Lurking just beneath the surface, racial prejudices still exist

  Nicole Seymour Seymour is graduating
next week and wants you to give her a job. E-mail her at [email protected].
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Last month, my friend and her colleague, both of whom work for
community advocacy groups in the Los Angeles area, participated in
a hate crimes workshop as part of a “Violence in
America”symposium at UCLA. The symposium was organized by the
Plato Society, a UCLA Extension program group dedicated to debating
and discussing various current events and topics.

One would hope that the Society’s members, who are
overwhelmingly white and of a median age of 55, would defy
assumptions and take a progressive approach to the subject. Sadly,
my friend informed me that most did not; rather, these attendees
seemed both intimidated and offended by someone challenging them to
oppose hate crimes, and were antagonistic about being asked to
re-evaluate their notions on race, prejudice and hate.

This unfortunately seems to be a major trend in American society
that only increases as our laws, public opinion and general
standards of acceptable behavior slowly progress. People are not
only unwilling to take responsibility for historic or personal
racism, they are often hostile about considering the fact that they
might be racist when, in fact, they sometimes blatantly are.

  Illustration by RODERICK ROXAS/Daily Bruin One Plato
society member at the symposium stated that he thought undocumented
workers were responsible for the decline of our society, and that
immigration should be halted ““ but not from affluent, white
places such as Scandinavian countries or England. He then
defensively demanded to know if that would make him a racist,
adding that he could “guarantee” that if he wrote an
op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times asking for an end to
immigration, someone would indeed charge him as such.

Well, of course. Any time someone lumps people into one group,
blaming them for social, political or economic problems,
generalizing about their attributes, abilities or worthiness, as
this man did, that is racism. Personal anecdotes or experiences
that may support racist ideals or stereotypes do not change the
fact that this is still racism. Yet, people somehow manage excuse
themselves from committing this offense, becoming enraged when
someone identifies a racist act they commit.

Simply stated, racism remains one of the last “isms”
that people are reluctant to admit to or take responsibility for.
As opposed to sexism and homophobia, which are actually badges of
pride for some segments of society, namely patriarchal leaders and
the Christian right, most people don’t want to be thought of
as harboring or condoning racist ideals, no matter who they
are.

For example, Eminem was awarded a Grammy whether or not he is
truly misogynist or homophobic, but no one will ever nominate the
racist skinhead band Skrewdriver for a Grammy, no matter how
“talented” they may be. Most people like to keep racism
under wraps, or try to convince themselves it’s not racism to
begin with. They believe, unlike sexism and homophobia, racism
pertains only to members of the Klu Klux Klan. They think that
racism is never subtle, and that racism is only committed by means
of extreme malice.

These assumptions are apparently the standard against which many
people judge their behavior ““ if they’re not
“really” racist, they can tell racist jokes. Since they
themselves have never committed an act of racism, they think their
countries don’t need to apologize for past atrocities. And if
they don’t hate other races ““ just simply think
they’re stupid, lazy or pathetic ““ then they must be
miles away from people who lynch or burn crosses.

And don’t get me wrong; they are miles away, in a sense.
There is a difference between someone who mentally uses racial
slurs and someone who spray paints them on a building.

But the funny thing is that the first kind of person usually
doesn’t want to be called a racist. They want to enjoy the
privileges of being viewed as upright, good-natured and worthy
citizens, while enjoying the privilege of living in an insulated,
ignorant world.

And who can blame them? We’ve come a long way from the
days when people were worried that they might be perceived as
tolerant of other races, when those that were tolerant were
ostracized for it. It’s a good sign that people fear that
they might be perceived as racists.

Unfortunately, though, the fact that many people have this fear
often translates into more hostility against people of color and
non-racist whites, because they are thought of as having created
this fear.

As evidenced by the rhetoric of right-wing thinkers such as Rush
Limbaugh, some people act as if they can no longer air their own
opinions about race without retaliation, feeling that political
correctness is now practically being legislated by some monolithic
liberal taskforce.

I agree somewhat. It’s no longer acceptable to depict
racist caricatures in films or television (though they still
occur). It’s no longer acceptable when public figures make
racist comments, purposely or not ““ such as John Rocker
bashing immigrants, or Cruz Bustamante accidentally saying
“nigger” when addressing the NAACP (though those things
still happen, too). The climate in this country has definitely
changed.

But what that means is that if you don’t want to reform
your prejudiced beliefs, you have to accept the consequences it
brings ““ being labeled a racist, disapproved of by your fans
or constituents, or criticized by friends or pundits.

The most prominent example of this type of behavior is
illustrated by John Ashcroft, George Bush’s recent choice for
U.S. Attorney General. He is, for all intents and purposes, a
racist. He has received an honorary degree from Bob Jones
University, the non-accredited Southern university that only last
year began to permit interracial dating. As Missouri’s
attorney general, he fought efforts to forge a resolution to the
problem of segregation in St. Louis schools, filing appeal after
appeal against forming a voluntary desegregation plan.

Yet when left-wingers call him a racist, his supporters call the
label a vicious attack. As if we, as a society, are supposed to
embrace the most outrageously prejudiced behavior in a top official
““ but not actually acknowledge that he is prejudiced!

It’s not only time that people take responsibility for
their racism, but maybe it’s also time they actually take
pride in it. If this man from the Plato Society, John Ashcroft and
other people like them are willing to harbor or attempt to propose
ideas to work against diversity in the favor of the white
privileged class, they should believe in themselves enough to
proclaim that their actions are indeed of a racist nature. Since
they don’t, such people belie their true natures.

It’s painfully (but somewhat reassuringly) obvious that
they know racism is wrong, or else they should not have so much
trouble standing firmly behind its banner.