My Own Private Birmingham

I have been to the supermarket, and I've seen the other isle.

     With the 28^th Martin Luther King Jr. day upon us I’m going to take a moment to point out exactly what I mean by my assertions in this blog that, “Racial Identity is a White Issue,” and, “We’ve Come Far but Not Become Fair.”

     I’m not going to make a complex argument about whose responsibility it is to end racism. Those arguments are out there if you seek them.  I’m simply going to say that racism is a problem in the racist just like theft is a problem in the thief. If the thief doesn’t steal there is no theft.  If the racist stops his racism there is no racism.

     I’m not going to quote statistics about racial inequity, though if you go seek them you will see that Whites in the US hold power and wealth disproportionately compared to People of Color. 

     If you believe that all races are equal in natural ability then systematic, often-unconscious White oppression is the logical explanation for the racial disparities in the US.  After all, 99 years after slavery was made illegal in the US we needed to pass the Civil Rights Act to enforce equality among the races, and 49 years after that there are still disparities among the races in achievement, power, and legitimacy in our culture.

     And of course, if you believe that racial disparities stem from one race being superior to other races then you are, by definition, racist.

     But this is already more than I wanted to say today. Here’s what I really want to say: Last year on MLK day I went to the supermarket and there I saw the color line starkly. On this national holiday celebrating this Black man who was a civil rights leader, every single person buying food was White and every single person working behind checkout was a Person of Color.  MLK day seemed to be a great opportunity for us White folks to catch up on our shopping while for People of Color, at least in my little corner of the world, it wasn’t a day off.  Yes, they may have been getting holiday pay, yes they may have been glad to make some extra money, but no White folks seemed to be in the same boat. For us it was a day off. 

     At the time I wanted to say something to the person who checked me out, to at least acknowledge that I saw it, but what could I say that wouldn’t be some attempt to be viewed as a “good” White person instead of one of those other, bad, unaware White people? “Boy, that racism sure is persistent! Oh, I brought my own bag…” 

     All this happened, mind you, while the first Person of Color to be President of the United States is in office, a thing that until it happened many people thought was unimaginable, even in 2008. 

     And so my little experience reflects the philosophy of this blog. With Obama in the White house we have “come far” in terms of what race means in the US.  With such disparities among the races still in place, we’ve “not become fair.”  It is my responsibility to continue to do what I can about it because it’s doubly unfair to ask the targets of inequity to take the responsibility for eradicating it: “racial inequity is a White issue.”