There is disconnect in American society about the realities of race and racism. A substantial portion of white Americans attempt to dismiss race as a significant factor and attempt to explain community conflict such as in happening in Ferguson on the basis of poverty alone. This attitude is not limited to right wing Republicans. Every time there is a discussion on Daily Kos about race and white privilege there are white men objecting vociferously to the very use of the term and claiming that all of the problems are the result of class and income.
The Guardian has an article exploring the views of the white minority residents of Ferguson about the sources of the conflict and protests in that community. Here is the white Republican mayor.
Ferguson's white Republican mayor, James Knowles, is clear: he will tell anyone who listens that there is no racial divide in the town, which has been hit by a fortnight of protest over the killing of a young African American, Michael Brown, by a white policeman.
"This is not us. We don't recognise it. It's not the community we know," Knowles told a public meeting. The tensions were not racial, he said, but economic. And the government was to blame. "When you jam people into low-income housing in one area and you wonder why there are social issues, there's no surprise to that. It's been done to us," he said.
Is it economics that has resulted in an almost totally white government and police force in a town where 67% of the residents are black?
However, the economic view doesn't just come from a mayor with all sorts of vested axes to grind. Here is a white blue collar construction worker who has demonstrated active support for the protesters and the issues of police brutality.
"This is not us. We don't recognise it. It's not the community we know," Knowles told a public meeting. The tensions were not racial, he said, but economic. And the government was to blame. "When you jam people into low-income housing in one area and you wonder why there are social issues, there's no surprise to that. It's been done to us," he said.
It is a view frequently heard among white residents. Craig Kidd, who works in construction and lives in one of the most integrated neighbourhoods, joined the nightly demonstrations. "I think that cops who don't know how to use guns should be disarmed," he said. "It wasn't just the Michael Brown shooting. The second shooting [in St Louis of Kajieme Powell] was shocking. The police created chaos at the demonstrations. Using teargas was horrible. Clearly they can't be trusted."
Kidd sees divisions mostly on class lines. "I think that in a town which is two-thirds black there's going to be more poor black people than white," he said. "I live in a poorer neighbourhood. I never felt anybody was hating on me because I'm white."
These two white men are clearly different people with different values. However, there are certain points of connection in the way that they view race. The notion that class alone should be the organizing principle of social structure is naive simplified Marxism. The Marxist/Communist were never entirely successful in applying to industrial society. Other forms of social identity such as nationalism and religion always complicated things. As both the US and Europe move into some form of post industrial society , class becomes an increasingly fuzzy concept. People always have multiple identities. In contemporary American society race, gender and sexual orientation/gender identity all have important personal and political impact.
It is white people who spend most of their lives associating with other white people who think that race really isn't that big of a deal. Very few people of color would make such a statement. Very few white people who have had close personal relationships with people of color would be likely to make it either. Such relationships give one a chance to observe first hand the difference in the way that people are treated on the basis of racial identity in both large and small ways. Here is an article by a white gay man that echos my own experience in having a close extended friendship with a black gay man.
I'm White, Gay, and Dating a Black Man: What I've Learned About Racial Profiling
As an example he offers a clear description of the experience that he and his black partner have had in going to restaurants over and over again.
One evening not so long into our courtship, my fiancé and I went to a hipster restaurant located in a progressive Brooklyn neighborhood for dinner. As we entered, the hostess, who was white, asked how many people were in our party, to which I replied, and proceeded to sit us at a table by the window where the waitress, who happened to be white, promptly handed me our menus and asked if we wanted a drink. After listing the specials and pointing out some exceptional bottles of wine, she stepped away to give us a minute to choose. When I looked up from the menu smiling I saw that my boyfriend was totally ticked. I was dumbfounded and asked what was wrong. My face fell as he sadly declared that "it" was happening again. Unsure what "it" was, he began to explain that the wait staff was completely ignoring his existence, just like in every other restaurant we had gone to before. I was jarred as I quickly learned that my point of view was truly one-sided, as what I was saw as polite service, he experienced as a fundamental and continual disrespect. After all, the questions asked and the specials listed were strictly addressed to me while he was not even acknowledged.
I confess that at first I was tempted to view his remarks as hyper-sensitivity and assign the behavior of the staff to the fact that I'm an out-going personality who naturally drew their attention, but I did not want to be dismissive to what was clearly a painful feeling that someone that I cared about was experiencing. Therefore, I did what I rarely had done up until this point in life and just shut up and listened. It was a watershed moment as I began to quietly observe the manner in which we both were treated and what I found forced me to examine my own long-held beliefs about racism.
Over the years, the startling consistency of the manner in which I am addressed while he is ignored has become a quasi joke between us. While we may be tempted to get up and scream when I am yet again automatically handed the check at the end of a meal, as my skin color must clearly imply that I am the paying member of our party, he would instantly be branded "angry black man" and we would only feed into the stupidity that is so pervasive. Instead we find relief in humor and chuckle heartily when we recall one of the numbers in the Broadway musical Avenue Q. At one point during the show the characters burst into song declaring that "everyone's a little bit racist." The truth of these lyrics have helped us to recognize that each person is the summation of their experiences and that often racism is subtle and unrecognized by the perpetrators, but that we all have a collective responsibility to continue to grow and that comes from treating others how we want to be treated and not being afraid to listen to each other.
There is an unending series of incidents where indignities, injuries and death are inflicted on black people by white people and there is the inevitable chorus of white voices claiming that it had nothing to do with race and racism. There was Dr. Henry Gates trying to get into his own house. There was Trayvon Martin and now Michael Brown. I find it unbelievable that any of these incidents would have occurred if the person on the receiving end had been white.
Yes poverty is a problem and economic inequality is getting worse instead of better but racism is also a reality. Trying to talk about both things at the same time can be complicated and difficult, but that is not a reason to pretend that one or the other doesn't exist.