"Gee Baba, Why Don't White People Write About Racism?"

Preview…continuing in the tradition of these fancy lists, tomorrow’s will be on U2. However, since my U2 knowledge isn’t as strong as it should be, it will be contributed by Ben, the former five-time Red Stripe Reader of the Month. Most of you know that Ben is my favorite reader–of the people I didn’t know and love before this site–and I just gave the list a good read. Great stuff. And if you don’t know much about U2, you need to check his list and start reading up. Probably the most important rock band of the last twenty-five years.
Continuing with reader contributions, I got an interesting e-mail from Decker in Charlotte. It read as follows…
I just read Phil Taylors joint on CNNSI and read Jason Whitlock’s joint on ESPN Pg 2 about the huge contract Weis got….
My question is why do black columnist have to write what white columnist should be writing….instead of Jeremy schaap or some other PTI/Sports reporter like dude saying…. “you know, you have a point” –
Decker raised one of those points I always intend to write about but never get around to.

So why don’t white people write about these things, leaving black folks to do it and, of course, instantly be marginalized as raving racist bastards? Should you not believe this marginalization, give a look to Whitlock’s piece on Charlie Weis and then check this chat wrap.
Some don’t agree with Jason’s take. Ivan Maisel, the dot-com’s college football reporter, has expressed his disagreement. If Notre Dame isn’t acting with racism in this case, it’s surely drowning in hypocrisy. I wish Alan Grant would write something about it, but he’s said he’ll never say anything else about Notre Dame again. And if you think he’s playing, try this on–he wouldn’t even say anything in an e-mail. And he appears to find me to be a fairly decent guy.
Anyway, back to Decker…Decker wants to know why white writers–and maybe white people in general?–are so reserved when it comes to discussing racism. Why is that?
Check out this e-mail a white writer once wrote me.
I also thought the general attitude of the Katrina aftermath was appalling – I am going crazy because I have a column and would love to write that Bush doesn’t give a shit about poor blacks, which he doesn’t, and it’s obvious but I would lose half my readers. To me, the four days after Katrina happened, and the way our government chose to handle it, was one of the worst stretches in the history of this country. I am really discouraged about it.
I’ll never delete this e-mail. I told this guy that he should tackle such topics because he could reach more people than I could. I said that there are morons that read my name and see something about race and instantly rattle off an e-mail that gets posted under hate mail. I told the cat that it’s necessary for him to speak on things because he has more reach simply by virtue of being white. Let’s not forget–the civil rights movement didn’t really get too much love until a couple of white boys got killed. That’s a recurring pattern.
But why not delete this e-mail? Because it never dawned on me that a white man gave white people less credit on their willingness to listen than I had. And believe it or not, I don’t expect a whole helluva lot.
Getting white people to really discuss race is a tricky bag. The problem that might come up with a lot of people is how the persistence of racism flies in the face of all that Protestant Ethic shit. To say that racism is persistent sorta implicitly discount a white person’s accomplishments.
That’s really not what most people are doing when acknowledging racism. But when you’ve been catching the boot of this racism, it has to be discussed. Something I don’t think most white people understand is how much black folks hate having to be black. Not that we hate our culture and all of that–though many civilians and one Supreme Court justice do–but how much we hate that we have to be black. We hate having to deal with all this nonsense. We hate being assumed to be stupid. We hate being assumed to be hoodlums. We hate being the stereotypical portrait of nearly everything bad in this society.
And we really hate that when we mention something that should be self-evident–that racism exists and that we all continue to suffer from it–that we are instantly told that we are playing some bogus notion of a race card.
Race is not the card, folks. It is the table on which all games are played. We wish it was just a card, something that could be easily flipped, discarded, and dealt again. It’s not that. It’s an albatross around our necks that we have no power to eliminate. If anything gives me an ulcer in my life, it will be that. Trust.
I think that was a bit tangential. Sorry.
But why don’t white writers talk about this stuff? It’s more about why don’t white people talk about this stuff more. Part of it is that I don’t think white folks ever have to think of how intricate and nuanced expressions of racism are in this era. Now that it’s out of style to be overtly racist, racism manifests itself insidiously and systemically. It lurks on the low, but in a way that you don’t really see unless you have to deal with it. Kind of like how I’m looking outside of my window and it looks sunny. Only when I go to my car will I realize it’s forty-five degrees.
I say that to say this–a lot of white people really don’t get it until someone else tells them. And how should they? Ask most white people you know who many black people they know. I know for a fact that I’m a lot of people’s only black friend. They just don’t know any black people. If they knew more, they’d know more.
But from their windows, it looks sunny. I frequently am forced to be the one to tell ’em the temperature.
So we’ve got two significant groups at play–those that don’t know any better and those that do but are fearful of the repercussions.
That latter group is the most interesting, and it’s one that needs to be addressed more than anything. In the old days, there was only one thing worse than a nigger–a nigger lover. Sadly, things haven’t changed much. Think of the wigger phenomenon and things like that. That shit still goes strong, unfortunately.
But the saddest thing is how important it is that white people mention these issues. Really, black folks can’t eliminate racism by talking to each other. Screaming out, “stop fuckin with us,” will only go so far. The prevalent assumption is that black folks are hypersensitive to racism, so too many people always think we cry wolf when we do this.
White people are received slightly differently, even if they’re seen as nigger lovers. At ESPN Whitlock, Scoop, Alan, and I can talk about racism until we’re blue in the face. It’ll only help so much. We’ll make a little bit of money, but the change we institute may only be negligible.
Damn shame.
But I’ll close with a bit of a synopsis–to fully address racism must be frightening for a lot of white people. It has to be hard on the ego to acknowledge that one has been helped by privilege after being fed the bullshit about this being a meritocracy.
Bad news–this isn’t a meritocracy. In every way, most of which are independent of race, where you wind up in this world has to do with heuristic devices and signals that have nothing to do with someone’s capabilities or character. That’s just how it is.
And if you’ve been fed that line for a long time, it must be hard to shake.
(And never mind that racism is Pareto optimal. Google that term and it’ll make sense.)
So that’s my take. Rambling, so I apologize. But life must be good when you don’t have to think of racism. It’s no fun when you have to seriously consider it, no matter whether the group to which you belong does the giving or the receiving.