On MLK-Day: Thoughts on Racism

Caveat: I’ve never been this nervous about anything written here before. What follows is intended only as a conversation starter, but the topic is too important to NOT talk about and, well, you’ll see what I mean.

    Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist is my favorite song from a favorite musical, Avenue Q (think Sesame Street on illegal steroids). I am wading into these waters, here on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday holiday, with great trepidation, hoping I haven’t miscalculated on my risk-reward analysis. Like most white people (especially, at least, of my generation), racism is topic that makes me uncomfortable, especially in a group of mixed diversity. Just because I don’t want to be racist doesn’t mean I’ve been 100% successful in shedding the pervasive, if sub-surface, racism with which I was raised. 

I certainly hope I have, but how can I be sure? No, I don’t want to be racist, not ever. Ironically, what I don’t want even more, however, is to be perceived as racist. Why is that ironic? Because if we recognize that, as the song says, we’re all a little bit racist, then we remain silent rather than even entering the conversation for fear of inadvertently revealing that abhorrent trait in ourselves. That silence inhibits the vital national dialogue our society needs to have about a problem that, while diminished from the past, still clearly exists. Our fear of having these difficult discussions actually sustains the societal poison that is racism.

I think we, all of us, black, white, and every shade in between, need to overcome our fear and start having these conversations. We need to give each other credit for good faith, for not wanting to be racist, and to forgive, in advance, the vestiges that may reveal themselves as we talk, openly and honestly, without guilt for a past we didn’t create, but with responsibility for a future still in the making. I hope my short article serves as a simple flagstone on the path to making Dr. King’s (and, I’d like to think, your and my) dream a reality, and helps honor his legacy.

This represents a first baby-step contribution. For anyone who wishes to continue the walk with me, my gate is open.

The above started as an introduction to a much longer, and as yet unfinished, piece that was threatening to become a memoir. My students know that once I get rolling I have trouble putting on the brakes (or sometimes looking like a bumper car with a broken steering wheel). I am not afraid of writing something that long, but I kind of doubt that this forum lends itself to many actually reading it!