The tragic Trayvon
Martin shooting is the latest racial incident to enter onto the American scene.
The biggest question in my mind regarding this episode is whether we are going
to once again miss an opportunity to honestly have national and local dialogues
regarding race and bigotry. The media and politicians usually quickly move on
to the next hot story just as they did after the Professor Henry Gates arrest
incident and the Shirley Sherrod doctored viral video fiasco. This is very
unfortunate. So many issues facing the United States are greatly affected by
racial, gender, religious, or sexual prejudice. Immigration, unemployment,
education, and crime are just a few of the issues so influenced. I am going to
attempt to examine some of the aspects of bias and prejudice. In turn I will
try to show how they lead to intolerance and bigotry. Finally I will illustrate
some examples of how this is detrimental to our society and what we can do to
deal with this problem and possibly start on the road to reconciliation.
I will begin by
defining bias and prejudice as stated by dictionary.com. Bias is " A
particular tendency or inclination especially one that prevents unprejudiced
consideration of a question". Prejudice is "An unfavorable opinion or
feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought or reason; any
preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable; unfavorable
feelings, opinions or attitudes especially of a hostile nature regarding a
racial, religious or national group". Given these definitions I think we
can agree that everyone is guilty of bias and prejudice to some extent.
We are born and grow
up in our family, neighborhood, and school environments. In these settings we
are exposed to constant influences. A family of any particular race or
ethnicity will have history regarding relations with other groups. This will
affect the way their child is raised even though the parents may not even
realize it. Our neighborhoods also have a strong influence over us. This is
true for both children and adults. Neighborhoods have different ethnic make ups
and histories which may influence a person's views. This is also true of a
person's neighborhood schools. My own experience is that I was raised by
parents who taught tolerance and politeness to everyone. The schools I attended
taught me the same. My neighborhood though was much less tolerant. I will touch
on these personal influences later in this article.
Now I would like to
turn to intolerance and bigotry which often results from bias and prejudice.
They also will be defined by dictionary.com for this article. Intolerance is
"Unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect contrary opinions or
beliefs, persons of different races, backgrounds, etc.; unwillingness to grant
equal freedom of expression or to grant or share social, political or
professional rights". Bigotry is "Stubborn and complete intolerance
of any creed, belief or opinion that differ from one's own. A person
obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and
prejudices".
Intolerance and
bigotry are direct outgrowths of bias and prejudice. Adverse influences from
our early years can easily develop and grow into intolerance and bigotry. This
is especially true if one continues to live and work among like minded
individuals. This is the way racism and other forms of bigotry grow and become
permanent parts of a society. Groups of people reinforce their convictions
through affirmation and the strength in numbers mentality. In this way certain
neighborhoods sometimes become racist and it grows from there. Worse yet this
intolerance and bigotry are often passed on to their children and a vicious
circle is created. I have seen this occur within my own circle of friends. They
retell stories and lessons from their parents which in turn are passed on to
their children. My own parents taught me to be tolerant but over the years I
have noticed that they also have prejudices and biases. I do not believe they
even realized it existed within them. This is the insidious way racism and
other forms of hate can begin to take hold if one is not vigilant.
Let me now examine
more closely some of the situations in our society that have manifested themselves
because of these four conditions. Firstly I would like to examine the flight of
white families out of cities into the suburbs. Since school desegregation began
this phenomenon has steadily grown. White families often argue that they are
leaving because of crime, overcrowding, deficient schools, and other reasons. If
they were to look deep within themselves, they would realize that the reasons
all lead back to race.
Another area to examine
is the corporate management ranks within the United States. Civil rights laws
of the 1960's worked wonderfully to give African-Americans and other minorities
access to jobs in most U.S. companies. Unfortunately this does not also hold
true within the management ranks of these same firms. Corporate executives
complain about the dearth of qualified minority management candidates. This may
be partly true due to the dire state of urban education but certainly not
entirely. There is too great a disparity between total minority employment and
total minority management.
Women have also made
great strides in this regard as well as in the percentage of elected offices
that they hold. But they also have a long way to go. The glass ceiling in the
boardroom still exists for women. They also still lag far behind men in regards
to holding both elected and appointed political positions. However there is
hope in the fact that their percentages have grown at a much faster pace in the
local municipal ranks. This will give women a much better springboard to soon
elect more of their ranks especially at higher governmental levels.
Hispanic Americans and
other ethnic groups suffer many of the same problems as African Americans
though in varying degrees. There are also many conflicts between ethnic groups.
This is primarily the result of competition for a scarcity of jobs and
resources. Ethnic groups are also discriminated against due to cultural and
language differences. Homosexuals are another minority which has suffered badly
in our society. The main reason for this is probably fear. Sexual identity is
powerful and anything that disturbs this can be threatening. Religious
differences may also breed discrimination. Catholics had been discriminated
against widely until recently. Jewish Americans have also experienced extensive
prejudice throughout both American history and world history. This situation
has also improved extensively though it still exists. It can be observed most
obviously with skinhead and white supremacist groups. Muslim Americans are being
extensively discriminated against especially after the 9/11 terror attacks.
This prejudice is due to fear and a lack of understanding regarding their
religion.
What then can we do to
lessen our biases and prejudices to become more tolerant of other groups? In my
case I try to place myself in the shoes of others. I attempt to feel what a
person of another group is feeling. This is called empathy. Acquiring empathy
is the key in relating to others and treating them as you would treat yourself.
I recall a nasty race riot that occurred at my high school on Staten Island,
New York when I was a student there in the mid 1970's. These incidents broke
out sporadically over minor incidents. Usually they were fueled by long
simmering hostilities. My high school was predominantly white. A smaller group
of African American students first began to be bused into my school when I
first began attending. My fellow white students for the most part began voicing
hatred for the black students from almost the very beginning. I could not
understand the reason for it since no real reasons were given for the hatred
except for their skin color. The black students kept to themselves and seemed
to view us with understandable suspicion.
One riot has always remained
particularly vivid in my mind. Some white tough guy wannabes began to seek out
any black person they could find to beat on one afternoon after a relatively
small scuffle between a black student and a white student. I happened to
witness the surrounding of one young black woman holding a small child after we
were released from class. She was gripped in abject fear. Apparently she had
come to our school to pick up a friend or relative and got caught up in the
center of the madness. The terrified expression I saw in her face has always remained
with me. She was pleading for the crowd to let them go. Luckily the police
arrived before the crowd was able to inflict any harm on them.
The point I am trying
to make in telling this story is that I learned to feel what others felt during
this incident. I literally felt the terror I saw on her face. I have never been
able to even imagine attacking another person since this incident nor hate
another person just because they were different. This occurred due to the
empathy I felt with this woman. My conclusion was that if you can empathize
with a person or people it becomes impossible to hate them. Your bias and
prejudice decreases dramatically along with your intolerance and bigotry.
Ignorance and a lack of empathy are at the heart of bigotry against African
Americans and all other groups.
Women were seen as
passive and not strong enough for management and elective office. They were
regarded as simply mothers and nurturers without attributes for other roles. People
now see that that this not true and can relate to them as leaders as their
numbers have increased in elective office. They see their prior bias as a
fallacy. Gay Americans are discriminated against due to fear and ignorance of
their lifestyle. Ethnic minorities are mistreated due to the lack of
understanding of their culture and language.
The bottom line
regarding the causes of all forms of prejudice and bigotry is ignorance and
fear. A meeting of the minds is needed between all groups to ameliorate
misunderstanding. Instead of having a "Beer Summit" on the White
House lawn after the Professor Gates case broke, a public discussion of why the
Professor and President Obama reacted so vigorously against the Police
Officer's actions would have been infinitely more beneficial. The Shirley
Sherrod case became a battle between right wing groups and media on one side
and the Democrats and the Obama Administration on the other. Unfortunately no
one discussed in detail the inspirational speech that Ms. Sherrod gave at the
NAACP dinner in question. Her speech was one of transformation, empathy, and
understanding. This unfortunately was drowned out amongst the political noise.
Now the Trayvon Martin shooting controversy has exploded upon the American
consciousness. If history is any guide
this incident will also quickly fade away.
Hopefully the explosiveness of the incident and the paucity of criminal
justice action will keep this issue on the front burner. Hopefully this will
not turn out to be business as usual in the United States. That would be a
crying shame. National and local discussions are needed to properly deal with
these issues and create the empathy we need to become a more tolerant and open
society.
A sharp divide has
developed over perceptions of this case between White Americans and African
Americans. The seeds of a more substantial discussion of racial issues may have
been born over this chasm. Why do African Americans feel that George Zimmerman
should be charged immediately? Why do White Americans feel that there has been
a rush to judgment? These two groups of people have very significant
differences in their perceptions of the other and of our criminal justice
systems. These differences are at the heart of the racial problems we have in
the United States. White Americans have no idea what it is like to constantly
be viewed as a possible criminal perpetrator. African Americans have no concept
of why White Americans feel this way and why.
We need a true
national dialogue regarding race relations. Racism and bigotry will never truly
end until we do. Neither side truly understands or thus empathizes with the
other. This incident is a golden opportunity for our national media and
politicians to foster a true and lasting national discussion regarding race in
this country. In the past, the media has milked these incidents for ratings or
circulation boosts. Politicians have often used these same incidents to divide
the electorate and energize their base to secure an election victory. I
sincerely hope that this time the results will be different. A severely divided
country will prove to be a much weaker one. We as a country deserve much better
than this. We as concerned citizens must also demand more substantive and
fruitful discussions about race relations. Our future as a true civil and just
society relies on our doing so. Let us succeed this time for both ourselves and
for our children.
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