New Blog to Check Out - What's race got to do with it?

Check out this user profile:

I write about my experiences as a white woman in the inner city. The only thing scary about my experience is the uniformed fear of the white community of my neighborhood. My message is to white America: we are the root of the problem in urban race relations. Until we understand the damaging affect of using our white privilege, there will be no change.

If you prefer your analysis of racial issues to remain at the shallow level of joke blogs, you might not enjoy this one, but I look forward to making it a regular read.

Also, she linked to me yesterday, and commented on my blog - two of my favorite identifying signs of a great blogger.

Talk About Segregation . . .

Rockhurst University is hosting Kevin Fox Gotham on Tuesday evening of this week, to deliver a FREE talk on "Residential Segregation in Kansas City: Origin, Development and Consequences" at 7:30 p.m. in Mabee Theater, Sedgwick Hall.

In a totally coincidental, random, unrelated-to-the-topic, strange circumstance, you can't park for this event if you try to enter the campus from the east side.

See you there, if you're willing to go east of Troost . . .

Niecie's, KCUR, and Racism

One link, sent to me by my wife/muse, provokes 3 blog-worthy thoughts . . .

1. The Splendid Table, an American Public Radio program for foodies, recently visited Niecie's, a restaurant on the East Side. Jane and Michael Stern, pioneers of road food, do a nice segment on a classic soul-food restaurant right here in Kansas City. Go here to listen to it!

2. KCUR is a great public service provided by UMKC, and I appreciate it every time I listen to it, which is almost every day. But my love of the station does not blind me to its flaws. Walt Bodine must go. Also, the station is slow to adapt - we were among the last cities in the nation to get A Prairie Home Companion, and now we are behind the curve in picking up The Splendid Table, a wonderful show for the foodie in all of us. If Kansas Citians have to resort to podcasts to get the freshest and best shows on public radio, why bother with the broadcasts?

3. It's time to admit that I am a racist. I fear people who are different from myself, and I allow that fear to color my perception of the world, and my behavior in it.

Why haven't I been to Niecie's? I can come up with a dozen reasons centering on convenience or forgetfulness or whatever, but let's not fool ourselves. It's fear that's kept me away from Niecie's. It's racism that prevents me from going over to 5932 Prospect for lunch.

My racism may be slightly less obvious than that of the Johnson Countians I love to mock for being too afraid to come to Swope Park. And I'm too smart to be like Bill O'Reilly, who started the whole world laughing with his amazement that a restaurant in Harlem was just like a restaurant run by whites.

But let's not kid ourselves. The difference is one of degree, not one of nature. The same racist crap that colors O'Reilly's view of Sylvia's is coloring my view of Niecie's and dozens of other places. At least O'Reilly has been to Sylvia's . . .

The lamentable truth is that I, and others like me, have that scene from Animal House looping in our brains, where the gang of white kids walks into a bar to see Otis Day, and wind up having a large black man rip a table out of the way and asking "Do you mind if we dance wif yo dates?" in a scary baritone voice. A version of that scene flickers through our minds when the thought of going east of Troost comes up. And, so, we choose someplace more comfortable.

(Can you imagine if a black guy were as fearful as I am? Can you imagine a black guy sitting in the Grand Street Cafe or PF Chang's, nervously aware that he's the only black person in there? Ridiculous! He couldn't get anywhere in the business world if he were as racist as I am.)

I'll get myself over to Niecie's pretty soon. It'll be an adventure. I'll feel like a tourist, and a bit of an exhibitionist. "Look at me, black people, I'm boldly going where few white men go!" And I'll be full of insufferable superiority when I tell my less adventurous white friends about my expedition.

Maybe, just maybe, if I do it often enough, the sharpest and most prominent jagged edges of my racism will get knocked off or worn down. And I'll "pass" as a liberal non-racist. But don't let me fool you. It's been there all my life, and I'll carry it to the grave. Bury my heart in Johnson County.

Feeling Kind of White

I'm white. I'm middle-class. I'm middle-aged. I'm straight. Shit, I've even returned to organized religion.

When stuff like the Imus flap comes up, what legitimacy can I find? I've read and thought fairly deeply about issues like white privilege and the foundational aspects of racism in today's America. I'm aware of the 360 degree aspects of discrimination, and that Hispanics, Asians, women, and dozens of other identifiable groups of people face daily snubs and subtle hindrances that prevent them from participating as fully in society as they ought.

So, when Imus calls a bunch of talented young women - girls my daughter's age - "nappy headed hoes", I feel the anger, and I can pile on like everyone else.

I can also sit back in my intellectual easy chair and distinguish this mob scene from an attack on free speech, and mock those who are somehow trying to make this about how hard it is for rightwing hatespeakers to get along in this confusing world. Yes, there are plenty of blatantly stupid people I can play with. It's a simple and kind of pointless diversion.

But I don't think that I can jump in with stuff like Jason Whitlock did this morning:

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.

It's not my role to write stuff like that, but I can quote it and admire it.

I know some people think it's all about race. They're wrong. It's about power, and class, and money, and gender, and every little thing about who we are as a society and as individuals. It is all so mind-bogglingly complex that when you have an over-privileged asshole who calls talented young basketball players names, it's a joy to know exactly how to react.

I can do that, but I don't feel as comfortable taking on BET or Mencia or Chris Rock. I don't want to be that patriarchal defender of the status quo quoting approvingly from Cosby because he blames "those people".

Stupid people like Imus give us the clear case, where our outrage can be full-throated and pure. It's a frustratingly gray world. Was service slow because the patron was black? Maybe, maybe not. Did the white guy get the job because he "comes off more professional"? Maybe, maybe not. But there's no maybe about Imus this time.

Imus is kind of a scapegoat. I don't know what to say or think about rap music and gangsta culture. I don't always know where to draw lines between being open-minded and tolerating wrong-headed misbehavior. I don't even think I necessarily get to draw those lines. But I know that I can beat on Imus, and feel pretty good about it. By focusing all the attention on Imus, the rest of us can kid ourselves and think we've taken a stand against racism, while ignoring the thousands of petty discriminations we see (or choose not to see) every day.

As a middle-class, middle-aged, white, straight male, I look at it all and I hear a racially tinged song by the Refreshments in the back of my head:

Everybody knows
That the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistol so I’ll keep the Pesos
Yeah, and that seems fair

Seem fair to you?