I recently wrote that the train of events leading to Trent Lott’s withdrawal from the leadership of the Senate seemed to take place in close-up focus. Here are two pieces — from the HIstory News Network website and Z magazine’s ZNET website — that give such an observation real meaning. Each indicates what an honest conversation about racial issues in America might actually involve today. Tom
Is America Integrated?
By Leonard Steinhorn
December 23, 2002
The History News Network“Recent comments by Senator Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country,” said President Bush as he publicly rebuked the Senator for making comments in support of Strom Thurmond’s segregationist 1948 presidential campaign. But Lott’s comments may reflect the reality of our country more than the president and most white Americans would care to admit.
To be sure, America has made tremendous racial gains since 1948. Largely because the civil rights movement forced America to confront its racial hypocrisy, we now have black sheriffs in Mississippi, a burgeoning black middle class, and a legal system that once enforced discrimination now being used to root out discrimination. We’ve also seen white attitudes and norms change — in 1948 Trent Lott would still be the incoming Senate Majority Leader.
But before we applaud our progress
Mr. Steinhorn, professor of communications at American University, is co-author of the book, By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and The Reality of Race (Dutton, 1999). He is a member of the board of HNN.
To read more Steinhorn click here
“Recent comments by Senator Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country,” said President Bush as he publicly rebuked the Senator for making comments in support of Strom Thurmond’s segregationist 1948 presidential campaign. But Lott’s comments may reflect the reality of our country more than the president and most white Americans would care to admit.
To be sure, America has made tremendous racial gains since 1948. Largely because the civil rights movement forced America to confront its racial hypocrisy, we now have black sheriffs in Mississippi, a burgeoning black middle class, and a legal system that once enforced discrimination now being used to root out discrimination. We’ve also seen white attitudes and norms change — in 1948 Trent Lott would still be the incoming Senate Majority Leader.
But before we applaud our progress
Mr. Steinhorn, professor of communications at American University, is co-author of the book, By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and The Reality of Race (Dutton, 1999). He is a member of the board of HNN.
To read more Steinhorn click here
A Whole Lott Missing
Rituals Of Purification And Racism Denial
by Paul Street
December 22, 2002
ZNETThe most disturbing aspect of the recent national melodrama over Senate Majority Leaders Trent Lott’s offensive declaration of retrospective support for the race-segregationist 1948 Presidential campaign of Strom Thurmond is not the content of Lott’s remarks. The really depressing thing is what the entire episode says about the superficial level at which racism is discussed in the United States. A related downer is how it is working to stick America’s head yet further in the sand on the question of race.
The Deeper Racism
The main problem here is a failure to distinguish between two different levels of racism – overt and covert. The first variety has a long and sordid history in the US.
Paul Street is Vice President for Research and Planning at the Chicago Urban League. His articles and essays have appeared in Z Magazine, Monthly Review, the Journal of American Ethnic History and Dissent. He is the author of The Vicious Circle: Race, Prison, Jobs, and Community in Chicago, Illinois, and the Nation (Chicago, IL: Chicago Urban League, 2002), which can be viewed at www.cul-chicago.org .
To read more Street click here