Stupid, stupid white people…

Today's post is from Thomas Norman DeWolf, a frequent speaker at colleges and conferences around the country on the legacy of slavery, undoing racism, and healing from historic trauma. Tom is the author of Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History.

My friend Sharon Morgan was recently leaving the post office near her new home in a small, rural town in New York when a white guy yelled at her from his car, "F#@k that dumb ass Obama!" and sped away. I'm sure there are several factors that contributed to his stupid, stupid outburst. In addition to maybe politics, probably sexism, definitely an upbringing in which he didn't learn common decency or respect, and a few others, one factor was racism. I have no idea what bothers him more, having a black president or having a black woman living in his almost-completely white town.

We hear regularly about famous white people saying stupid things. Senator Harry Reid said that Candidate Obama could succeed in his campaign for president in part due to his light skin and lack of "Negro" dialect. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich claimed to be blacker than Barack Obama. Even after Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell apologized for leaving out any reference to slavery in his Confederate History Month proclamation, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said controversy over the proclamation "doesn't amount to diddly." Senate candidate Rand Paul compared the political battles he wants to lead with those of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is a long history of white people saying and doing stupid, racist, and horribly damaging things to people of color. The Transatlantic Slave Trade was abolished by the U.S. Government on January 1, 1808. Many stupid white people—including distant relatives of mine—ignored the law for a long time. The last ship that brought enslaved African people to U.S. shores, the Clotilda, landed in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in 1860, more than fifty years after the law was enacted.

This week many people will celebrate Juneteenth in recognition of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Why not celebrate January 1, 1863, the day Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation took effect? Because it took two and a half years, until June 19, 1865, for Union soldiers to both win the Civil War and to arrive in Texas with enough strength to overcome the resistance of stupid, stupid white people.

Thank goodness I'm not like any of those white people.

Nope. I'm one of the good white people. I wrote a book about my family's commitment to truth, justice, and undoing racism. I speak at colleges and conferences all around the country about these issues. I share all the right articles with my friends on Facebook. And I write blog posts like this one whenever I'm invited to do so.

Yep, I sit at my desk in Oregon with a population that is 90% white, that in 1857 voted to ratify the state constitution with a provision that prohibited black people from moving here (with 89% voter approval), and write about stupid, stupid white people who live somewhere else.

Curse you, gentle, quiet voice—you know the one—that reminds me of the quote I included in my book from that wise teacher Pema Chödrön,

"Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity."

No, I'm not like those other white people. I am them. And they are me. We all inherit damage from the past, we spread it like a virus, and we don't think. Too often, we just act. And sometimes we act stupidly like that guy at the post office. I also recognize that white people aren't the only ones who do and say stupid things. Black and brown folks have plenty of capacity for doing and saying stupid things as well. I just know more about white folks because I am white folks. And white folks have done most of the damage in the world over the past several centuries; so I believe we have a lot of the responsibility for acknowledging, speaking out about, and repairing that damage.

But let's get universal for a moment. Recognizing our shared humanity with all people—black, brown and white, male and female, young and old—includes the acknowledgment that actions taken by other people reflect on me, and vice versa. Driving my car and drinking from plastic bottles means I share in the responsibility for the oil spill that is destroying the Gulf of Mexico. Paying my taxes means I share in the responsibility for wars being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Standing by and doing little or nothing when any act of individual or systemic racism is committed means I share in the responsibility for the perpetuation of racism.

I don't condone the racist actions of the man who verbally abused my friend. I'd like him to be held accountable for what he did. Acknowledging my shared humanity with him does not mean I would do what he did. It is the recognition that we're all in this life struggle together. He's a scared, little man who himself has been damaged and acted stupid out of a deep-seated fear he probably can't even recognize, let alone acknowledge. We all experience sorrow and loss and fear. In the face of our fear, we all have the capacity to say and do stupid things.

And, thank goodness, we have the capacity to change that stupid paradigm.

When we begin working on holding each other accountable, healing our brokenness, committing our time to undoing injustice and inequality, and respecting each other in all our rich diversity—when we begin to spend as much time learning about ourselves, our history, and all we have in common as we do watching television and trying to convince ourselves we're nothing like those stupid, stupid other people, the world will become a richer, more peaceful, and less stupid, stupid place.

Comments

[tonya thames taylor]

Thomas, Peace and Progress! I appreciate this blog immensely. What I find interesting is that these very folks will say that they are "Americans, Real Americans" meaning: no colored folks allowed unless we give you permission to exist, set the parameters for colored engagement, and devalue your humanity. The comment about Obama was, as you rightly noted here, about your friend as well as the President. As with global racism, blamed the coloreds for all the problems in the world. Her very presence was a reminder that colored people have access in this country that was once regulated by law. Ideally, her very presence should be applauded because it shows that democracy attempts to reign in a so-called democratic nation. Yet, his actions reveal that he feels entitled to lash at her for her audacity to be without his permission. His American right allowed him to "whip" her with words and leave with impunity (ah, vaguely disguised verbal lynching). I am adding a video that was featured on the New York Times e-cover yesterday. Nebraska, too, is joining in the rekindling of the spirit that barred blacks from Oregon in 1857:

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/06/18/us/1247468077117/a-town-divided.html

Keep writing!

[Lawrenceandtiff]

Nicely said. Yet I think collectively we focus to much on the (Past). I mean to be honest. 10 mins into your Paragraph, and learning about 50 years before the Law was up held, and learning about the 89% approval for non people of color in Oregon. I got upset. I instantly for a second, was Mad. Yet I asked my self, why am I mad? because I was reminded, or told things of Long ago, that in this Moment, can not Help me.

My point, I know unless we Understand the Past, we're Doomed to Repeat it. Yet I tell you, ''You are what You Think About.'' You have several enemy's that would ''Word Lash'' you to death. Your white, and to Most (Blacks), it's ''Offensive'' to hear you speak of ''Our Trials and Tribulations''Some would say, When have you ever been Discriminated for your Skin Color?, The Admittance of your Family having a part in it, Is (Nobel), yet It doesn't make better of the situation.

If you we're to attempt , lets say,talk to the (Nation of Islam) on ''Black History'', they have been ''Tricked'', by a brother that lived during the 20's. Who understandably, had many reasons to dislike, dis trust, and have a serious grudges towards whites, based on that (Time) period. Again notice I say ''Time''

Blacks for years like you say have been mistreated, and not taken seriously, that when they see a well dressed, educated brother, telling him he was once a King, he once created Whites, and one day, will rule over them again, It sinks in like Mud.

It saddens me, that some of my brothers and sisters could be so stupid, in believing that. Yet my friend said something that made a lot of since.

We should show ''Appreciation to the Creator'', for creating ''Diversity'', in Man. For everything God made, was Good.

Again, I commend you for what your trying to do, It takes some serious, ''Ca hones'' to do what your doing. But I'm here to tell you, I ''Forgive You, and your Family''.
The things that happen, has happened since the world began. There is no Race, that hasn't been Enslaved. Our Tribulations, are no different, than the ''Holocaust'' of the Jews, or the Genocide of Rwanda Africans, or the Small Pox of our Depleted Indians.

My point, ''Evil'' has no Color, it's simply Evil. If we could learn to just (Love) one another, and Move Forward, Peace could be a Reality.

Peace and Blessings to you and yours, One
Lawrence McClellan
Birmingham, Alabama

[Anna Gregerson]

Wise wise post. Thanks. Agreed that it equally applies to other places, people and times who have historical prejudices, conflict with each other where it just seems hopeless. Some GREAT quotes here.
"When we begin working on holding each other accountable, healing our brokenness, committing our time to undoing injustice and inequality, and respecting each other in all our rich diversity—when we begin to spend as much time learning about ourselves, our history, and all we have in common as we do watching television and trying to convince ourselves we're nothing like those stupid, stupid other people, the world will become a richer, more peaceful, and less stupid, stupid place." Wow.