On Racial Newt-rality
We live much of our lives in fear. We fear being exposed as frauds. We project to the world an image of ourselves that’s not entirely true in an attempt to gain the approval of others. We conceal the bad, dirty, and ugly parts of ourselves and project other parts of ourselves that we think people will perceive as good, clean, and beautiful.
But there is another aspect of this self-deceptive pattern that is even more devious. We have a tendency to project onto others the bad, dirty, and ugly parts of ourselves. To paraphrase René Girard, “We are most indignant at the evil of others by which we ourselves are consumed” (Deceit, Desire, and the Novel, 73).
Few of us are immune from this pattern of self-deception. It’s an infectious social disease that permeates human culture and it is on full national display during political season as we inspect and scrutinize candidates. We saw it televised on Monday night at the Republican national debate.
The 24 hour news channels have been running the highlight of that debate since Monday evening. (You can see the video below.) It started when Fox News moderator Juan Williams asked Newt Gringrich a question about a claim Gingrich made while campaigning in Iowa. Gingrich stated last November that "Black Americans should demand jobs, not food stamps." He also claimed that “Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash,’ unless it’s illegal.”
Williams asked, “Can’t you see that this is viewed at a minimum as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans?”
As Gingrich replied, “No, I don’t see that,” the audience erupted in approval. Williams then asked if the comments were “intended to belittle the poor and racial minorities.”
“First of all, Juan,” Gingrich rather belittlingly responded, “the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history. Now, I know among the politically correct you’re not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable.” He went on to claim that liberal “elites despise earning money” and that he wants to help people “learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job and learn someday to own the job.” The all white audience loved the confrontation and enthusiastically cheered for Gingrich. After the debate Gingrich explained the enthusiasm by stating, “There was a spontaneous sense that somebody finally had the courage to just tell the truth about how we’ve got to go about helping people…”
The point I’d like to emphasize here is Williams’ term “racial minorities.” Williams has been criticized by many on the right for asking a racially loaded question, while many on the left praise him for stating the obvious and then accuse Gingrich of being a racist. Now, I don’t know if Gingrich is a racist, but Williams did ask a racially loaded question and race was an obvious issue at the debate. Williams was the only black person in the room, and I specifically mention “the all white audience” because the incident exposed an uncomfortable truth about American self-deception when it comes to race and racism.
It has been said that slavery is America’s original sin, but America’s original sin is deeper than slavery, for only black people were enslaved. The end of slavery did not end racism, nor did it end its counterpart, white supremacy. Both continued through the practice of lynching and segregation. It is a bad, dirty, and ugly part of American history that we would rather sweep under our cultural rug by ignoring its impact on modern American society. “We don’t have race issues anymore,” many argue. “We have economic issues.” There is some truth in that statement. Poverty doesn’t discriminate between races. But my personal experience, which is confirmed by the experience of Monday’s debate, is that racism still plays a huge role in our culture. If we are ever going to move beyond racism in our country, we need an honest discussion about how it continues to infect our lives.
So, let’s be honest. I’m infected with racism. Like the all white audience at the debate in South Carolina, I live in a mostly white world. I can go throughout my day without ever seeing a black person. My neighborhood is an all white suburb just north of Chicago, my church is 95% white, and when I shop I see white faces. The only time when I see black people is when I venture to Chicago, where many neighborhoods are all black.
Segregation is illegal, but don’t be deceived – whether you live in the North or the South, the United States continues to be segregated. We have an implicitly segregated society, and segregation, whether explicit or implicit, fosters racist attitudes. And here’s the ugly truth we don’t want to admit: we like it that way. Because of our self-deception, we would rather not deal with the bad, dirty, and ugly truth of racism that continues to infect our nation. We would rather show our indignation toward those racists out there than deal with the racism that infects us.
Is Newt infected by the evil pattern of racism? Probably. But so am I. When it comes to racism, we cannot afford to be neutral. Any accusations of racism that I levy against Newt will be an attempt to conceal my own pattern of racism. That pattern needs to be transformed by a different pattern: the pattern of intentional acts of solidarity with people of other races. Those intentional acts might include advocating for and participating in local intercultural events, seeking friendships with people of other races, and moving to a more diverse neighborhood. These intentional acts, and others like them, are our only hope for overcoming America’s implicit segregation and continued racism. Until we have the courage to live in the pattern of solidarity, segregation and racism will continue to infect American culture.
