Post-racial America

Yes, yes, all of the news stations have been having a field day with something that Justice Alito mouthed something, yes, mouthed. The amazing unprecedentedness of Alito's non-statement is so amazing that it captivates the news cycle for hours. It relates to the SC decision and Obama's condemnation of it, and I will address all of these things once in a later post.

For now I'd like to call some attention to a comment by Chris Matthews (MSNBC commentator) that is elucidated in this article. He said that he "forgot Obama was black for about an hour" during the SOTU speech. This is the "Black Voices" section of AOL news which actually gives some interesting view points on issues (supposedly) important to black America. Ignoring the obvious marketing therein, the perspective of the article, I think, is decidedly NOT post racial. It's obvious that the author did not grow up with exposure to the growing consensus of the "millennial" generation, that collective differences of all kinds are pollutants in the pursuit of viewing unique personhood in terms of individuality.

What that means is that it is in society's interest to eliminate superficial differences as categorizing social comprehensions, i.e. sex, skin color, sexual preference, etc...

Instead we should categorize by things that people CAN change and CHOOSE to buy into, and which represent their individuality, like moral values, political party, behavior, interests, social demeanor, etc.

If you choose to buy into a social group that is based on superficiality and choose to let it define you, great, fine, do that, but don't expect everyone to buy into it, and don't get insulted when people try to genuinely look beyond superficiality for a change. Having any kind of superficial pride is damaging to our ability to create an equal society that judges everyone based on their own merits, not merits imposed upon them by groups trying to confine or groups trying to define themselves based on something that is non-merit. In short, and this sounds racist by how radical it is, but in short, blacks who take pride in their blackness as a separate identity (or in contrast to others) are holding back progress as much as I would be by taking pride in the distinctness and separateness of my sex in contrast to the other sex. I am not a male who is James. I am a JAMES WHO HAPPENS TO BE MALE. If I let my maleness or whiteness define me instead of my Jamesness I am no longer judged as me, and I hold back anyone who doesn't want their maleness to define them.

Most people say we're not ready for that kind of perspective; there are too many people who are racist so we need things like affirmative action to tip the scale back the other way. But the only thing racial distinctions do is cause more racial distinctions, even if the purpose of making said distinctions is to fight for "equality".

So in short, I think it's great that Matthews is being honest about being able to look past race for a while. I actually had a very similar moment while watching the speech. What these moments show is that we have a long way to go in erasing race and racial stereotypes from the public consciousness because we still ultimately go back and say "I forgot he was a black man for a sec", as if Obama was (before the moment and after the moment) a black man, but only lost that distinction temporarily. Maybe if we never saw him as having that LOADED distinction in the first place, we might surprise ourselves every once in awhile by noticing... "wow i never noticed his skin color is different (or he has brown hair, or straight teeth, or that freckle on his cheek), but it has no bearing on his personhood, personality, or my understanding of him"... and then it becomes dropped as something ever used to define even our President.

This is a complex issue, and there are a lot of people who are insulted by a white male saying things like this. Just remember, my whitemaleness doesn't exempt me from being just as much a valid individual as everyone else. And anyone who calls me out based on that distinction is being unfair to me as a person. I will always recognize the difference in my experience, but that should not prevent me from speaking out about what I see when I look through my own eyes at the world.

Thanks Chris, you have great honesty and courage by daring to point out this subject, and by admitting that as a socialized white-male, it's only in rare windows that it seems possible to see people as they truly are. As a people, we all need to do better.