CONCLUSION
Can a Black Person Be a Racist?
Some Observations on This Topic and Related Matters
and on the Courage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the last half-century or so, there have been advocates for Black people–Black Power militants, if you will–who went so far as to denounce all white people as racists. The millions of white people in this country who are not racists did not like to hear such language.
However far their belief in racial equality and social justice might extend in other ways, they still react to the false accusation of racism when they hear it, even if it comes from a member of a historically oppressed group in America.
A few uttered aloud the remark that they these Black leaders’ comments were themselves racist. That set off a flurry of debate; many people spoke and many points of view were given.
One of the retorts made by some Black leaders was that the accusation itself–that certain Black leaders used racist language–was itself a sign of racism in white people: a curious reply, indeed!
It then left some white people of conscience in an intellectual quandary, since any criticism of Black leadership was sure to be stamped with the racist label.
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So, what is a racist? If a person were to examine his or her conscience, what factors are to be considered? It seems to me people can ask themselves a few questions to help produce an answer.
Let me start with a proverb: “Beauty is only skin-deep.” This is one proverb that I have often reflected upon at different stages in my life. Unlike other proverbs that just seem to lay there flat and stagnant once you’ve absorbed their meaning, this proverb is a lively one that continues to give up new secrets.
Of proverbs in general, I enjoy the deep meaning usually expressed with a great economy, even simplicity, of language. Proverbs can be short and sweet, in other words, but still contain profound thoughts, even a simple proverb with only five words. Let us see where it takes us, and if it can help answer the question about racism.
Not to contradict myself, but I would say it’s usually wishful thinking to believe we can ignore appearances and immediately engage with everyone solely based on the person’s character, even if that is one of our most cherished moral ideals. Of course, appearances do matter.
We cannot help but see what we see in the mirror, even before we interact more fully with others: our eyes cannot help but note both similarities and differences. There is another stage where appearance matters greatly: the years from teenager to young adult, from child to grown-up, from boy to man and from girl to woman.
Obviously, it would be dishonest to say otherwise: physical appearance and sexual attraction do matter during these years. It is rare to find someone who looks for the “inner person” from a very young age and never ceases to do so. I think Dr. King was one of these, who searched for the person’s true inner character–his own, and in others– realizing this is one of the true treasures of humanity, collectively and individually.
To acknowledge appearance or attraction is not to downplay the importance of character in the building of friendships and relationships; it is only to admit that it is better not to ignore reality while recognizing that the proverb “Beauty is only skin-deep” contains a great and wonderful truth.
“Beauty is truth and truth beauty; this is all ye know of earth and all ye need to know” as the poet John Keats expressed it so beautifully.
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How much weight we choose to give to physical appearance, clothes, and other such matters, these are personal issues that each of us is called upon to address in turn. As long as one does not go overboard, a balance can be maintained. We know that if a person becomes obsessed with appearance, that poor choices will likely follow and unhappy situations may develop later in life, if not sooner.
Even young teenage couples swearing eternal love to each other could be mistaking the first awakenings of mad passion and physical attraction for true love. They may well find themselves–within just a few years–arguing, fighting, and moving apart.
Even though traditional wedding vows include a great emphasis on “forever”, the divorce rate is skyrocketing in our country. It suggests that couples who thought they found love may have erred after all—we can surmise that among the growing legions of the divorced adults are more than a few who chose a partner by appearance.
When Hollywood big-name stars get engaged, it is a well-respected custom in our country for comedians to make jokes about how long the marriage will last. Granted, the stars swim in a different fish bowl than the rest of us, nor would I mean to make light of the fact that for some people, the right to a divorce is a very important right.
This is true, I think, especially for women, who have long suffered, historically speaking, at the hands of men who held the reins of social and political power. Divorce today can also be seen as a positive option by women, since it means escape from a bad marriage in which they perhaps would have been otherwise forever trapped.
Previous generations of women had to struggle against a religious and social prohibition that made divorce illegal, dangerous, or unthinkable: a taboo to fear breaking. The husband got nearly everything in the early days of divorce settlements; all the property and usually the children belonged to him while the wife was left with nothing (not even the property she may have brought into the marriage).
This left most women with very little choice: she had to stay in a very unhappy marriage or risk going her separate way by giving up home, property, and children: a dismal state of affairs which frequently left women at the mercy of men who were going from bad to worse; male chauvinism is not an attitude that grow a healthy garden.
Sometimes the growing apart can be gradual and no one’s fault, but whether due to growing apart or due to a husband becoming a tyrant, marriages sometimes fail. That makes the right of a woman to seek a divorce (and still control her own name, children, property) a very important right. “Divorce” can be used wisely, as well as foolishly.
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On the other side of the ledger, happily-married couples often have a loving relationship; they have discovered various facets of one another’s personality; they care about each other’s opinions and beliefs, hobbies and interests.
They do not need to be alike in everything; indeed, couples who are too much alike may pose a danger to their future relationship, though not immediately apparent. Long-term relationships often thrive best on mutual respect and healthy differences; a good marriage prospers from the learning moments that occur as each partner allows the other room to grow and develop further.
These are tell-tale signs of a positive relationship, which frequently includes qualities such as humor and compassion, patience and forbearance. The ability to laugh and to forgive is essential in keeping married couples true to their own deepest principles and to each other.
Respect for the rights of others cannot be left at the doorstep by either man or woman. Since today’s reality includes the unfortunate truth that there are still many women who may fall into the clutches of dishonorable men with unsavory traits, then divorce truly is a necessary and valuable right for female adults in this country.
Though much unhappiness inevitably flows from the consequences of most divorces, still the country must protects this as a legal right–however much we wish that every married couple could find happiness and stay that way forever and forever.
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All this is a historical aside, as I have still not answered the question: how does a person decide if he or she is a racist? It’s not like me to interrupt one of my history classes, during one of my readings, with historical information about some aspect of life other than the topic under discussion, but sometimes it happens that way.
As I was saying: the friendships, love affairs, and marriages that last the longest seem always to have this extra-special quality of each partner caring for the whole person and not just this or that single characteristic, be it physical or what have you.
In general, then, getting to know the other person is a many-sided adventure, in which a couple moves past outward appearance to exchanging more intimate thoughts and feelings—all the while allowing respect and appreciation for character to deepen.
Future husband and wife examined each other’s character, if you will, and thus formed a bond for a lasting relationship stronger than that formed by others operating primarily on the basis of appearance–of physical attraction!–alone. Sad but true!
If beauty is only skin-deep, it is plain we can infer that something else–such as character—must go much deeper in understanding who the person is. There are many different ways to look at these words and ideas, many different ways to interpret the wise sayings of others, and many different conclusions can be reached.
There is no one right answer, although each of us is likely to select those moral principles which we cherish most highly; we determine to live our lives by them the best we can while making full allowance for times when we may err or lose our way on the path we have chosen.
That we recognize higher principles by which to live, that we make a commitment to be true to our ideals, does not mean we are immune from human frailty or excused from the mistakes of judgment and passion that frequently occur in life.
Sometimes the path, the struggle, the chosen principles are more important to a person’s life than anything else; one’s character and beliefs may mean more than money, property, and success. For when we cut all else away and get down to the core of the matter, we must ask ourselves: which principles do we so highly cherish that we will give up everything else before sacrificing them?
What motivates people to be true to their conscience no matter what the cost in reputation or safety? What ideals are so treasured that a person might willingly sacrifice his or her life in defense of them? As Dr. King said:
“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something
so dear and so precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit
to live. You may be thirty-eight years old, as I happen to be, and one day,
some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand up
for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you
refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you
want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are
afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or
you’re afraid that somebody will stab you or shoot at you or bomb your
house. So you refuse to take the stand. Well, you may go on and live
until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at thirty-eight as you would
be at ninety. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated
announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. You died when you refused
to stand up for right. You died when you refused to stand up for truth.
You died when you refused to stand up for justice . . . .”[1]
A commitment to such principles includes a willingness to be open-minded, to respect differences, to remember to place a person’s character above skin color. If racism is a poison, then an open-minded attitude toward one’s fellow human beings is an antidote to that poison.
This way of thinking is distinct from the mental habits of racists. Skin color is a boundary to them; they hate people because of their skin color. it is obvious they don’t wish to get to know members of the group they hate and thus try to move beyond their prejudices. Racists seem to enjoy their racism, remaining close-minded, intolerant, and bigoted by choice as well as by upbringing.
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Now we can see the proverb “Beauty is only skin-deep” in a new light. For those who truly understand its meaning, it is easy to understand how a person can say with full conviction: I am not a racist. And I do affirm this statement to be true.
I do not believe in racist ideas; I do not give utterance to racist speech; and I do not contemplate or engage in racist acts of violence against others because of skin color or any other distinguishing feature. Many Americans can say the same.
We do not need permission from anyone else to express our beliefs or examine our consciences for us. This includes members of oppressed groups who may feel that they have inherited some right to become the ultimate judge of who is racist.
I am sorry to disappoint them but we do not need your permission. An individual can examine his (or her) own conscience and know the answer at once; nothing anyone else can say or do will change this one basic fact. I believe in equality and I am not going to sit idly by and let anyone, white or black, say otherwise.
To be called a racist, when in fact one is not a racist, is not a pleasant experience. The fact that some Black people have called all whites racist does not change anything; they are mistaken. If they insist on such a broad generalization about all members of a racial group, then they have indeed slipped into the poisoned well of racism.
A person may rightly know this about himself (herself) by examining the conscience within. If we do not look at others with hatred because of skin color, we are not racists. If we do not think less of others because of skin color, then that is not racism. If we believe anyone can do anything they set their mind to, we are not limiting our view of people with racist nonsense. That’s a simple fact.
It also goes without saying that citizens of this country enjoy many protections under our Constitution, including “freedom of speech”. I feel it is my duty, as an American citizen, to oppose racism and fight it tooth and nail, regardless of who the racist is. I believed that as a kid and I believe it now.
If a Black leader began talking or writing like a racist, I would oppose that racism just as firmly as if such racist remarks were coming from a white person.
A Black person’s ancestors may have suffered tremendously in our nation’s history, but past suffering does not mean American citizens must blindly accept whatever Black leaders choose to say or do.
If their remarks appear either tinged or saturated with racist thought toward white people, then we must speak out against it. Any form of racist thought threatens the democratic foundation of our country and can no more be tolerated from a Black leader than a white one.
During the great civil rights struggle led by Dr. King, everyone knew that the deepest pockets of racism still resided in the South. If anyone said “racist” or “racism”, you immediately thought of the South’s Dixiecrats defending Segregation with blood and violence to the bitter end.
This southern racism had distinct characteristics and chief among them, of course, was the white southerner’s view that all persons belonging to a particular race, Black people, were the enemy and somehow inferior to white people.
Whatever racist upbringing they had conditioned them to generalize about a whole group of people as “inferior”. Whatever negative things they might believe about one Black person, they were prone to think held true for every Black person.
To a racist, if a newspaper reports a crime committed by a Black person, they conclude all Black people are criminals. The southern racists thrive on negativity and wallow in hatred and emotional excess of every kind. The South taught the nation what the face of racism looked like and how its irrational thinking consumed the racist.
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At the same time, there have always been people in our country willing to risk their own comfort and safety in order to advance the cause of racial equality, social justice, and brotherhood. Many comrades have fallen in this struggle, and many more will likely give their lives in the years yet to come.
They do so without shame or fear or regret for they believe that in their deaths–if worst comes to worst—there is a redemptive power of victory; they will give strength to others and help speed the day when Segregation and Racism have been driven from the face of the earth.
We are not free from our obligation as American citizens to fight racism as a dangerous enemy to our democratic philosophy and institutions.
I am sorry if I hurt some Black leader’s feelings if I call their statements racist, but so be it. Anyone who suggests all members of a particular group are evil based on skin color alone is engaging in racist speech. If a Black person engages in racist talk against white people, then that racism needs to be criticized and exposed for what it is.
“Beauty is only skin-deep” is indeed a wise proverb, I believe, for once you see its hidden meaning, its essence, it leads you from one level of understanding to the next.
As Dr. King said:
“I have a dream today that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream . . .”
I hope Dr. King’s Dream lives on in the heart of each and every one of you.
[1] Clayborne Carson, ed., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (USA: IPM and Time Warner Company, 1998), p. 344.
