A week after the great
debate over whether Charles Ramsey is an American hero or another American
casualty of media induced racial stereotyping or both after helping save the
lives of the three kidnapped Cleveland women, one thing is now clear. Ramsey
has done the seemingly impossible. He's turned racial stereotyping on its head.
First, there's the racial stereotype that was dredged up and endlessly rehashed
about Ramsey. His appearance fit the typecast image of an impoverished barely
illiterate, clownish and buffoonish ghetto dweller. This was topped off by the speedy
revelation that Ramsey had a criminal record which included of all things, domestic
violence. Even Ramsey's pronouncement that he would take no reward money or
donations for his act but would donate any money collected to the women to help
them get their lives back was greeted with skepticism that this was just a con
to get more attention, and a bigger payday down the road.
Each of these
stereotypical hits on Ramsey was snatched at because of the long, savage, and
repeatedly pile driven totem image of poor black men as crime, drug, and
violence prone predators. It's further reinforced by the grossly
disproportionate number of African-American males that pack America's jails and
prisons. Ramsey himself seemed to give some credence to the colossal terror
that some whites have about black men with his quip that "I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white
girl ran to a black man's arms, Dead giveaway. Dead giveaway,"
But even in the rush to pick at Ramsey and his past, and the furious
debate over just how he should be viewed, a breakthrough truth emerged. That is
that millions of Americans across all racial and gender lines warmly hailed Ramsey
not as a hero, or a noble man who did a noble act, both of which certainly
apply, but just a real human being with
no pretensions who has played the card's life dealt him to the best of his
ability. This was evident in the enraged
backlash on websites, blogs, and in editorial comments from a legion of
writers. All were incensed that race was even mentioned in the Ramsey story,
and even more enraged at the notion that Ramsey was a racial caricature.
The debate over Ramsey and racial stereotyping
became a debate not so much because he could be construed as an archetypical reinforcer
of the worst subliminal fears and overt prejudices about black men. It became a
debate because it seemed to mock the notion that America in the election and
reelection of President Obama had become a post racial society. The gaping disparities
in education, incarceration, education, health and wealth, and poverty between
blacks and whites is overwhelming proof that America is still light years away
from attaining the lofty post-racial America dream. The case can even be made
that Obama is a near textbook
example of the racial exceptional African-American. This is the penchant of
some whites to make artificial distinctions between supposedly good and bad
blacks. It's apparent in the unthinking, infuriating, insulting, and just plain
dumb crack made to some articulate, well-educated blacks in business and the
professions that they are different than other blacks.
The
notion of a racial exceptional black stems from the ingrained, but terribly
misplaced, belief that blacks are perennially disgruntled, hostile, and
rebellious, and are always on the lookout for any real or perceived racial
slight, and they ache to pick a fight over it. African-Americans who don't fit
this brash, outspoken, faintly threatening type have been touted, praised, even
anointed over time by some as the reasoned voice of black America.
This, however, doesn't negate the fact that a significant number, perhaps a
majority of whites, do not reflexively associate the old crime, violence, and
dereliction stereotypes with even the poorest, most downtrodden blacks. This in
part reflects the fast racial changing demographics in America, an America
that's well on its way to becoming a majority-minority country within the next
few decades. It's also in part due to a half century of change in law and public
policy that has made any public expression of racism taboo. The penalty for
crossing the line is an instant smack down of the offender.
Ramsey then was a prime benefactor of the evolution of racial thinking in
America; an evolution that's a continuing work in progress. But it's an
evolution that's in forward motion. The next step in that evolution is to reach
the point when an African-American male such as Ramsey with all the top heavy
baggage he carries does a good or better yet a bad deed and will not be the
butt of endless debate about the role of race in his or her actions. He will be
seen as just a good or bad man, hero or villain, without putting a racial notation
in front of hero or villain. But for now Ramsey and his act and
the overwhelming public defense of him stood racial stereotypes
on their head.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His
new ebook is How the NRA Terrorizes
Congress--The NRA's Subversion of the Gun Control Debate ( Amazon ). He is an associate editor of New
America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban
Radio Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM
Radio Los Angeles and KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network.
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