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Dr. Darron Smith: Black Men, Status Competition and the Threat of Violence

dsmith — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:31:56 +0000

By Dr. Darron Smith

The emergence of American inequality began during the formation of our nation, giving rise to popular notions of our supposedly American democracy. In fact, many colonial elite Americans worked very hard to thwart any real effort toward a nation where the rights of minorities were protected against white majority rule. The brutality of forced African slavery alongside of Native American land theft/genocide and the oppression of women were antithetical to any real founding of a democratic society.

Many elite white Americans were deeply concerned at the thought of a self-appointed government of the people, by the people, and for the people as noted by one early writer, “that people are incapable of ruling themselves, primarily because humans are naturally self-centered and quarrelsome and need the iron fist of a strong leader.” These ideas reveal some deep insight into how many elite white men felt about the prospects of democratic rule made up by common ordinary folk other than white and male colonist, in particular; African slaves, Native populations and women were largely excluded from the process of national building. Coupled with puritanical religious beliefs, as embodied in the time-honored ethic of “hard work,” America has historically evolved into a deeply divided and unequal society, not ruled by common consent, but instead by well-entrenched dynastic oligarchies. These influential white men and their acolytes infused into the nation a discourse of freedom, liberty and justice; thus, establishing a uniquely American vision revolving around a cohesive (white) identity based on preserving and sustaining individual rights, which in itself is not entirely democratic.

Democracy never had a chance, given our fragmented and oppressive early beginnings as a nation whose commitment to inequality remains a significant barrier to group uplift for scores of Americans of color—poor whites as well—still living still in the margins of society. With so much income and wealth inequality in the U.S., distrust is a key factor in the rise of gun sales and the sustained increased in black violence. Besides the unequal founding of the nation, which gave rise to inequality in the first place, distrust breeds fear, particularly of the unknown. Human beings are naturally xenophobic, conditioned to see the racial other—especially black men—as the “boogey man,” Historically, African American men were seen as a direct threat to white male masculinity, which justified white brutality against them. Today, white and black fears of black male violence may be as big a concern than the actual crime itself, and fear of violence disproportionately affects the stigmatized—the poor, women and minority groups.

Young men of color from disadvantaged communities and circumstances overwhelmingly perpetuate violent crime. Research bares this fact, particularly if you look at the murder rate in the city of Chicago since 2008 where large numbers of young men of color reside and violent acts peak in during the late teens and early twenties. Because young men of color have largely been shut out, left out, locked up and left behind, there is very little else to turn to but one’s pride. We humans care a great deal what others think about us. The threat of being possibly shamed and humiliated are so powerful that laboratory studies have been conducted pitting African American math students against White math students, and through the power of suggestion, black students cognitively underperformed their white colleagues. Yet, when those same students were informed that they tend to perform similarly or better than their white counterparts, their scores reflect their beliefs. Similar studies have been performed on White men and Asian men with comparable outcomes, white men underperformed their Asian counterparts when it is suggested that they will do so. Positive valuations that we matter in the world are important for human well being, especially for men who have strong incentives to maintain as high a social status as possible.

Social status matters for man’s sense of “success,” often embodied within material objects like cars, ostentatious jewelry, neighborhoods, shoes and the sexification of women, which may explain why disrespect, humiliation and shame are often triggers of violent acts. The old adage, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” could not be further from the truth. With high numbers of unemployment, low educational expectations, early death, and bleak prospects for the future, America sends a clear message to the masses of black men struggling with feelings of inadequacy that they do not matter much in the world, and the process for many begins in early childhood. By the time African American males reach adolescences, the potential threat of violence over some aspect of one’s identity is very real. American inequality only hastens status competition among young men of color through unequal discriminatory practices in a number of social settings. There is an established body of evidence that supports the claim that greater inequality coincides with increased homicide rates, among other markers of a deprivation in society.

Whereas white Americans enjoy more privileged ways to cope with the daily stresses of life like joining a gym, playing tennis, mediating or practicing yoga, young African American males are catching hell daily in the streets of Anywhere, America. And no one is crying for them or sending condolences to their grieving family members whose innocent little children lay dead in the streets, whose young lives where taken way too soon. Instead, we as a society place blame on the backs of those children as troublemakers. More gun control is merely a band-aid to our social ills and does not address the underlying causes of oppressive and institutional structures that are tightly linked to American inequality as reflected in wealth and income distribution. Instead, this quick-fix solution only fuels further violence, enhancing our greatest fears of being victims of violence.

Putting human rights before property rights is the only real solution for changing the tide of violence in Black communities, and that means better jobs, health care, education & affordable housing. Such an imagined community would require a fundamental shift in racist ideology and the institutional arrangements, which maintain power and privilege. But I maintain hope for our future.

Follow me on twitter @drdarronsmith or visit me at darronsmith.com

About dsmith

Dr. Darron T. Smith is a frequent political and cultural commentator on various issues of U.S. based and global issues of race, racism, and discrimination in forums ranging from Religion Dispatches, The New York Times and Chicago Tribune op-ed to ESPN's Outside the Lines. His research spans a wide myriad of topics on race including healthcare disparities, Religious studies, Race & Sports, and Race, Adoption and the Black Family.

Dr. Darron Smith: Re-conceptualizing the black quarterback through the emergence of Robert Griffin III

dsmith — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:59:17 +0000

By Dr. Darron Smith

No one can argue that Robert Griffin III has been anything but sensational in his masterful rookie season. His football skills combined with his leadership abilities have earned him much respect and admiration among his fellow Redskin teammates (being named captain midway through his rookie season) and across the league, as he became the only rookie, save kicker Blair Walsh, to be named to the 2013 Pro Bowl.

His breakout year is, arguably, amongst the best starts by a rookie quarterback, given where he has taken his team in just one season. In fact, he is only the second player in NFL history to pass for over 3,000 yards and rush for over 750 yards in a single season. (Michael Vick came close, but fell short on passing yards, and Cam Newton came close, but short on rushing yards.) Currently, RG3 has one of the best Quarter Back Ratings (QBR) in the NFL, sitting only behind the likes of Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Schaub, and Matt Ryan. He is tied for the least number of interceptions in the entire league with 2 other quarterbacks, each of who has not finished the season as the starter. Griffin III is not the most prolific passer of his rookie class (Andrew Luck just past Cam Newton’s record for rookie passing yards), and he doesn’t even have the most touchdowns or the best record as compared to outstanding rookies Luck and Russell Wilson. But his consistency and efficiency with the 2^nd best passer rating in the league gave him the Pro Bowl nod, giving his D.C. fan base much to cheer about when no other rookie QB of the sensational 2012 class was awarded such an accomplishment.

Since his days as a Texas high school and college star athlete, Griffin III has been busy thrilling fans with his athleticism. Whether he was hurdling opponents on the field or hurdles on the track, he was setting records through his high school and college days. At Baylor, he jumped on the scene as a Freshman quarterback, earning Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year award and ended his career with a 10-3 record, Alamo Bowl win and Heisman Trophy win for the Baylor Bears. This same leadership and poise carried into the National Football League where he sparked a struggling squad, recently leading the Redskins on a seven-game winning streak and propelling them to the top of the NFC East and into the playoffs for the first time in 7 years.

RG3 is changing the nature of the NFL quarterback position in the minds of many. His speed, quickness and agility becoming an important sought-after skill, especially when combined with his good football acumen. The fans equally love it when their quarterback (while under pressure) runs himself out of a jam, thus, saving a play and potentially gaining first downs. The one-trick pony sit-in-the-pocket quarterback is becoming passé, partly thanks to RG3, whose style of play has enhanced the value of a running quarterback and throwing-while-running quarterback to the traditional pocket passer. But RG3 is not the only quarterback to do this. He is certainly not the first dual threat quarterback, and he is not even the only QB to do so among recent and current quarterbacks. So why do we find him so special?

Robert Griffin III has another important skill set, which makes him ideal for the predominately white NFL establishment. He has the ability to make white Americans feel comfortable. His easy going nature, affability and seemingly hyper-politeness (likely influenced by his military upbringing) falls in line with the very notions of whiteness preferred by predominately white league owners, coaches and fans alike. RG3’s experiences growing up with two seasoned army sergeants, both familiar with what their son needed for a chance at the “American Dream,” have helped racially socialize him, giving him some protection against race-based discrimination. He has the ability to code switch, or speak in different vernaculars, which is what one black ESPN reporter was referring to when he accused him of being a “cornball brother.” But while some black onlookers may perceive him as acting “too white,” this also has given him the advantage of appeal to white folks. Most successful African Americans that have “made it” in this nation, have done so in part by code-switching with white America (myself included) and strategically concealing those attributes of blackness that white Americans view negatively as being “too black.” In the NFL, this could mean diction, clothing, flamboyance, tattoos, forms of entertainment and art such as hip-hop music, post-touch down celebration and other markers of blackness saturated in media representations. Griffin III’s personality traits, on the other hand, did not fit into the perceived notions of blackness and, hence, likely contributed to his popularity as a starting NFL quarterback in a league that currently boasts only 2 black starters (and 3 bi-racial starters) at the helm, despite black Americans comprising 2/3 of the NFL (which is an entirely different discussion).

Perhaps RG3 sudden rise to football stardom is a sign of change; after all, there is simply no good explanation of these marginal numbers other than racial profiling. Will league owners, coaches and staff, who are predominately white, finally undo the inherit racism(s) that exist in the NFL? With the slew of black quarterbacks on the rise in NCAA football, will this trend NFL quarterbacks begin to turn? Perhaps. But perhaps not, given that he just happens to be that special person that Whites deem acceptable to the masses of American football fans.

Follow me on twitter @drdarronsmith or visit me at www.darronsmith.com

About dsmith

Dr. Darron Smith: Serena’s “Badunkadunk” and the Image of Black womanhood

dsmith — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:03:34 +0000

By Dr. Darron Smith

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The recent mocking of Serena Williams, the number three-tennis player in the world, by Caroline Wozniacki, another high-ranked tennis player, is troubling. It speaks volumes to what the Williams sisters have been made to endure throughout their careers in the lily-white elitist sport of tennis. To the casual observer, this is just harmless fun that these players are having with each other. It is what athletes do in the height of competition, whether to get in each other’s heads or simply to blow off steam and enjoy themselves. The world of professional tennis seemingly has a culture in which they often travel the same tennis circuit together and openly mock one another during exhibition games in good sport and amusement as a form of silly expression. In fact, it seems that Wozniacki and Williams might even be friends. For Serena, however, the public mocking of her body, which focuses on her well-endowed assets, have a much deeper and nefarious history of black womanhood grounded in our racial past and the struggle for equality and justice in the sporting world.

In the turbid life of Saartjie Baartman, a South African woman born in 1790, the struggle over the imposition of competing constructions of self was exemplified in how the scientific and lay white community made sense of and interpreted her body. Baartman physically embodied evil and hyper-sexuality while on display with her animal trainer in Paris and London. Alternatively, Baartman’s body was interpreted by the French comparative anatomist Leopold Cuvier, among others, as being “closer to nature” as documented in many of his painstaking notes. In a typical journal entry, Cuvier remarked that he had never seen a head that more resembled a monkey than Baartman’s and that she moved like a monkey as well. Perhaps mercifully, Baartman died at age twenty-five, after which Cuvier excised her genitals, preserved and displayed them for the purpose of “furthering science.” Her display of African-ness signified the direct opposite to the virtues of white womanhood.

Like Baartman, Serena’s looks—her body shape, her hairstyle, and even her clothing—have often been in clear contrast to her white female opponents like, Caroline Wozniacki, described in the media as “smoking hot.” Serena’s blackness and physical style of play in the high stakes world of professional tennis were even scrutinized. She has been described in the media as too masculine, too aggressive and too intimidating, often overwhelming her frail white female opponents with brute force. Interestingly, you will find that Serena is the only player who is mocked (in fun, of course) for her body type; and, furthermore, she seems to not be mocked for anything, but her body. No one pokes fun at her loud yells when hitting the ball, at her exuberant reactions to her wins, or at her occasional and well-covered tirades at the judges. Instead, her “friends” ridicule her for the one thing she has no control over and the one thing that has been used against black women for centuries to marginalize and dehumanize them.

Even if Serena, herself, finds this teasing innocuous because they are all friends (and whether her friends realize this or not), this sends a highly racialized message to the world watching. It sends a message to the historically white audience that its acceptable and even humorous to mock the body of black women (despite the history), and particularly to men, that we can continue to judge women based on their bodies. And furthermore, this sends a message to the young black women (likely watching because of the road the Williams sisters have paved) that that their bodies are deemed “funny-looking” and, thus, less attractive, and it is perfectly tolerable that society (including stadiums filled with hundreds of people, not the mention the thousands and millions online). If you don’t think that black women, themselves, buy into this notion of beauty, recall the Gabby Douglas incident when the Olympic gold medalist was publically criticized over her hair as being less straight, interpreted as less white, and too “nappy” which meant too black. Most of her criticism came directly from black women.

Within this logic, Serena’s appearance and demeanor—despite her stellar accomplishments in the sport—have casted her as “unfeminine”—even animal like—cannon fodder for racialized public displays of stereotypical blackness “on the court” of public opinion. Therefore, when Caroline Wozniacki or Andy Roddick perform exhibitions of mocking Serena’s body in front of hundreds of white spectators, it sends a clear disturbing message to young women of color, which reinforces the hegemonic white supremacist male patriarchal notion of beauty in a persistently racist world. The message is that the more “black” you look, the funnier you look to all of us judging you based on your outward appearance. In other words, look white and we won’t mock you….as much.

Follow me on twitter @drdarronsmith or visit me at www.darronsmith.com

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Dr. Darron Smith: Will Basketball Phenom Jabari Parker’s Mormon-ness win out over his Blackness at Brigham Young University?

dsmith — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:57:11 +0000

By Dr. Darron Smith

This has been a banner year for Mormons and the LDS Church. From Mitt Romney’s emblematic ascent to capture the GOP nomination to Manti Te’o and his Heisman Trophy run with the undefeated Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, now Jabari Parker, who has emerged as one of the nation’s top basketball prospect, took his latest recruiting trip to Brigham Young University. The students and community around BYU, the flagship school of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons), are absolutely hype over the Chicago native and high school basketball phenom. What makes this young man special to these students is that Jabari Ali Parker is not only a remarkable basketball prodigy, but also a devout Mormon.

Jabari belongs to the LDS faith, whose black membership is somewhere between 1-3% worldwide, according to survey data. Though the Mormon Church does not keep records based on race and ethnicity, it is estimated that out of 6.2 million Latter-day Saints in the U.S., only 186,000 are of African descent. Jabari is what you would call a “unicorn,” because his circumstances of being African American, Mormon and his emergence as a top college basketball prospect are indeed rare.

If Jabari elects to attend BYU on an athletic scholarship, he should be made aware of a few important realities. Let’s ignore the fact that he would be competing against mostly Division II and weak Division I schools, which would not necessarily grant him the preparation that a strong Division I school could give him through the highest level of competitive and exposure. But were Jabari to attend BYU, he would instantly find himself removed from the rich cultural diversity of the South Side of Chicago in which he is familiar. The LDS Church looks very different within the predominantly white and Mormon culture of Utah compared to other areas of the country that are more racially balanced, and particularly compared to the largely (and atypically) black LDS congregation that Jabari attends in the community of Hyde Park. This will become particularly evident when and if he attempts to date any local girls. Though one BYU student attempted to sway the basketball star with a sign that read “BYU — 15,994 Mormon girls, Duke — 13 Mormon girls,” young Parker must understand that those Mormon girls are the same girls with White Mormon daddies who may root for him on the basketball court, but typically not when he is standing in their living room.

More importantly, BYU has had limited success among Black recruits in recent years, starting with a suspiciously high rate of dismissals and disciplinary career-ending actions against black student athletes (compared to their white counterparts). The reasons are multifactorial, but could be a result of the degree of racial isolation in the overwhelmingly white and conservative space of Provo, Utah. Not to assume that Jabari will get into trouble in Provo any more than any normal 18-year-old boy, but his highly visible presence as an outstanding recruit and black Latter-day Saint of his stature makes him a target on a predominately white campus where he will be one of only a handful of black students (less than 1%) out of more than 30,000 undergraduates. This is, understandably, a tough adjustment for any young man coming from a predominately black or more diverse environment.

Exacerbating the problem is the fact that the residents of Utah County, including faculty, staff and students of BYU, who have little exposure to people of color (save a few Polynesians), get most of their knowledge regarding Blacks from the media (http://www.darronsmith.com/2012/06/entertaining-while-black-the-depiction-of-black-males-in-popular-media-existing-while-black-in-america-series/) and, thus, make unwarranted assumptions and conclusions about them. The commonality of this evidence makes BYU, as a whole, ill-prepared to guide young black men on a path toward success through their college career. Currently, Brigham Young University has only 2 black coaches in the entire athletic department (both of which are in non-revenue sports) and only 2 black faculty members and 1 black staff member school wide. Consequently, they have no people of color to help mentor black students and student athletes, especially ones recruited from other areas of the country that are unfamiliar with Mormon culture. The concern is that BYU does not understand the importance of having protective systems in place at the university to ensure success for these young men any more than these young men understand the BYU campus climate. How can University stakeholders guide these students to be successful young adults when the LDS leadership has no knowledge or understanding of the students’ particular upbringing and experience outside an occasional Mormon mission to the inner city?

Many white Mormons, and cougar fans in particular, politely ignore the fact that Jabari’s racial identity as a black man is firmly intact and a potential cultural mismatch at Brigham Young. As a black man in American and a black Mormon who lived in Provo, I argue that being in an environment that is conducive to one’s racial identity development takes priority for young black men such as Jabari Parker, especially when Manti Te’o has proven that one’s religious growth can be obtained and often nurtured in any setting. Jabari has stated that he will make his final decision this upcoming month on which college he will attend. Will Jabari’s Mormon-ness win out over his blackness?

Follow me on twitter @drdarronsmith or visit me at www.darronsmith.com

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Dr. Darron Smith: Black Students’ School-to-Prison Pipeline

dsmith — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:55:46 +0000

By Dr. Darron T. Smith

From EXISTING WHILE BLACK IN AMERICA series

Despite fifty years of desegregation and other significant school change efforts, students from disenfranchised social groups in the United States continue to receive substandard K-12 education and have significantly less access to higher education and other valued social opportunities and resources. In particular, black males are more severely punished, placed in lower ability groups, and likely to drop out of school than their white counterparts.

Societal notions of black maleness have no boundaries, and public schools are natural laboratories where practices emerge to produce black males as overly angry and deviant even from an early age. This link between schooling and the incarceration of black males is historically grounded in slavery and articulated in the present as the continued exclusion of blacks from public life via the prison industrial complex. In turn, public education has become the ultimate disciplinarian of black male children and youth.

The educational and sociological research is replete with scholarship that suggests that African American males are more frequently targeted for disciplinary action in greater numbers. Jacqueline Irvine’s research, for example, reveals that black pupils are statistically 2 to 5 times more likely to be suspended than their white counterparts. If the majority of school teachers come from middle-class and white communities, as the literature suggest that they do, wherein they have been racially primed to view blacks as the racial Other, it should be no surprise under these circumstances that black males are disciplined and punished for what they represent in contrast to what they actually do. Popular culture and media represent black males in general as overly criminal (http://www.darronsmith.com/2012/06/entertaining-while-black-the-depiction-of-black-males-in-popular-media-existing-while-black-in-america-series/), and the images of black males that most white teachers are familiar with are gained from these widespread cultural misrepresentations. These images [seem to] justify and facilitate the need to exercise more stringent school rules utilized by teachers to produce a context in which African American males are made to be “rule-breakers.”

This context allows us to make sense of the disproportionate disciplinary practices in which African American males are subjected. Guided by racialized images, teachers use knowledge generated from discourses about African American male behavior drawn from media sources to make sense of and understand the context and individuals around them. Teachers then apply power to act on this knowledge as they go about enacting their teaching practices. For teachers and students, this convergence of knowledge and power then functions as a power differential for black males in that teachers discipline them to “normalize” their behavior. That is, in their respective roles, teachers monitor students’ behavior by continually analyzing deviations from the codes of conduct generated by the white knowledge-power nexus. As part of the teachers’ role, individualization works in that it produces systems of normalization in which black males are sorted, ranked and evaluated on the basis of their behavior in a system that demands conformity based on “objective” rules constructed from white norms and power structure.

Accordingly, other educational scholars suggest that most of the discipline that African Americans receive is often subjectively determined wrongdoings. For example, simple infractions such as certain movements of the eyes or head are often taken as monumental actions which leads to a cascade of events resulting in misunderstandings, hurt feelings and, ultimately, discipline. Such social interaction between black male students and their white teachers are mistakenly thought to be behavior problems requiring “attitude adjustments.” Even clothing is a signifier of deviant behavior. Dress code is often most vigilant regarding boys’ style of dress. At the same time, unwritten rules about attire often brand black males as gang members, making teachers all the more determined to control the environment of the school and their classrooms. This suggests that young black males are under surveillance and expected to make mistakes, which is evident in the public school system where African American boys overwhelming experience the brunt of disciplinary sanctions. Black male student relationships with their teachers are the first step toward the institutionalization of conforming behavior that emanates from the worldview and the social environment of white teachers.

Black males, youth in particular, experience anger and frustration on a routine basis. These racial slights that occur daily, often in the form of microaggressions, are confusing for youth and cause a myriad of emotions from pain and sadness to anger and self-hatred. For white America to demand our young Black men to decipher the images they see and reactions they receive, and further, to expect them to conform to White perceptions is outright disingenuous, if not appalling, to say the least.

Additionally, the stresses of puberty while discovering one’s social role are exacerbated in the African American male with the “psychological stresses of hypermasculinity, stereotyping of minority cultures, and the perception of ‘otherness’ in a predominantly white society,” as Stuart Hall expressed. Scholars have identified important links between these stresses in young people and social phenomena including school alienation and academic underachievement, teen delinquency, teenage pregnancy, depression, suicide, homicide, and school violence. And as our young boys turn into African American men, these stresses have a consequence for their health and, ultimately, their future.

Follow me on twitter @DrDarronSmith or visit me at www.darronsmith.com

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Dr. Darron Smith: Remembering Jonestown After 34 Years

dsmith — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:38:58 +0000

By Dr. Darron Smith

Black Americans have wanted, for many generations, a nation where equality of opportunity was the law of land, a place where dreams could come true regardless of skin color. Jim Jones, known by many of his followers as “father,” created the Jonestown commune—The Peoples Temple—in the Guyanese jungles of South America in the 1970’s with this premise in mind. His mostly black followers, consisting of nearly 1000 American expatriates, believed that in Jones and Jonestown, they would get a fair chance to have some version of their “American dream,” as opposed to merely existing in the overtly racist and unequal society of the United States.

It is often assumed that followers of cult-like figures like Jim Jones are as equally deranged as their leader, but this could not be further from reality. These men and women simply wanted justice for themselves and their children, which is extraordinarily sane. They believed in a society of equality so badly that they were willing to take risks to assume that narrative for themselves and their families. Compared to the actuality of U.S.-based abject poverty, increasing drug infested neighborhoods, high levels of black unemployment and many other social ills that are all proponents of self doubt, Jonestown must have sounded like the “promise land” for many of its black victims.

And in all his efforts to preach racial equality, the irony was that even in the face of impending doom, it became obvious that the white folks in his commune still had racial and class privilege on their side, including holding the positions of power as “high-ranking” Temple members, which made it easier for a few of them to attempt escape. Meanwhile, the black contingent stayed behind, either led by pure hope or the shear terror of limited opportunity that awaited them should they successfully escape the fast approaching ”revolutionary suicide.” Interestingly, the African Americans of Jonestown chose to stay, preferring death and the messianic belief through Jones over the opportunity of returning to live in an unequal and racist society. The notion of living in such a disparately unjust society once again was so great that it became unbearable. And yet these innocent victims were seen as “crazy” for following this belief of justice and equality. Thus, when they died—these same black folks were ostracized as “foolish” in death, much the same way they were ostracized in life.

Follow me on twitter @DrDarronSmith or visit me at www.darronsmith.com

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Dr. Darron Smith: Seceded States of America and Mass White Hysteria

dsmith — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:24:01 +0000

By Dr. Darron Smith

White Americans took the loss of Mitt Romney exceedingly hard. Mormons, in particular, are mourning the defeat of the first Latter-day Saint GOP candidate to make it as far as Romney did in a national election. But what lessons have we, the American people, actually learned about race since the presidential elections of 2008 and 2012? Considering our persistently sharp divisions along racial lines, it seems that racial animus is business as usual in unequal America. To make good on our promises to preceding generations that their children would have better opportunities in a less racist society seems to remain pipedreams. American racism continues to shape our nation’s group decisions on areas such as how we vote, who we marry, where we live, and what church we attend. These life-making decisions are not merely instantiations of “free will,” but instead, are decisions and actions based largely on how we’ve been socialized; unconscious and half-conscious processes in our minds (the strongest of these are arguably white racial frames) that guide and shape our racial understandings. We have seen racial primers in our society before (employment or underemployment, high incarceration rate, residential segregation, poor educational investment and early death, all of which are greatest among people of color), and these eventually led to civil unrest in our not too distance past. What will happen in our future as these indicators continue to show polarization along racial lines?

Since the passing of Jim Crow legislation that ended legal segregation and the Civil Rights laws of the 1960’s, this country has seen a decline in front stage racism (or outward race-hatred such as name calling). Though tolerance has increased in some regards, this does not mean an end to white supremacist attitudes and implicit or even back stage racism (negative racial attitudes toward people of color behind closed doors). Racist rhetoric has anything, but faded from our national memory. In fact, the election has emboldened and encouraged those who harbor such ideas to go on record with their beliefs (http://mashable.com/2012/11/10/racist-threat-obama/). White Americans continue to discriminate, whether consciously or unconsciously, against communities of color, and since the election ended, White conservatives are angrier than ever. But why? Is it that terrible having one black man in White House after 220 years (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/fear-of-a-black-president/309064/)? White men still control Congress by a comfortable majority. In this 2012 Congress, the Senate is 96% white in comparison to other racial groups and the House is 83% white (http://www.amazon.com/White-Party-Government-Class-Politics/dp/0415889839/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348102056&sr=1-1&keywords=white+party+white+government). Forbes magazine’s top 400 wealthiest Americans is comprised of 86% white men. The re-election of President Obama is symbolic for many Americans of color, and yet, his mere presence has inflamed the passion and tensions of scores White folks, leading some to petition the federal government to officially secede from the nation. The White House revealed that over 40 petitions have been filed since the election requesting secession (http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-secession-44-of-50-states-petition-the-president-to-secede). Maybe this tactic is the “will of the people” or maybe it’s sheer propaganda. Whatever the case, it should give pause to the deep political chasm that stubbornly plagues the nation and has yet to be effectively mollified. The national discussions over what President Obama can do to help the millions of Americans struggling in U.S. society for jobs, healthcare, and their own general well being are epic. But is seceding really the answer? All the hoopla because Romney lost in an otherwise fair and democratic voting process? Might I remind you that we have been down that road before during the Civil War—a war that ended the deaths of 750,000 Americans?

As much as the Republican Party has shown an increasingly urgent desire to be seen as welcoming to minorities (particularly Latinos) and women, their party’s platform persistently fails to represent the interests of those historically disenfranchised peoples who have been left out and left behind. After decades of half-hearted efforts to attract Blacks and Hispanics, nearly 90% of Romney supporters were white. GOP leaders realize that unless it expands its pool of support, the party could slide into extinction in coming decades. The GOP’s base tends to be working class Whites who lack a college education and rural Whites as wells as top “one-percenters.” Democrats, on the other hand, tend to have more working class people of color and women as their current base, which is growing with each passing election. Given that those who self-identify as White in U.S. census data is precipitously shrinking as predicted by demographers, the Republican Party will have to create issues that are central to non-white voters in the future. Despite the emergence of a few candidates of color on the Republican ticket—the likes of Mia Love, Herman Cain, J.C. Watts, Alan West, and Mark Rubio, these candidates and their party have yet to display any central themes that represent the interests of the communities of color. But given the sharp difference in how Whites, Blacks, and Nonwhites see the world, I imagine greater division in the future unless we significantly change course toward a more equal society. The solution is not to secede, but to have more serious political dialogue and policy-making around issues like race, for example, that can divide us as well as to redouble our efforts to enforce the laws for ALL Americans, especially those considered “the least of these” in society.

Follow me on twitter @DrDarronSmith or visit me at www.darronsmith.com