In his interview with Frank Rich for New York Magazine, Chris Rock hit upon some very hard truths about America and race.
One of those truths is that whites have made progress in dealing with race:
Here’s the thing. When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before.
Black people haven't changed, they continue to be the same as they ever were, some good, some bad, and some downright brilliant. What has changed is the way they are viewed by the dominant, white culture, and the way that that culture has begrudgingly, on occasion, extended opportunities to the black community.
Doors have been opened. Not fully, and too often there is a toll that most can't afford. But there is now room for a foot in the door. Room for a black secretary of state, a black president, and even black political pundits.
Black children today are growing up in a world in which they can aim for the Oval Office as long as they never aim a toy gun in public. The messages they must be receiving from their parents who fear for their safety, but want to encourage them to dream big dreams have to be terribly confusing.
The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced. Let’s hope America keeps producing nicer white people.
You may not think that Chris Rock was speaking to liberals, but I believe he was. What so many, especially liberal whites, miss is how we benefit from the actions of the less nice white people, the racists. As long as we allow young black men to be shot in the street by the justice system that we control, or locked up in jail on minor drug charges, or no charges at all, we benefit. There is less competition in the job market when so many of them are in jail or have criminal records.
Susan Brownmiller, in her work, Against Our Will, Men, Women and Rape, showed how, even though most men don't rape women, all men benefited from the constraints that the threat of rape imposed on women. The fear of rape kept women from competing with men in many fields—it kept women off the streets at night, and that closed job opportunities that were open to men. All men do not have to rape all women for the fear of rape to be real to all women.
And all white people do not have to be racists to benefit from the existence of racial bigotry. We do benefit, and that benefit even has a name: white privilege. There would be no such thing if there weren't a class of people who were denied the same privilege.
Chris Rock is speaking to us when he talks about white people adjusting to a new reality:
Owning their actions. Not even their actions. The actions of your dad. Yeah, it’s unfair that you can get judged by something you didn’t do, but it’s also unfair that you can inherit money that you didn’t work for.
So yeah, while not all white people are bigots, all white people benefit from their existence. We have to acknowledge that, own it, and accept it as the unpleasant reality in which we live. That is step one.
Step two is to change that reality.
Originally posted to Susan Grigsby on Mon Dec 01, 2014 at 02:52 PM PST.
