A Discourse on Race Relations

Over the last few weeks, the issue of race has created an awakening in the consciousness of America. George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020 brought to the surface incidents that have been a frequent occurrence in the African American community for decades. The advent of cell phone video capabilities and social media has illuminated the injustice so plainly that it has become a global multiracial, multigenerational movement.

Multiracial alliances have always been the engine for change. If you look at photographs from the Civil Rights Movement in the late 50’s and 60’s you will notice a variety of ethnicities who were protesting because they recognized and challenged the inequitable norms. Observing the protests as a young kid I learned that social revolution need not to be destructive.

We are at a similar crossroad today. The current political discourse emanating from the most powerful position in the free world is divisive and racist at its core. But the discourse alone is not the problem, the problem is “good men and women standby and say nothing.” The very people elected to uphold the law of the land and serve with integrity stand in silence. Why they do not express their displeasure will be debated in the long arc of history. We must be able to create unity in the face of discord.

Pastor Herb Lusk, a prominent theological intellectual, from Philadelphia stated, “The only hope our country has is men (women) like you who understand what is required.” He followed up with a biblical scripture to support his position.

He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8.

There are enough of us that know the way but for some reason or another we cannot consistently find common ground. Even amongst the religious leaders the division has grown more partisan and the pulpits are politicized.

Although there are numerous issues, a recurring theme is a failure to communicate, an unwillingness to ask tough questions and listen empathically to intersecting ideas. Certainly not everyone is going to agree. That is why it only takes a committed few to make a difference. “Conviction is more powerful than consensus.”

Growing up my mother and father always wanted to make certain we understood the nature of race relations. I remember some things more vividly than others for example, I was nine years old when I saw a picture of Emmett Till’s body lying in a coffin. It was frightening and more disturbing when the backdrop of his murder was explained to me. It was a cautionary tale for African Americans of my generation.

I recall watching Walter Cronkite report the news on pivotal landmark Civil Rights decisions in the 1964 and 1965, the Watts riots in the summer of 1965, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Bobby Kennedy. My parents would force us to digest the information rich current events good and bad so we would understand the dynamics that would greatly impact our lives.

They never wanted us to fall victim to the inferiority complex society propagated. They allowed us to taste the bitter and the sweet, be inquisitive, challenge thought processes and form our own opinions — thus creating our own ideological pallets.

So, what is one of the major issues today? The country is in an uproar because we are uncomfortable talking about race relations. We do not listen to one another; we do not ask questions to seek understanding because ideological territorialism fuels human existence. The feeling of blame, responsibility, guilt, and shame disrupts any meaningful dialogue that could change the moral and social landscape of race relations. The world could learn something from a group of 8 to 10-year-olds that I crossed paths with in the late 60’s.

As I have mentioned on previous posts, my hometown is Beloit, Wisconsin, a small bedroom sized working class community in the southern part of the state. It was and still is today a melting pot. The city has one of the largest percentage African American communities in the state.

Beloit owes this interwoven fabric, like most northern cities, to the Great Migration. Many of my relatives came from the south to fill jobs at the local Fairbanks Morse Company when there was a labor shortage due to the First World War. While growing up in Beloit the economic wealth gap was not visibly apparent. Disparities between the white and black communities were not a vast gap because the city was composed of blue-collar workers. We went to the same schools, played on the same sports teams, and lived in close proximity to one another.

There were underpinnings of racism which had passed down through the ages. Some local establishments, like the Pop House, we steered clear of because of an overt unwelcoming vibe felt by the African American community. Beloit was a microcosm of the current race relations.

In the summer of my 8th grade year I attended a basketball camp in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire’s campus. Our local legendary high school basketball coach, Bernie Barkin, worked a deal for me to participate. We were there for two weeks. The first week I would run the camp store and serve as a counselor to 8-10-year old’s. The second week I would participate in the camp.

During my first week I noticed several of the young campers under my supervision staring at me like I was a Martian. So, at the conclusion of our evening discussion before bed check I asked one of the young campers, “Why do you guys keep staring at me?” One young man said “excuse me counselor Jim, but you are the first colored person we have ever seen in real life.” They confessed to seeing a few on television but I was their first close encounter.

So, now I understood! Thus, I made a declaration that at the end of each evening session they could ask five questions about my race. In turn I would answer them.

They were naïve but honest. Some of the more entertaining questions that I recall distinctly were as follow: What do your mother and father look like? Are they your color, or are they white? What color is your blood? What color are your bones? Can we touch your hair? (I was sporting a TWA [Teeny Weeny Afro] at the time). Why do colored people riot? Do you go to regular schools or to school with only kids that look like you?

Once we began our discussions in the evening, I noticed that I received fewer and fewer stares. Throughout the week I answered all the questions that they could think of. At the conclusion of our final evening talk I asked, “after all the questions and answers about my race what did you learn?” The short answer was, “you are just like us, only a different color on the outside.” Approval is felt from inside out and so is disapproval and rejection. I could sense common ground was achieved and they accepted me for who I am.

If you are one of the millions and millions who have either submitted your DNA to Ancestry or 23 and Me, you realize that we are more alike than different. Your DNA relatives are multi-racial, multi-cultural from numerous continents. The travesty of slavery has many consequences that reveal themselves to the horror of some of my white counterparts.

My wife, who is African American, has researched her family lineage back to the early 1800’s. In the fall of 2018, I was at a local event here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and a prominent white attorney who is unknowingly related to my wife was in attendance. At the conclusion of the event I walked over to him and introduced myself and inquired how much he knew about his family history. He said, “very little.” I told him my wife has done extensive research on her family, and invariably located some of your ancestral history as well. I told him if you are interested, my wife would be more than happy to share the information with you. I left the ball in his court to see if he was comfortable with the idea. I have yet to hear from him. We are more interrelated than one could ever imagine or dare speak of.

The most important thing about the campers was the honest questions asked and their conclusion. I must commend the parents of those young guys. The majority of them were from small farming communities in Northern Wisconsin and Eastern Minnesota. They had raised kids without prejudice or preconceived notions about race and were determined to seek understanding by being inquisitive, honest, and respectful.

Perhaps if the same approach is taken by the adults in our country today, we can solve the problems in our society through meaningful discourse and hopefully unilateral transcendent ideas that will bode well for a better future.