Some Thoughts on Race

So I just finished watching the movie Crash. No, not that one. The other Crash,the one what won Best Picture a couple years back. It’s a very good movie. I hadn’t seen it before, but I’m glad I watched it now. It’s quite deep and affecting, actually.

One of the central themes of the movie is the issue of race relations in Los Angeles. It’s an important issue there, and throughout America. In fact just this week CNN has been broadcasting a largely interesting special report called “Black in America”, wherein in they asked questions like, “How can two black men, brothers raised together, end up on such different paths; one in prison for life, and one a college professor?”

Well, as far as CNN’s question goes… so what? I was raised with my sister, and we both ended up on much different paths in our life. I’m an atheist. She isn’t. I’ve got some real dark black marks in my past. She doesn’t. I’m single. She isn’t. I’m not straight. She is. You get these kinds of differences all over the place. Looking at it and saying, “Why do these black people have relatives that turn out different?” seems to me to be… well, a little racist.

Here’s the thing, though. Really, America doesn’t have much of a racial problem anymore. Oh, we still have some racial issues, but not many. Even the “racist” cop in Crash didn’t seem all that racist. Sure, he was a dick, but he was still willing to place his life on the line to save the life of a black woman who he’d harassed earlier in the movie. The mere fact that someone like Barack Obama (who I still refer to as biracial rather than black), can be the likely next president seems to give lie to the notion that we’re still a racist nation.

To me the real problem in our country is one of class, not race. I have far more in common with my black coworkers than I do with someone like Bill Gates, despite the fact that he and I have the same basic skin color (doughy white). I think a rich black person going before a court will stand a much better chance of aquittal than a poor white person.

The importance of this cannot be overstated. I believe firmly that at this point in America, the over ridding colors of greatness are green and gold. Everything else is second place. If you have money, you have more power and influence than those who don’t, regardless of your race.

In this country we tend to focus on race to an unhealthy level. I think there’s a certain subset of American politics that gets way too much power over the issue of race and they aren’t about to ever acknowledge things are getting better. I’m thinking about the Al Sharptons and Jesse “Castration” Jacksons of the world. For them no level of improvement in race relations will be enough, because they get power from the division.

Here’s an example of this: I remember an incident when I lived in Seattle, which is a town that doesn’t really have any racial problems, but desperately wants to (this is part of their desire to be a “real” city). There was a nutjob with a knife running around waving it at people. He apparently also had a gun, as he’d fired a couple shots at a Safeway store. Well, several cops circled him and were following him around, being careful cause they didn’t want to get hurt or hurt him. Things began to get very tense as they got closer and closer to a day-care center. Then, suddenly, the man lunged at one of the cops, who, sadly, was forced to shoot and kill him.

Well, of course, you could probably see the problem coming from a mile away. The cop was white, and the criminal was black. Naturally this meant this was clearly a racist cop who shot a poor innocent man. There were half-hearted protests in several parts of the city, and I seem to remember a group of people blocking I5 while protesting, though this may have been in a different incident. Either way, this was clearly a clean shoot and had nothing to do with the man’s race. But there are those, as I mentioned, for whom race is always they issue, and they were more than willing to exploit this incident for their own ends.

Oh, and it’s also worth noting that as far as Obamamania goes, I really resent people who assume anyone who is black will automatically vote for him. That’s like saying gay people will automatically vote for Barney Frank, if he runs for the Presidency, or that women will automatically vote for Hillary Clinton (for the record, my mom supports Obama, and my black female coworker was a Hillary supporter). Assuming people will vote for those most like them is somewhat insulting.

I believe we do still have some minor racial issues, but I remain convinced they don’t go as deep in this country as the class divisions do. There were times in our nation’s past where that wasn’t always the case, but it is now. Progress of a sort, I suppose.

Here’s an interesting last thought. While writing this article I’ve been IM-ing back and forth with a black coworker to get her thoughts on race relations in America. I felt somewhat awkward asking some of the questions I asked, but then realized I shouldn’t, because it’s only by talking about these issues we have any hope of resolving them.