Why do so many young, successful, and respected minorities continue to perceive themselves as victims even after they have realized the American dream?
leapt at the opportunity to hear Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. speak at Friends Select School in Philadelphia a while back. Although we disagree about most things, I believe he is a straight shooter. Admiration for Mr. Pitts was not the sole reason for my interest however. I wanted some insight as to why so many young, successful and respected African Americans like him continue to perceive themselves as victims of racism even after they have realized the American dream. Why fight a war already won?
Approaching Friend’s Select I felt the twinge of apprehension which always accompanies me on forays into the unknown. But I did what I always do…took a deep breath…. before stepping into a lobby bustling with an eclectic mix of young, well-coifed, urbane African Americans, rumpled, middle-aged, sixties-era, white grey beards, and a liberal measure of Asians and Latinos. This straight, middle aged, suburban white guy instantly felt like a fish out of water.
Undeterred, I reached into my grab-bag of personas and donned my mask of cool detachment. It worked. I sauntered toward the buffet table where I chatted my way through the line engaged in pleasant conversation with an attractive African American television news personality. I floundered a bit after that but found a seat in the darkened auditorium and felt myself relax as Acel Moore, veteran Philadelphia newspaper columnist, introduced the guest to the audience.
Mr. Pitts speaks the way he writes: deliberately, dispassionately, almost scholarly. I was pleased that his opening remarks addressed Sept. 11’s salutary effects on racial unity in America. He challenged us to think about how the races can stay together now that shared grief has brought us together, while cautioning that this will be no easy task.
He went on to examine the ” ties that bind” a group into a people ….common ancestry and common threat ( such as Sept.11 )…..and the process of assimilation, citing the Irish, Italians and Europeans who became ” Americans” once they lost their need to see themselves as discrete groups. Then came the rub, with his assertion that African Americans, Native Americans and other minorities continue to see themselves not as “Americans “but as discrete groups because they continue to see themselves as oppressed minorities.
First, groups circle the wagons for reasons other than identity and oppression, the acquisition and retention of power and privilege being one. Likewise, oppression, like beauty, frequently is in the eye of the beholder, particularly when the beholder views reality through a lens blurred by a steady stream of invective, indoctrination, profiling and paranoia lovingly dispensed by a black praetorian guard whose livelihood depends on convincing blacks that they are an oppressed minority.
Part of growing up is accepting the world as a scary, impersonal and unforgiving place. It’s a tough world, no matter your skin color. The struggle is one of the things we share in common. The trick is not to pull the covers over our head, or take the things that happen personally, or let them sever us from the larger whole.
No man ( or group) can long afford to be an island. Even Pitts predicted that some day racism will end and black people as a distinct group will disappear in much the same way that Italian and Irish people have. The sooner the better. I would argue that day has arrived.
He ended with the observation that although it’s nice to come together because of fear it’s better to come together because of love. I agree. Only love gives us the perspective to see beyond the ten things which divide us to the hundred things we have in common.
I would go a step further. Love is a two way street. In Pitts’ words, it simply requires that people ” do the hard but necessary work of leaving their comfort zones, abandoning the presumptions and biases born there.” Mr. Pitts and those of like mind should heed this advice. They may find that the cure for feelings of oppression and isolation is to occasionally take a deep breath and stroll into a roomful of strangers who neither look nor think like them.
gmcoscar@msn.com
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