Black people can be racist too...right?

I’m sure a lot of people have heard about how Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested outside his home in Cambridge, Mass. earlier this week. His front door had apparently become jammed shut, and after entering with a key through the back door, Gates went around to the front to try to force the door open. A neighbor who saw him trying to wedge his own door open called police, alerting them to the fact that she believed a burglar was attempting break in.

Gates was able to get inside the home before police arrived, but that’s when it got interesting. Police, who were only doing their job to serve and protect the citizens of Cambridge, asked to see Gates’ ID, just to verify that he was, indeed, the owner of the home. Gates began ranting about racism in the justice system and accused the police officer questioning him of being racially biased. According to police reports, Gates became very loud and “tumultuous,” and, after being warned twice by the officer that he was becoming disorderly to no avail, Gates was arrested on disorderly conduct charges.

Of course, there are two sides to every story...Gates’ attorney has publicly stated that Gates complied with every request made by police in a subdued and timely manner, that the police officer harassed him by entering his home uninvited to continue an interrogation, and ignored the fact that Gates was lawfully in residence.

There has been a lot of brouhaha (I do LOVE that word) about this issue, and charges were dropped this morning. Still, people from all over the country have come to the defense of Gates, claiming extreme racism in this case.

Here’s the thing…

I just need to say something: just because you have a different color skin does NOT mean that every offense committed against you is committed because of prejudice.

I’m sorry. I know this is DEFINITELY not the case with a majority of African Americans in the United States. But those few who do believe that all white Americans are racist to the core, and that every thought and action is dominated by racial awareness, those are the ones who create this drama that seems to never end. They are the ones who give their groups bad names and bad reputations. They are the ones who are truly racist.

I know that this is a pretty controversial stance to espouse, but it is actually something I do (for the most part) believe. I’m not saying that there are not backward white Americans who believe that the “South will rise again” or some such nonsense. There are mean, hateful, ignorant people out there. But ignorance is not exclusive to one race or ethnicity. And for some radical African Americans to say that, hey, all white people are racists, that is ignorance.

Ultimately, people like that are the ones who are throwing the difference in skin color into sharp focus. And because their decisions are based on color, not character, they are the ones who can be deemed “racist,” even if not in the traditional sense of the word.

I don’t believe Gates’ attorney when he says that the police officer harassed his client based on skin color. I think that if there was an inquiry made, or even an interrogation, it was more because the police department RECEIVED A CALL FROM A NEIGHBOR saying that there was a possible burglary in process. This officer was not strolling down a street thinking, “hmm, what is that black guy doing?”

Regardless of skin color, I think that the officer was just doing his job. Had it been my house I would have been happy to comply with the police department, because honestly, what if it wasn’t me? I mean, what if some random person had broken in to my home, and when the officers arrived to make sure everything was copacetic (another fabulous word), the burglar announced that he lived there, and when someone started questioning that fact he flipped his lid about how the police officers were unfairly targeting him because of his race? Do you think I would want those police officers to be so worried about the politics of race and political correctness and hurt feelings resulting in job loss that they don’t fully investigate any threat to my property?

No! I would want those police officers to make damn sure that the person who was in the house had a right to be there. And that is what I think the police officers in Cambridge were doing. Rather than be agitated about being a “black man in America,” as Gates so vocally was, I would be thrilled to see my tax dollars at work towards something useful.

Ultimately, this is the bottom line: the racism here was on the part of Henry Louis Gates Jr. By being so sure that the only reason for his questioning and detainment was because of the color of his skin, Gates made the inference that the police officer was ignorant, and that inference wasn’t made because the officer was a public servant or a man, but because he was WHITE. And that is racism, plain and simple.

Shhh, I'm going to tell you a secret...

I sent a card to postsecret the other day. I'm not sure how many people are aware of it, but postsecret is a blog where Frank, the guy who runs it, receives thousands of anonymous secrets on postcards in the mail, and every Sunday scans twenty into his blog for people to read and relate to. I'm pretty much obsessed with it, and log on every Sunday to see the new secrets. 

Since I doubt my secret will appear on the next posting (or really, any posting, it's not that good of a secret), I've decided that I want to share it with you all. It said, "even though I disagree with affirmative action, checking the box that says 'Hispanic' always seems like a good idea." 

It's true. On standardized tests and college applications (and now law school applications) I have always checked the little box that says "Hispanic," even though my skin is more olive than tan, I speak (mostly) English at home, and consider myself an American -- not that you can't be Hispanic and American at the same time. It's just that my dad is pretty much one of the whitest people you'll ever meet, and after so many years in this country my Guatemalan side of the family has assimilated fairly well. Yes, we still eat tamales at Christmas and grapes on New Year's Eve, but still...If someone had a gun to my head and told me I could only pick one, I would definitely say that I fit more into the "White (non-Hispanic)" category. 

(On a tangent, I never got why "white" had to be accompanied by "not hispanic" and not "non-Asian" or "non-African", but I digress.)

After I put this particular post card in the mail, I realized something. It's not that I don't believe in affirmative action. It's that I don't believe in race-based affirmative action. There's a HUGE difference, and I probably should have specified, but I didn't want to get all political on a 4"x6" postcard on its way to Germantown, PA. 

BUT, I have no problem getting all political here.

The thing is, I think it's completely RACIST for the government or educational institutions to assume that because you're black or hispanic you need a hand up over lesser-privileged white children. I mean, there ARE white kids who grow up on the wrong side of the tracks (or in Compton, whatever) who attend the same schools and get the same education as the minority students that are targeted, and yes, helped, by affirmative action. These are kids from broken homes, subjected to gang violence, growing up in the projects, who can barely read coming out of 10th grade, who are then looked at by colleges and dismissed in favor of a minority student who could quite possibly have a more privileged background just because of the color of their skin.

Um, I'm sorry, but isn't that, like, the definition of racism? Judging people by the color of their skin or where their family is from?

It's my personal belief that IF affirmative action is left in place, it needs to be radically and fundamentally overhauled to correct this oversight. Rather than giving these "boosts" to applicants because of their race, educational institutions and even employers should take into account socio-economic factors. Where you grow up and go to school can have as much affect on you as your skin color, in terms of education. Think about it. A black kid from Shaker Heights or Newport Beach, with parents that both have great jobs and can afford to live in good school districts, is way more likely to score well on standardized tests or do well in school, than a white kid from Compton or inner-city Cincinnati whose dad was never in the picture and whose mom has to work three shifts waiting tables to be able to afford basic necessities.

My roommate disagrees with me (no surprise there, she's an Asian American studies doctoral candidate who was a rabid Obama fan). She thinks that because whites were so oppressive for so long no white student could possibly deserve preference over any minority student. I think it's this kind of backward (racist) thinking that really is a stumbling block to race-relations in the first place. There are more factors in your life than the color of your skin or the country that your parents (or grandparents) called home. But people who fail to take that into account exclude a section of the population who are white but are truly underprivileged.

The thing is, even though I know that I've been blessed to go to great schools and have great teachers and a good home life, I still check that Hispanic box. I kind of feel guilty about it, too, so I don't do it all of the time. I just think it would be so great if we didn't have to put ourselves into a box based on what we looked like or our race/ethnicity. Don't you?