. It can give you some dichotomous feelings from time to time, but as a general rule … too busy
April 21st, 2006 at 11:14 am
I firmly believe that hate crimes can be committed by african-americans against caucasians. The very definition of a hate crime would suggest that it can occur between any two groups of people. During my time as a social worker I encountered a number of african-americans who completely hated white people. To me, this kind of hatred towards one group of people is sickening, no matter who the target is.
April 21st, 2006 at 12:09 pm
GN – I think that also depends where you are in the Northeast. I’m from the South and I found it to be quite a change. I think people don’t concern themselves with race issues as much because the racial mix is a different proportion.
Now, ironically, as I was reading this post, I was reminded that in college one year in the South, I was forced to live with a roomate from New York who was blatantly and vocally racist. Mind you that she is African-American and I am not and she did not care for me one bit and did not let me forget it.
Strangely, I had made the choice not to go to a college closer to my home due to the fact that it’s representatives had behaved similarly though with a different target.
The problem is that there always has to be a target. Mankind seems to only be able to survive if there is a pecking order, an enemy. It’s a shame that we can’t all live in harmony.
April 21st, 2006 at 12:31 pm
N. Mallory,
Yes, thee does always seem to be a target. the point I was trying to make (only from my own perspective) is that these battles seem to engage on the periphery of the mainstream. I think that speaks well for the cultural shift in general.