But it’s cool, cuz I’ve got black friends. Oh, and also because I think Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most visionary men recorded in history – he cultivated compassion when no authority would bestow it upon him. And I’m proud of our society for overcoming the race barrier in the presidency. But all of that circumstance is beside the point. I’m still a racist.
But it’s not because I think that all races are inferior to whites, or that whites are superior to other races. As an American, though, in a pluralistic society – as an American who wants to propel change – and as a Buddhist whose practice is based in reality, I have to be the best darn racist I know how to be. I’m not going to be a prototypical racist, though. Difference of skin tone is trite. The “Civil Rights” brand of racism is no longer constructive.
Out of that movement all races in America are legally equal – as written in the constitution. Equal to pursue life, liberty and happiness. I acknowledge that that’s probably not universally practiced. I’ve met ignorant racists in my day – those of the “lynch mob” mentality. I’ve learned the facts about the impact that race plays in our criminal justice system. But this is hate and ignorance-based racism. These racists have had their day in the sun; they are on the fringe; in large, they no longer matter. I’m interested in an informed racism – racism developed out of sense of survival reacting to the facts, statistics… reality.
Homicides in Chicago… they don’t happen in my neighborhood. They have happened in my neighborhood (2 blocks away, a man stabbed to death last Sept.), but this is the exception to the rule, so I stand by my assertion that they don’t happen in my neighborhood. They happen in Englewood. They happen in Lawndale. They happen on the south side of Chicago. They’ve happened everywhere, but they happen on the south side.
Socioeconomically, in general, the south side is poor compared to the north. Racially, in general, the south side is black and the northside is white and the west side is Hispanic. In general, of course.
If I’m to to understand homicide in Chicago, if I’m to internalize it in a way that it is practical information – in a lay sense – then I’m going to develop my fear of the south side and perhaps develop my fear of blacks. I might even go so far as to conclude that most blacks in Chicago come from the south side. I’m not a criminologist, a public defender, a sociologist – I go to work, I meditate, I play and I try to survive. In my town, blacks are improportionately violent compared to other races. If I’m not to be murdered or robbed, I will develop a profile of someone who will kill or rob me. A profile in general: this is fear.
But as a Buddhist and a man of compassion, I understand that fear is ignorance. It cripples compassion, it dismantles reasoning. It is no less real because of this, though. So I will embrace fear and the problem seems to elucidate itself: I react to blacks on the south side as I would react to a potential thief or murderer. I am a racist. But as an enlightened racist, I’m not committed to my racism. It’s a result of being a young American of a post-Civil Rights America: it exists more subtley, but I was not able to resist it totally. But I can overcome it. Grounded in reality, I can transcend this legacy.
As a Buddhist, I observe. To me, this is the only hope for authentic change: genuine care and considered observation. I will be a racist. But i will also not let myself need to be a racist. As it matters to survival, I’m to see clearly that a black murderer is not black, but that he or she is a murderer. This matters, not race. And if murderers and thieves are improportionately black, well then I have identified the injustice: it is unfair that a minority in America is more violent than American society as a whole. American criminal justice has failed it’s constituents, all of them – this justice perpetuates racism. If this was found to be intentional, we would rebel. But it is not intentional, it is systematic, so we are complicit.
Maybe justice doesn’t have to be putting violent offenders behind bars. Maybe justice can be creating a society where people don’t need violence in the first place. This vision is bigger than my dreams, but I believe that all it takes is a spark.
