Focus On Inequality, Not Rare Racism

The beginning of the year may be a good time for America’s black leadership to take a deep breath and clarify for itself the nature of the battle to be waged. Is it racism that should principally concern us? Is it racial discrimination? Or is it racial inequality?

The tempting thing - because it requires no thought, only emotion - is to answer: all three. And in truth the three problems do manifest themselves in ways that make it hard to distinguish one from another. Moreover, each problem feeds the other.

But they are not the same problem, and it may be time to sort them out and decide on priorities.

Racism, which seems to have become our major target (if only by default) may be the least appropriate one. I’m not saying racism is not an important barrier to black progress, only that racism - by which I mean the combination of bigotry, disrespect, racial ill will and feelings of racial superiority - is something black folk can’t do much about. How do black people wage a fight to keep bigots from disliking them?

Assaults on racial discrimination, once our target of choice, seem likely to yield diminishing returns. Why? Because (no matter how reluctant we are to acknowledge it) racial discrimination has been significantly diminished over the years. Do we really believe that large numbers of bright young blacks are being kept out of the universities of their choice by racial discrimination? Even stories of discrimination against apartment renters and home buyers are rare, though no less infuriating when they occur.

But if it is impossible to fight racism and harder to ferret out discrimination, the fact of racial inequality is starkly clear.

By virtually any measure, black Americans lag behind whites - in health, income and life chances. Black people die sooner and with fewer assets, and black children are discouraged nearly to the point of clinical depression. Some blacks - more than ever before in the nation’s history - are doing quite well. But many more are doing poorly and the prospect is that their children and grandchildren will do poorly as well.

How do we fight this battle? Perhaps by learning the difference between problems and enemies. Fighting racism and racial discrimination requires the identification and confrontation of enemies. We win only if they lose - in the court of law, the court of public opinion or in the court of their own consciences. The prospects for victory in any of those courts seem dimmer every day.

But suppose we could get America interested in solving the problem. Not only would the case be far easier to make, it would, I believe, be far easier to recruit allies to help in the fight. What do I mean? Imagine that you are inclined, from time to time, to try to help some of the homeless men and women you pass between your office and your favorite restaurant. A quarter here, a dollar there - whatever.

Now imagine that you are confronted by a homeless guy who says: “It’s people like you who are the reason for my homelessness in the first place. You got any spare change?”

What would you say to him? Me too. I might be enlisted to help (at least in small ways) with his problem. But when he insists on making me the enemy, I find it easy to just keep walking.

I think white America is walking past black America’s manifest problems in much the same way, and for much the same reason.

We see the unconcern as proof that our accusation of racism is right, when it may be that our tactic is wrong.

I think back to the 1960s, a period famous for two things: a clear articulation by blacks of the problem and a generous - perhaps crucial - proffer of help from whites. The only “enemies” were the unrepentant Southern racists who served primarily as a backdrop for the righteous battle waged by blacks and their Northern white allies. Today, by contrast, we insist that all white people play the villain’s role - and we seem endlessly surprised when they just keep walking.

I think that is what may be behind the growing resistance to our demands for “affirmative action.” People who might be moved to help remedy racial inequality are not inclined to do so if it means acknowledging that the inequality is their fault.

Attacks on racism and racial discrimination require that the situation be somebody’s fault, which means that someone owes us a solution.

Attacks on a problem require only that people of good will desire a solution. We have spent precious time and resources identifying and assaulting enemies when we - and most particularly our children - would be much better off recruiting allies. xxxx

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = William Raspberry Washington Post