The State of Black America, Part One: Race Matters – or Does It? – in Growth, Progress of Black Community

Date: Tuesday, January 16, 2007
By: Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: "Race Matters – or Does It? – in Growth, Progress of Black Community" is the first in BlackAmericaWeb.com's six-part State of Black America series. Coming Wednesday: Black America and immigration.



Race is a hot-button issue.

Whether it is debating the use of the word “nigger” in all its forms and intentions and by whom; dealing with discrimination -- real and perceived -- in the workplace and the marketplace or wrestling with immigration and its impact on the quality of life and opportunities to succeed in this country, when it comes to race matters, as scholar and author Cornel West would say, race matters.

Why is it so important, and how do we, as black people, get to a point where we can address inequities without falling prey to limitations imposed by ourselves as well as others?

“Racial divisiveness is ingrained in our psyche,” said David Campt, a leading consultant on diversity issues and author of "The Little Book of Dialogue." Campt said it is normal for black people to be sensitive about race because evidence of racial inequities abounds.

On average, black people have one-eighth of the family wealth of their white counterparts. U.S. census data show that 30 percent of white adults had at least a bachelor’s degree in 2005, compared to 17 percent of black adults. The median income for white households was $50,622, compared to $30,939 for black households, and three-fourths of white households owned their homes in 2005, compared with 46 percent of black households.

Still, Campt told BlackAmericaWeb.com, “We would be ridiculous to say nothing has changed. There has been a change in perceived safety in what used to be no-go areas,” neighborhoods in which black people were not allowed to travel safely or without demonstrating a reason to be there. “The social ethos has changed. It is not easy to just verbally degrade us” and expect no outrage, Campt said.

Pointing to the unraveling of Michael Richards’ career after the comedian hurled the N-word at several black audience members he believed were hecklers, Campt said there was a time when Richards would have suffered no consequences for his behavior. Society is now less tolerant of blatant racist behavior, Campt said.

However, in a country where the black unemployment rate is high and statistics say that despite the progress made since the civil rights movement, black people continue to lag behind their white peers, it is hard for many blacks to feel substantially better off than their parents or grandparents.

A BlackAmericaWeb.com survey revealed that 29 percent of respondents said they were denied a job because of their race, while 27 percent said they probably were denied a job because they were black, and 36 percent said they were denied a promotion because of race.

“It’s a terrible testimony that a third of black people feel they’ve been denied a job or promotion because of their race, but in 1970, it would have been four out of five or seven out of eight. The impact of racism on the average black person now compared to 40 years ago is substantially less,” Campt said.


So how do you keep the feeling that black folks are still behind the 8-ball from overwhelming you and filtering down to your children?

“It doesn’t serve us to have a discussion about whether it is as bad as it was,” Campt said. Instead, he said, it is important to record the stories of harder times for the next generation so that progress is measured more visibly. He suggests recording the stories of family elders.

“There are still people who remember Jim Crow, some may remember stories from their parents. The oral tradition … has been our collective memory,” Campt said. “We need to encourage our children to talk to our parents.”

“You can’t change what you don’t know, and you can’t change what you don’t question,” said Joy DeGruy-Leary, an assistant professor at Portland (Ore.) State University and author of “Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome,” which suggests that centuries of slavery, followed by systemic racism and oppression have resulted in multi-generational adaptive behaviors, some of which have been positive symbols of resilience and others that are detrimental to the black community.

“You have to create a positive peer pressure,” DeGruy-Leary told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “You have a generation and the social problems that exist anywhere. The pattern of materialism and individual anarchy exacerbates an already injured people.”

LISTEN: BlackAmericaWeb.com's Jackie Jones talks with Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary.

DeGruy-Leary said that she held workshops in her home every weekend in which she involved her children and their friends in creative activities to give them a sense of options. Everyone doesn’t have the resources and wherewithal to do that, DeGruy-Leary acknowledged, but she said black people can begin to change the language they use with each other to become more encouraging.

DeGruy-Leary said her research was driven in part because “there were things I heard as a child” about hair, skin color, etc., among black people that seemed to still be part and parcel of the black experience, even after the gains following the civil rights movement.

“I wondered why am I still hearing it? This is being transmitted intra-culturally, inter-generationally, this whole idea of being less than human," she told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “What is the impact of all that?"

"It’s something that has been studied with other groups without question, but no one was really looking at what 246 years of official chattel slavery in this country had done. There are disorders that can be suffered directly and indirectly,” DeGruy-Leary said. “If you have parents who have been traumatized, that can affect subsequent generations.”

She said slavery may have ended, but the trauma to black people persisted because of a history of discrimination, including the dismantling of Reconstruction and the institution of the black codes and Jim Crow laws. There was institutional racism, “so the playing field was never leveled.”

Black people, she said, “developed resiliency, hence we’re here.” However, some of the survival techniques learned over generations persist even though they no longer serve black people well. For example, parenting techniques that today seem harsh, DeGruy-Leary said, originally were a mechanism to protect and keep children near.

DeGruy-Leary described a scenario at a school event in which two mothers, one white, one black, were talking about their sons who attended the same school and were best friends. Both are bright boys, excelling in all areas of school. The black mother tells the white mother that she hears the white boy is doing well in school and the white mother goes on to sing her child’s praises. She then tells the black mother that she hears that the black boy is doing well in school, too.

However, the black mother replies, “Oh, girl, stop it. You should have seen him yesterday. He’s a handful.”

In today’s world, DeGruy-Leary said, the boy would wonder why his mom was not proud of him. But during slavery, a black woman praising her child may have set him up to be sold or leased to another plantation. So playing down a child’s intelligence or skill has persisted for generations without much thought given to why the efforts of black children are criticized more than they are praised.

“How easy is that sort of thing to stop doing?” DeGruy-Leary said. Black people must make a conscious and consistent effort to change their language and their actions. Once that occurs, then the work of interacting with others who affect their jobs, education and opportunities can begin, she said.

“You have to perpetually and continually address these things on every level,” DeGruy-Leary said.

So, as black Americans come to terms with their own views on race, they still must confront the relationships with those of other races, especially bosses or colleagues who may be well-intentioned but inept when it comes to discussing race, and those who are not.

“There are still of a lot of white people who are really clueless, and they really haven’t had the experience” of living and working closely with black people and understanding how race impacts their lives, said Maria Garriott, author of “A Thousand Resurrections,” which chronicles her and her minister husband’s assignment to build a multicultural ministry in Baltimore.

Garriott and her husband, who are white, have spent 25 years building their ministry. Over the years, the family experienced victories and defeats, large and small. They were robbed, conned and threatened at times, but they built Faith Christian Fellowship and raised four of their five children in neighborhoods that those who could afford to were beginning to leave.

“My perspective is really different from what it would have been if we hadn’t lived as minorities in predominantly African-American communities for 22 and a half years,” Garriott told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

The good news, Garriott said, is that there are people willing to tackle the issue and talk about racial reconciliation.

“I think it’s being talked about, and it’s going to continue to be an issue because race continues to be an issue in America,” Garriott said.

She said the issue comes up in all kinds of ways, from the Richards episode to the Duke lacrosse case, in which a black woman -- who has since changed parts of her story -- said she was assaulted by white members of the university’s lacrosse team at an off-campus party. Rape charges have been dropped against the players, but several still face other sexual assault charges. The case has raised racial tensions inside and outside the university community.

“In the church, there are some segments that are serious about pursuing (reconciliation). It’s hard, painful work. It’s easy to get discouraged, but I don’t think we have the luxury of giving up,” said Garriott, who takes her story to black and white churches, principally in the Baltimore-Washington region, to preach a gospel of racial reconciliation.

Garriott said her message of racial healing tends to be better accepted at black churches, which she says sometimes surprises her.

“When you consider what black people have been through, even in my generation,” the 47-year-old Garriott said, “most African Americans are more gracious. They can see you are making an attempt to embrace their culture.”

She added recently that she sees hopeful signs among the younger generation who have more easily embraced black culture through clothes, music and other media. She thinks adults can take a page from their children.

“I think that parents and teachers should learn the history of the civil rights movement, what really happened to Native Americans and about the Japanese internment because it needs to be passed on to the next generation,” said Garriott.

Campt concurred that whites should be brought into the discussion of race and healing.

To be successful, he said, discussions need to have a commitment from leadership that there is an issue that needs to be addressed, a dynamic approach to the discussion process, an opportunity for people to express honest emotion and an action plan to ensure change.

“These activities must be related to some sense of action,” Campt said.

“Set up an environment to meet people where they are and invite them to grow,” Campt said. Healing starts, he said, “when both sides hopefully own up to their piece of a problem.”

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