I have been pondering this story as it has slipped from the limelight into the background of the American political consciousness, trying to decide what the real importance of it is. I feel convinced that it’s not really about one woman no one has ever heard of making a speech twenty years ago that seems (at most) questionable when taken out of context. So what is it? The sensationalism and hysteria that has become to describe the American right and thus has seeped its way into the mainstream news media? The willingness of right wing pundits and thugs to sabotage and defame because of their limited and childish political ideology? The ease at which the Obama administration and the NAACP crumbled under the threat of “showing up on Glenn Beck that night,” thus both legitimizing insane hypocrites and proving that the pretext of political savvy has blinded the democrats and the Obama administration in particular from the principles their base has expected them to deliver on?
I think all these things are important to note, but in the hope that there is something much grander to explore here, and thus justify throwing another blog post about Shirley Sherrod into the void, I think that perhaps we have an opportunity to reflect on the greater issue of race relations in this country. A very powerful theoretical distinction about the term “racism” has failed to work its way into the mainstream and because of that, many white people, particularly conservatives, are constantly on the lookout for proof of the myth that people of color are more “racist” than whites are in contemporary America. I say myth not because I don’t believe that all people are capable of holding numerous and negative preconceived notions about different group due to the color of their skin or any other number of things. It is just that I agree with the aforementioned theoretical distinction; I think that racism is only expressed in the privilege and power of whites, meaning that people of color cannot be racist. In other words, when we talk of America’s racist past, we don’t mean bigoted white businessmen. We mean the ability of those white businessmen to use their power as white men to subjugate people of color via institutionally granted privilege, and thus the difference that this power suggests about the manifestation of their bigotry.
In this sense of the word, every white person in the history of the United States is racist, including myself, because in some way we as whites have all benefited from the color of our skin. In big ways and small, we have gained something because of a society that is, for whatever reason (for another blog post), designed to give whites a leg up over people of color. That doesn’t mean there are no happy and successful people of color, and it doesn’t mean that all white people are wealthy. Yes, I realize that there are poor whites and rich blacks. But as a group, generally, it is clear that being a random white person on the street means less things holding you back. It’s not meant to be blaming or to be a big blanket statement, it is meant to create a more nuanced understanding of what racism really is in America.
Nevertheless, this is a nuance that is very difficult for many white people to swallow. Harmless as it is to admit that blacks still meet with discrimination that takes a very real toll on their “pursuit of happiness,” the mainstream seems to struggle with this fact, and many agents of the right have decided that continued mistrust of blacks by whites can be justified because of the least inspired political-maneuvering-for-the-purpose-of-protecting-entrenched-power to date: Reverse racism (cue satirical spooky announcer voice).
Ah yes, reverse racism is the perfect thing to slam people of color with who dare criticize the powers that be, which happen to have been unfairly treating them since whites first figured out that having other people produce the stuff you sell for a profit is way easier then producing it yourself. Thus Henry Louis Gates Jr. can’t possibly be justified in being pissed off when white police officers demand he show papers proving he’s allowed to be in his own house, particularly in light of the very well documented bias against blacks by law enforcement. No, he’s a “reverse racist”. This kind of insanity is what allows Glenn Beck to think he can get away with calling Obama a racist; this picture of the bitter and presumptuous black man is so pervasive in society that mere suggestion, in the total absence of facts, might be enough to convince people that their new black president hates them because of their skin color.
Shirley Sherrod was meant to be the new proof of the racist black person. She was supposed to be exactly what purveyors of this narrative have always wanted; a person of color in a position of some degree of power, representing the government, and proudly bragging about the biases with which she conducts her duties at a secretive NAACP meeting. She was to be the proof that Pat Buchanan has never offered for his commonly repeated but fatally indefensible proclamation, “White men are more discriminated against then anyone else!” She was supposed to solidify that murky image that’s in the minds of many Tea Partiers when they shout, “We’ve got to take our country back!”
But alas, in reality she is none of these things, because in reality these things simply do not exist. She is, in fact, what most people on the right continuously fail to be, someone who is open and honest about the real process of racial reconciliation, someone who is self-reflective and self-critical. She is a person who has overcome tragic loss due to race relations and has yet managed to dedicate herself to helping poor white farmers far more than petty political conmen like Andrew Breitbart ever cared to. Foremost of all, what she was expressing to that crowd was the process she went through of understanding that buying into the “it’s us versus them” paradigm causes us all to suffer. Instead, she was suggesting that we aim to create trust and cooperation between all people who are in a position to benefit from a more democratic society. This call to trust is one that no one with deeply engrained prejudices, like those implicit in the “reverse racist” myth, can yet raise to.
