Gregory Freeman: White Or Black, Racism Is Wrong. PD 1/23/1994

Headline: WHITE OR BLACK, RACISM IS WRONG
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Jan. 23, 1994
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 4B, Edition: FIVE STAR

RACISM IS NOT a one-way street.

I was reminded of that after reading a New York Times commentary piece earlier this month by Roger Wilkins, a professor of history at George Mason University. Wilkins recounted a recent visit to Kean College in Union, N.J., by Khalid Abdul Muhammad of the Nation of Islam. In a speech there, Muhammad had talked about "Columbia Jew-niversity" and "Jew York City" and had suggested that Jews brought the Holocaust on themselves.

Despite the outrageous comments, Wilkins noted, none of the blacks on the faculty or staff at the university had condemned them.
   "In avoiding swift and forceful condemnation of Mr. Muhammad's bilious diatribe, the black faculty members failed their students, failed their obligations as members of a civilized community and failed to uphold the best traditions of the black struggle, " Wilkins wrote.
   Such failure, however, goes further than just the faculty at an Eastern college.
   Chirping crickets can be heard in the silence that follows when blacks publicly make racist comments.

A growing number of blacks believe it impossible for African-Americans to make racist comments or to be racist, saying that to be racist, one must have the power to prevent others from getting ahead on the basis of race.
Because blacks have little or no power in this country, this theory goes, blacks cannot be racist.
I don't buy that argument. The common interpretation of racism is words or actions against someone because of that person's race or ethnic background. The rest, I would argue, are games of semantics.

In the case of Muhammad, in the case of Jesse Jackson a decade ago and in the cases of numerous others in between, those who consider themselves leaders of African-Americans in this country have often declined to condemn racist comments made by other blacks.
There's a reason for the silence. Blacks have been the target of racial attacks since we arrived on this continent, and the result for many today is a combination of pain and rage. When African-Americans are criticized by non-blacks today, an almost natural tendency is to rally around the individual under attack.

But those who are leaders - who have reached the point where they are considered by themselves and others to be in leadership roles - must be willing to take stands, even when they might not be considered popular. Why have leaders if they cannot display the courage of leadership?
In his commentary, Wilkins wrote: "Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Mary McLeod Bethune, W.E.B. DuBois, Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall were among those who created our best traditions. Their lives teach us that we blacks are much more than simply the sum of our injuries and grievances."
Indeed we are. And although the pain that we sometimes feel may result in our eagerly agreeing with those who engage in scapegoating, all of us - not just those who lead - must be strong enough to resist such thoughts.

Some speakers and would-be leaders use scapegoats as a way of getting their audiences to side with them: "We have serious problems - it's their fault." Those with the problems begin to feel better because the finger-pointing gives them someone on whom to blame their problems.
History is filled with such examples: consider Adolf Hitler, who convinced Germans that Jews were at the root of their problems; or David Duke, who nearly persuaded the people of Louisiana to believe that blacks were at the root of their problems; or Patrick Buchanan, who tried to tell Americans that anyone unlike him was at the root of our problems.

It's easy to scapegoat. It's harder to develop solutions.
But being a leader means leading the group, not following what you think the group might like to hear.
Blacks ought to know better.

Throughout history we have served as scapegoats for more problems than I have space to list here. We, as much as anyone, should know the hazards of scapegoating as well as the implications of not speaking out against what's wrong.
While individuals may bear some responsibility for specific problems, it is blatantly racist to suggest that an entire group - blacks, whites, Jews, Catholics, whoever - is responsible for anyone's woes.
The real leaders among us understand that.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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