Thursday, January 21, 1999
Idolizing people you identify with isn’t racism
PRIDE: Common ordeals inspire admiration within own
ethnicity
By Adrian Haymond
Someone again misinterprets what someone is trying to do! Who is
being racial here? Angel Walters, in her column "Looking up to own
race gives hope of ending bias" (Viewpoint, Jan. 14) is only saying
that she wishes to take pride and look up to someone of her own
race. What’s the problem with that? She’s not saying that George
Washington’s a dog or that John Glenn is the devil, or that Babe
Ruth is the epitome of intimidation and segregation. All she’s
saying is that she looks up to people such as Marcus Garvey, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and other black leaders.
Instead of propagating a "knee-jerk" reaction to someone’s view,
let’s look at why he (or in this case, she) would feel this
way.
I would love to be able to live in a world as presented by
Matthew Gever ("Take pride in yourself, not in your ethnic
background," Viewpoint, Jan. 14) and Daniel Rego ("Don’t define me
by my race," Viewpoint, Jan. 19), where no one will ever talk to
anyone about differences in color, religion, sex or anything else.
I agree with these two men that race should not be an issue in
determining one’s skill, position, etc. Neither do I believe that
either of them are racist (contrary to the responses to their
articles in the Daily Bruin).
Unfortunately, I’m also a realist. Race has been an issue, and
its effects are still being felt today socially, economically and
politically. People have and still do judge on the color of one’s
skin, the accent of one’s voice, the faith of one’s belief, the
type of one’s sex and other real or perceived hang-ups. Therefore,
we hope for perfection, but we work with inequities caused by past
policies to close the gap in some meaningful fashion. We
acknowledge there is a problem, but we also take responsibility for
our own actions.
Although I grew up in a economically-deprived area, I refused to
join gangs, be a wino, become a drug addict or pusher, or doom
myself to stay on welfare – and with God’s help I fought to better
my life. This does not take away from the fact that I (and others
like me) have had to fight barriers not thrown up in front of
others – this is what I would like to see corrected. I don’t want
reparations or apologies (I could wait until doomsday for this). I
just want a better chance for my people to go to college (any
college) rather than to jail, juvenile hall, the unemployment
office or the funeral parlor.
I do agree with Gever and Rego that we are all individuals, but
why can’t we choose role models of our own race without fear of
repercussions regarding racism? I’m not choosing Rodney King or
Latrell Sprewell for my role models, and I’m sure that the two
distinguished gentlemen aren’t choosing David Duke, Jefferson Davis
or Josef Stalin as people to pattern their life after.
Why do blacks choose representatives from their own race as role
models – because of some group psychosis of persecution, to make
ourselves superior over everyone else, to collectively drown
ourselves in self-pity and name-calling? No! Simply put, blacks
choose black role models to relate to someone who has been through
some of the same experiences or problems and has successfully dealt
with them.
I’m sorry, but my life experiences have paralleled Jackie
Robinson more than a Sandy Koufax or a Joe DiMaggio, and I’m sure
this is what Walters is trying to say. I admire people such as
Albert Einstein (I love his mind and I love physics), Thomas Edison
(he helped to "illuminate" the issues), or Pierre and Marie
Curie.
Few "mainline" history books, however, bring up people such as
Benjamin Banneker (the architect of Washington, D.C.), Crispus
Attucks (one of the first martyrs in the American Revolution),
Charles Drew (successful pioneer of blood plasma), Daniel Hale
Williams (a famous black doctor) or Garrett Morgan (the inventor of
the traffic light).
People such as these let me know that in spite of racism and
injustice, I can attain great heights. In fact, these and other
black men and women inspired me to fight even when I had been
disappointed – to make good of bad situations and persevere. Other
people helped in this, especially my parents and teachers (who are
white, black, Asian and Latino) – I took from each person and
learned. This type of learning should be welcomed, not ridiculed as
just another form of racism or reverse discrimination.
For instance, people in the Appalachian region of Kentucky might
have Garth Brooks or even Abraham Lincoln as their role models
because they may share some common experiences with them. Some
youths look up to musical groups such as Aerosmith, Black Flag,
Beck, Tha Dogg Pound or Jodeci due to the messages they convey that
relate to their experiences; I have to respect this, although I may
not care for their music.
Someone else may choose activists and politicians such as Simon
Bolivar, Cesar Chavez, Gloria Molina, Mike Woo or others based on
their experiences. The key words here are "common experiences."
I respect George Washington as the "father of our country," but
he wasn’t raised in poverty. I am indeed indebted to Abraham
Lincoln, but what he did was done out of expediency more than any
desire to see my people freed. John Kennedy was (to me) a great
president because he truly felt the need to eliminate inequalities,
but he could only experience racism to an extent (being a Catholic
in a Protestant world) – if he did not tell anybody he was
Catholic, no one would ever know. On the other hand, my role models
could never hide their ethnicity; from some magical perceptive
power they had, people always knew that Frederick Douglass and
W.E.B. DuBois were black. Was Dr. King greater than Edison, Lewis
and Clark, or Benjamin Franklin? It’s not for me to judge this –
only history (which can be subjective depending upon who’s saying
it) can say – but I can say that he meant more to me personally
than Washington, Jefferson or Lincoln.
That is my personal opinion, and no one has the right to make
judgments of race on my (or Walters or anyone else’s) opinions.
Neither do I (or Walters) have any right to call a white person
racist for leaning toward General Norman Schwarzkopf or Larry Bird
as role models.
We tend to bandy about the word "racist" when it’s not called
for. Both blacks and whites have been guilty of doing this, and it
should stop if we are ever going to work this out peacefully.
Pride in one’s race is like having pride in one’s family. If you
want to have white pride, go ahead … knock yourself out! But
pride in one’s race should not be to the exclusion, demonizing or
dehumanizing of others. All races have experiences to share,
knowledge to obtain, and things to learn about each other. Therein
lies the beauty of multiculturalism; we cannot all be the same
person, but we can be all part of the same family and celebrate the
differences in each other.
America is not a "melting pot," but a "bowl of stew" in which
different ingredients remain distinctive but add to the flavor of
the meal in ways a homogeneous society could never hope to attain.
This does not make me a socialist, communist, Maoist or a leftist
rebel; I think this makes me a true "American." I am not a
Democrat, a Republican, a Libertarian, left, right, black, white,
blue or green – just an American.
Then again, maybe I’m being the one who’s an idealist!
Comments, feedback, problems?
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