RACE IX: THE RECOVERY OF FIRE. So in that big anti-affirmative action post, I concluded by noting that contemporary defenses of affirmative action totally lack the sense of hope and vigor that imbues descriptions of the King era. And I said that we could get that fire back, but that we’d have to redirect our thinking about race. Here’s my disorganized game plan for that redirection. It’s in several parts–you’ll know when you hit the end because you’ll be back in Race VIIIa.

First: Racism is not the problem. This is important because racism is EVEN HARDER to address directly than the VERY difficult things that really are the problem. Why do I say racism is not the problem? Well, first, because it’s really hard to tease out the effects of racism from the effects of stuff like general lack of concern for what happens to poor people, unrealistic beliefs about crime, and hopelessness or wrong choices on the part of poor people. Better to address the specific problems than to fight over whether those problems are caused by callousness, ignorance, greed, sloth, or reasonable disagreements about policies.

Second, focusing on specific problems, rather than assuming that racism is the diffuse underlying cause common to all, allows us to stop psychoanalyzing one another and stop hurling charges of racism at people; those charges long ago became all-purpose accusations.

And finally, like I said, racism is a complicated beastie, with all kinds of variants and manifestations, some subtle, some blatant–there’s the racism of condescension (“the soft bigotry of low expectations,” to coin a phrase), there’s racial profiling without racism (as in Jesse Jackson’s sad confession that when he heard footsteps behind him at night, he was relieved if he saw it was a white person), there’s all kinds of emotional and highly-charged judgments and guesses. There’s black racism against Asians, against Jews, against whites, all of which favors are of course returned. There’s Chinese hatred of the Japanese. (Wonder why?) You want to address that first? Even fixing the schools is easier!

Second, attend to the individuals, not the symbols. The attempt to turn black people into symbolic noble victims is totally creepy, and keeps us stuck in the past. I’ve talked quite a bit about this already, so I won’t say much more, except to point out that making black people symbols rather than people kills honesty and humor. Case in point: the self-parodic accusations that “Barbershop” was bad for black people because it dissed black heroes. Hello? It is possible to laugh at oneself, you know… even in public.

(Another case in point: Black People Love Us. Sharp little satire. Probably prompts some of the misunderstandings it skewers, but that’s comedy, folks. I don’t imagine Moms Mabley was considered a suitably symbolic black hero either.)