by Ruth A. Sheets
This past week,
National Public Radio (NPR) presented interviews with white and Black voters
separately. I noticed some interesting differences between those
interviews.
The white
interviewees were to a person, Trump supporters. They claimed “promises made,
promises kept.” I hear that line often, but no interviewer I have heard
has asked them to clarify which promises made and kept. In fact, there is
no depth of questions or follow-ups at all, as if these people are children who
cannot find depth in what they are thinking. The interviewers allowed the
interviewees to spout Trump phrases like “it is the Democrats who are causing
all the violence, the Democrats are against the police, it’s Trump who really
cares about us.” The latter is possibly true, but even that is not
supported with much evidence. Where is the follow-up like “What gave you
the idea that it is Democrats who are responsible for the violence, which
Democrats would you say are against the police and how do you know, what makes
you think Mr. Trump supports you?” One of the interviewed said how she
likes Trump even though her farm is suffering from the trade problems.
Trump is going to make it better, she added.
The interview with
the Black persons was really quite different. That may be because they
were not monolithically attached to a particular candidate. The man
interviewed, hinted he might support a third party candidate, but not which
one. These interviewees were asked their response to what is going on and
what the upcoming elections could do for the Black community. They were
encouraged to explain and clarify. Their answers were not blaming, but
looking for answers themselves. The women said they would vote for
Biden-Harris with reservations and described those reservations. Their
concerns were about the protests and that they demand and end to the systemic
racism in the nation. The interview was a bit uncomfortable for me as a
White person who feels somewhat helpless in the face of their honest
critique. My discomfort with the all-White interview was the lack of
depth and the unsupported loyalty to a known racist while blaming the victims
for their opposition to the racism.
The difference here
shows part of the divide we as Americans face. White Americans
interviewed by journalists have rarely been expected to defend their thinking
or actions, particularly if they had some prominence. For generations,
what White men wanted or said, especially if they had money and power, even in
a small sphere, was gospel. No one asked the white murderers of the
African-Americans whom they lynched, why they did it. Actually, they were
rarely even charged. All kinds of excuses were made up if it was even
suggested these White men had committed crimes. We know the lines, they
were protecting their women. They were securing their way of life.
Those N****rs deserved it; they were getting too uppity. Those White folks
never had to look deeper at their own fear that maybe they were not the
be-all-to-end-all they wanted everyone to believe they were. Keeping
others down could make them feel bigger, smarter if they even thought about it
at all.
This approach to
White life has not disappeared over time. The current White emperor is
now in the white house. He has surrounded himself with like-minded white
men and a few women so they can keep up each other’s courage and share new ways
to discriminate while calling it something else. He sprinkled a few Black
persons like Ben Carson into positions for which they are completely
unqualified so he can point to them – look at the great things I have done for
Black people. “There is no president who has done more for Black people
than me.” His White supporters smile because now they know they are off
the hook and are not racist at all, their leader said so. Donald Trump
isn’t racist either. Those Democrats should stop saying he is.
The uncertainty and
lack of trust expressed by the NPR Black interviewees is real and comes from a
history of betrayal, exclusion, abuse, and dismissal. Those in positions
of power whose responsibility it is and was to protect and serve the
American people have decided over time that Black Americans (as well as other
people of color) are not worthy of that protection and service.
White Americans have
the privilege of actually blaming Black people without evidence. We can
claim things that are untrue because that’s how it has always been done.
Even White people with few resources or little education are heard with more
weight than Black Americans at any income or education level. White
people in power will not acknowledge this because they honestly believe, again,
without evidence, that they are the ones experiencing the racism by those Black
“rioters,” those Black “troublemakers.” It has been said that to
those who have privilege, equality seems like oppression, and a lot of White
people are feeling oppressed right now as people point out their privilege.
It is time
journalists who choose to interview members of a privileged group in whatever
setting go against trend and dig deeper, even if it means introducing or
reintroducing the interviewee to an uncomfortable concept. White people,
in general, do not appreciate our privilege. It comes to us at birth and
we breathe it in with the air. We see it in so many places we hardly
notice except when we think we have been cheated in some way, not gotten our
due. White Americans have learned to find someone to blame for any
exclusion: not getting into the college we want, not making the deal we
should have made, not winning the contest we should have won, and most of all,
not getting the job we applied for. When the person who got it is Black,
we are privileged to be furious and to proclaim it to the heights. Does
anyone ever ask us “Why do you think you should have that rather than the
person who now has it? Not likely! We commiserate and cry “token”
or “affirmative action.” And, we feel furious, then, resentful because we
lost to someone we have been taught to consider inferior.
To emphasize
Donald trump’s ignorance of his own white privilege, on September 5, 2020, he
ordered that no Federal agency can use government money to pay for trainings
that address white privilege, or anything that deals with race at all.
That is the cry of a scared White guy (SWG) who is afraid to face the fact that
everything he has, came to him because of white privilege. He would never
have been able to get the loans he got for his properties. He would never
have been a public media figure. His name would never have been worth
money on the international market, and he would never have been elected
president had he not been white. That is really scary. Donald Trump
has few skills but lots of family money he could throw around to get whatever
he wanted, particularly unwarranted media notice. Now his power gives him
that access.
Mr. Trump did not
find out about these sensitivity trainings on his own because it is certain he
never participated in one himself. He was clearly informed by a Scared
White Guy (SWG) who was “forced” to take the course. He, possibly she was
offended that anyone would even imply that he/she didn’t get where they are now
totally on their own personal merit, but that whiteness most likely played a
part, probably a pretty significant part.
Black Americans know
what they have been through. They know about “the talk.” They know
about the looks they get in stores and the rejections they receive that are
clearly based on race. Houses and apartments have been denied them due to
their race. They have been the victims of people crossing to the other
side of the street to avoid passing too close. They have felt the pain of
being considered inferior and informed they only got the job, the assignment,
the place in college, etc. because of affirmative action. And, they know
their White colleagues resent them for it and regularly show it.
It is we White
people who don’t know. We can read about the 400 years of physical and
social bondage, the fear of but need for the police, the prisons stuffed
with Black husbands, sons, and brothers. But, we cannot feel what that
constant fear and rejection does to a person. We can say “Black Lives
Matter,” but we often feel the push of “all lives matter.” Donald Trump
and his base don’t want to be called racists, but generally do what racists
do. They believe white is better than all even though science tells us
all that skin color determines nothing but skin color and the slight tendency
to a few diseases.
So, White people, we
need to unite in listening to Black people, to believing their accounts of life
among White people, in working to change our own attitudes and beliefs to move
from our cultural racism. We must take and support those training classes
that expose white privilege and cause us to look at White privilege head
on. We need to take White off as the default setting for our lives.
We may not have created the white privilege society we live in, but we are
certainly benefiting from it, yes, even the poor White folks among us.
It is time we work
with Black Americans to move us all toward equality and fairness. White
Americans are obsessed with the “pledge of Allegiance” but many of us forget
the final words “liberty and justice for all,” not just White conservative
Americans
White privilege is
real and impacts every person in this nation. The task is to acknowledge
it in all its forms, then note and face our fear and uncertainty, then stand up
with Black Americans and shout to the heavens, “Black Lives Matter, and we are
going to prove it by encouraging Black people to lead us all into a future
where there will be no privilege because we will have lived up to our Truth that
all of us are created equal and endowed by our creator with the unalienable
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. OK, fellow White
Americans, take a deep breath, I know we are scared, but we can do this.
Remember, this is “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
