Vigilance on Race Is Not Victimization
Tommy Christopher
Contributor
Posted:
11/14/08
My colleague, David Knowles, wrote an article recently, listing 10 news stories that dealt with racial tension since the election of Barack Obama as President. One of the stories he referenced was my own account of some school children who chanted, "Assassinate Obama!" on their school bus. Both pieces clearly contextualized these as the actions of a tiny number of outliers.
It has been my experience that, whenever I write about race issues, even with the light touch of a feather tied to a helium balloon, there is an instinct in some quarters to become very defensive and uncomfortable. It's as though the mere mention of a racial issue equates to an accusation of all of whitekind.
Invariably, the tactic used is to accuse me of race-baiting, and to draw some false equivalence to the mistreatment of George Bush, et al. When I wrote a completely apolitical piece carefully contextualized, about the hanging of Barack Obama in effigy, I got a lot of this type of feedback. Since this country doesn't have a history of enslaving, murdering, and subjugating white billionaires, the comparison falls apart rather quickly.
It seems as though some take these stories as a reproach to their own efforts at racial harmony, or worse, as an attempt to take advantage of racial discord by painting a portrait of political victimization. The notion that the focus in the press and on the left on an insignificantly small number bad actors can only be intended to set Barack Obama up as a victim of the very racial politics that the media said his election would transcend is an incredibly narrow idea, a failure of imagination.
I can't answer for others, but for me, these ten stories are intended to keep the reader alert to the fact that, no matter how far we've come, we must still be aware that racism exists, if only so that we can steel ourselves to rebuke it. Maybe someone will read that story, and not let it slide the next time some guy tells him that he likes hockey because "no-one's gonna fall out of a tree and take your job."
Yes, these are the acts of marginal outliers, and by dragging them into the light, we should be able to further marginalize them, instead of making them martyrs to "the media." That is the point of these stories.
It has been my experience that, whenever I write about race issues, even with the light touch of a feather tied to a helium balloon, there is an instinct in some quarters to become very defensive and uncomfortable. It's as though the mere mention of a racial issue equates to an accusation of all of whitekind.
Invariably, the tactic used is to accuse me of race-baiting, and to draw some false equivalence to the mistreatment of George Bush, et al. When I wrote a completely apolitical piece carefully contextualized, about the hanging of Barack Obama in effigy, I got a lot of this type of feedback. Since this country doesn't have a history of enslaving, murdering, and subjugating white billionaires, the comparison falls apart rather quickly.
It seems as though some take these stories as a reproach to their own efforts at racial harmony, or worse, as an attempt to take advantage of racial discord by painting a portrait of political victimization. The notion that the focus in the press and on the left on an insignificantly small number bad actors can only be intended to set Barack Obama up as a victim of the very racial politics that the media said his election would transcend is an incredibly narrow idea, a failure of imagination.
I can't answer for others, but for me, these ten stories are intended to keep the reader alert to the fact that, no matter how far we've come, we must still be aware that racism exists, if only so that we can steel ourselves to rebuke it. Maybe someone will read that story, and not let it slide the next time some guy tells him that he likes hockey because "no-one's gonna fall out of a tree and take your job."
Yes, these are the acts of marginal outliers, and by dragging them into the light, we should be able to further marginalize them, instead of making them martyrs to "the media." That is the point of these stories.
Tommy Christopher co-hosts "Unusable Signal" , on BlogTalkRadio Tues - Thur at 10pm, and Fri, & Sat at 11pm. Click here for the Unusable Signal homepage.