NEW PERSPECTIVES COLUMN: United we stand, with hatred we fall
By Adam Holmberg
"No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive."
-Mohandas Gandhi
Last October my mom went to the Art Institute of Chicago. When she returned later in the day she recalled to me seeing an Arab man in his native dress, including a robe and turban. She experienced a flash of intense anger toward the man; it passed and she realized how silly a feeling it was, but it was still there.
Was that racist? Was that prejudiced? You bet. Was it wrong. Of course. But, such is human nature. Someone who looks different and acts different than us wrongs us, we tend to become afraid of them and all that look like them. That’s perhaps how racism started in the first place – from humankind’s fear of the unknown. The key to overcoming this is education – knowing that these feelings are wrong and combating them – and simple common sense. That includes common sense in fighting racism. Unfortunately, as George Orwell wrote: we’re all equal, but some of us are more equal than others.
Earlier in the month I was having a really bad day at work, so I took a walk and went by the office of one of my instructors, and we discussed racial issues for a little while. He reminded me of the fact that much of our perception and fear of African Americans comes from the fact that the media tends only to profile the criminal activity darker skinned people are engaged in. Next time you watch WGN out of Chicago, take a look for how many white criminals you see. I’m not implying a conspiracy or anything, but consider how many white people that seem to knock over banks in Chicago. I’m sure there are plenty, but how many of them get profiled on the news?
A little before September 11th the president of Mexico, Vincente Fox, visited with President Bush and actually proposed that we declare (as Jimmy Carter did in the ‘70s) that all the Mexicans living here that forgot to apply for a green card suddenly be made legal citizens. A few weeks after that we started rounding up Arabs and holding them to find out if they’re terrorists, an action that I very much supported. Trouble is, now that we’ve determined they’re not terrorists, can we please let them go? Sure, we’ve got to be careful, but being careful and suspending habeas corpus are two very different things. I understand the reasoning behind both actions, but what makes either group any different than the illegal Chinese (who have a much better reason to be here than the Mexicans I think) or Germans or Africans or any other group of illegal immigrants?
During the summer last year I read an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune about the modern struggles of African Americans, and I was reminded that an African American woman still suffers more discrimination than any other racial and ethnic group. Slavery may be over, but we still look at Denzel Washington (who is, in my opinion one of the finest actors in the history of cinema) and see a "black actor." We still look at Do The Right Thing and see a "black movie." It’s true if you drive into Cabrini Green and you’re the only white face around, it scares the hell out of you, but we tend to forget that’s the exception to the rule.
The same is true for Native Americans. We’ve decimated their culture, killed most of them (in fact, the number of these "savages" we killed matches to exceeds the number of Jews killed in the Concentration Camps depending on who you read), and put them on piss poor reservations with stricter laws and harsher penalties than we give to other Americans. Even when they assimilate we still view them as "Indian." We still believe we know what’s best for them; we changed the name of this newspaper thinking it was best for their culture. I don’t argue with the motives or reasoning; in fact, I salute those that advocated the change for their progressive thinking, but the truth is it was a bunch of White Anglo Saxon Protestants who made the decision. The panel promised to consult a panel of Native Americans, and as I recall that never got done.
Truth is, racism is something we’re just going to have to live with. So is inequality and discrimination. When we started bombing Afghanistan one of my instructors (a man whom I greatly respect) made a joke in class that if we gave the Afghans the money we were using on bombs instead of killing them (as had been suggested) they’d all buy a plane ticket to New York. Well, unfortunately I think that’s true. This whole War On Terror is being fought because of race; we’re different than they are so they feel the need to kill us. We’ve got to protect ourselves.
I think it would be nice if we’d protect some of our fellow Americans from the same hatred that bin Laden showed toward us. It’s kind of ironic, in fact – all racists, no matter their sex or color, are united by one common element – hate.