Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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May 8, 2008 9:29 PM
Recognizing the Race Chasm
The issue of race makes a lot of folks uncomfortable - and that's especially true right now when the nation is closer than ever to electing the first black President of the United States. As my new newspaper column this week shows, many Serious People who dominate our political debate have reacted to this historic election and their own queasiness about race by exposing their prejudices.
On one side, you have the ostriches - the political "thinkers" like Reihan Salam and Michael Lind who look at the Race Chasm and pretend it doesn't exist. These people look at a racially polarized election map, and explain it away with either flippant fact-free stories about Hillary Clinton's "waitress-mom sensibility," or wild theories about Northern European migration trends from a century ago. They expect us to forget that most often the simplest explanation is the most obvious - especially when it comes to a black-white racial divide that has been a definining characteristic of American culture since our country's inception.
On the other side you have the minstrel show producers - the media and politicians who are more than thrilled to exploit race and treat African Americans as less than human. My column offers up all sorts of specific examples of this, but I think Keith Woods of the Poynter Institute summed it up best. Appearing on PBS this week, he said:
"You see a full vocabulary for talking about white Americans in this debate, from blue-collar, a euphemism for white blue-collar workers. We talk about lunch-bucket Democrats. We talk about the soccer mom and the NASCAR dad, all of which are euphemisms in the national discourse for white Americans. And then we talk about black people, as though they are all the same, with pretty much all the same views."
Each side is expressing a form of bigotry. In denying the racial divide exists, the ostriches are telling African Americans that racism is just their imagination. In other words, the whitewashing (no pun intended) legitimizes racism by pretending it doesn't exist.
The minstrel show producers are more honest than the ostriches - they are overtly telling African Americans that they are unimportant, even though that's positively false in both the human and political sense.
The silver lining in all of this is the fact that - despite the ostriches - we may start to have a much-needed national conversation about race, to the great consternation of wealthy white pundits like Bill Kristol. As all of this racism oozes out of the political Establishment for all to see, we can recognize just how bigoted American culture is - and recognition is the first step towards addressing a problem.
You can read the whole column at the San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, Ft. Collins Coloradoan, In These Times, TruthDig, Credo Action, or Creators. The column relies on grassroots support, so if you'd like to see my column regularly in your local paper, use this directory to find the contact info for your local editorial page editors. Get get in touch with them and point them to my Creators Syndicate site. Thanks, as always, for your ongoing readership and help contacting local editors. This column couldn't be what it is without your help.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
Hey David, why doesn't Media Matters list you as a columnist? That annoys me considering I know you're in my local paper, the Seattle Times, even though Media Matters doesn't list you there.
I like reading your columns in The Seattle Times. I agree with the position you have stated in Exploiting the Race Chasm.
I live is Washington State. Our state may fall into The Race Chasm, with the black population somewhere around 10 percent. While our state does not have a perfect record of respecting blacks (and other minorities) we do have a black King County executive. Ron Sims has done a good job of governing the largest (population) county in the state. Mr. Sims has taken a strong leadership role in protecting our environment and promoting our regional mass-transit system. Some years ago, Seattle had a great black mayor, Norm Rice.
I found Clinton's remarks about "Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening" disrespectful of blacks and my white neighbors. I live in a suburban community that is mostly white, however there is a large international workforce (but I guess they can't vote for anyone, so Clinton is not interested in this group of hardworking people).
I attended my precinct caucus back in February. Over 400 people showed up, when less than 100 were expected. We had to move the party outside! The caucus was overwhelming in its support for Obama. This does not surprise me, because our region is well known for technical innovation and green stewardship. Some folks refer to Redmond as Silicon North or the Silicon Forest.
Our largest employers (and King County) are well known for Gay-Lesbian support. We have a female governor, and two female Senators. My understanding Governor Chris Gregoire has endorsed Obama, and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell have endorsed Clinton.
I feel Obama's message of Hope resonates with my "working, hardworking" neighbors. As technical innovators and international business folks, we see Obama as "getting it right".
David as a Black Male this reminds me of old days of the Black vs the Poor White Trash. Terms used as derogatory but described the divide as through Centuries of stagnated race relations.
An Old Southerner once told me "the guy that convinced the poor white trash they were not only better but had different issues then the blacks was a genius"
We all know it wasn't just one guy, but I still see that effect when I hear that the black issues are different from Poor or working class whites. Hillary and Others are just carrying on a tradition that has been going on before emancipation.
If it wasn't diverting real issues with terrorism and gay marriage then it is inferring that there is a wide difference in the values and issues of our lower, working class White Americans and Americans of Color.
They will never get together to agree on anything, as long as they are divided. One side will see each other as "parasites" the other will see them as "narrow minded rednecks".
Fox and the other Networks would rather have sound bites of Al Sharpton and Rev Wright then a sit down with a frank discussion. Their Commentators will explain it all to the masses in 15 minutes and in the end blacks will have suffered again, and with it any chance that Americans can get to together and deal with issues such as jobs, wages, workers rights, healthcare, education and a decent return of their paid taxes.
Small wonder why they Vilified Obama for his remarks on Pennsylvania when he was just taking a page from the winning Carl Rove handbook.
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