Category Archives: race

Residential Segregation and City Council Representation

city council clevelandThe ongoing  impact of past residential segregation came to my mind recently.  I was reading an article about the redrawing of Cleveland City Council districts needed due to the loss of population and the subsequent mandated reduction of seats.  Even though the majority of the population loss was on the historically black East Side, only one seat was to be lost in that region while another seat was to be taken elsewhere.  This balance was necessary because the city, while 37.3%  white according to the 2010 census, has a majority white council and the loss of two traditionally black seats would exacerbate the fact that the council does not look like the population it represents.

The article made me think about the recent work my students did in reading about the role of race in Cleveland history. They looked into the way the densely populated East Side was the only area open to black migrants coming to Cleveland as part of the Great Migration, while the West Side (a larger area geographically) was reserved for whites.  This split was affirmed through education policy that engaged in various strategies to continue to provide a mostly separate educational facilities.

The legal (and illegal) underpinnings of this split are gone.  However, when I look at today’s news and the current make up of City Council, I can not help but note how history continues to influence politics and representation today.  If there had been no past restrictions as to where migrants of different races could live, what would the City Council look like today?  It actually might look the same depending on the voters and the candidates, but there would certainly be different electoral dynamics.

 

Clowns vs. Klan: Counter-protesters with a Sense of Humor

You’ve got to love the clown counter protest at a Klan rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Instead of answering hate with hate, they answered hate with humor, asking the question, who really looks foolish here.

Clown Counter Protesters: Note the “white flour” bag, the answer to calls for “white power.”

 

Bad Ideas in High Fashion: Blackmoor Earrings

From the 2013 Dolce Gabbana collection:

Supposedly a nod to the companies Sicilian roots and the Blackmoor tradition in Sicily, these earring loot to my unsophisticated eye as modified mammy figures and, hence, highly problematic.  This blog piece from The Curatorial gives more photos and nicely counters the defense the company made concluding:

“The Dolce & Gabbana earrings specifically celebrate a “proud” Sicilian cultural tradition which is rooted in the slave trade and negative associations with blackness. As such, the arguments put forth by the Italian commenters on the articles detailing this controversy as well as the statement put out by Dolce & Gabbana don’t do their due diligence in understanding the historical legacy of a cultural tradition. As a result, Dolce & Gabbana has produced an accessory which does in fact play into racist stereotypes and a legacy of racism.”

 

Comparing Quarterbacks: Does Race Play Role?

Recently some commentators have compared the struggles of Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton to those of former Tennesee Titans quarterback Vince Young.  The commentators noted that both were superior athletes who brought a mix of skills to the position not usually seen, both had impressive debuts, and both had difficulties on the field their second year with subsequent problems handling those difficulties.  Both quarterbacks also happen to be black.

Warren Moon, Hall of Fame former quarterback called out the comparisons stating, “It’s always a comparison of one black to another black. I get tired of it. I get tired of defending it.”  He then went on to suggest a better comparison would be with a white quarterback, Jay Cutler.

Given the stats and details found in Don Banks’s comparison, that parallel does not appear to be far fetched.  However, various commentators on ESPN did note that they themselves fall into the trap of defaulting to comparing black quarterbacks to other black quarterbacks.

I see Moon’s point and agree that this tendency needs to be curbed so that there are more colorblind comparisons, but in this case it does not appear to be a stretch.  If  the comparison was Cam Newton to Akili Smith or JaMarcus Russell, black quarterbacks with which he seems to have little in common, then something would be wrong.  Besides, there are already many comparisons being made black to white–for example the ongoing Robert Griffin III to Andrew Luck comparisons.  Now if only I saw an article comparing RGIII to Fran Tarkington.

Insensitve Halloween Costumes to Avoid

I live in the world of children’s Halloween costumes witch for the most part are fun and innocuous, so I had forgotten about all the possible bad, offensive, stereotypical costumes that adults have on occasion donned.  That is until various blogs I follow started putting up preventative educational posts on costumes to avoid and how to gently inform the individual in blackface, or wearing a poncho and riding donkey, or sporting a sexy Indian princess costume that such cultural misappropriation is not right.

The best summary I have seen is a slideshow on The Root which goes over all sorts of arguments made in favor of insensitive costumes and refutes them.

The best immediate visual response to these costumes comes from a campaign by STARS (Students Teaching about Racism in Society) at Ohio University.

 

 

 

Whose Voice Controls Commemorations?

James Meredith has refused to have anything to do with University of Mississippi commemorations of its desegregation.  This refusal and his critique of the celebration leads me to consider whose voice controls these celebrations.  In a case of a university violently resisting integration, what happens when the university turns around and commemorates the event? If one assumes that winners write the history, it is odd that the university is controlling the commemoration because on one level they lost and Meredith and his allies won.  However, the university despite losing maintains more power over the message and narrative than Meredith so despite being vanquished in the past they run the commemoration.  Also, the university can be said to have won by losing; in other words by losing the fight to remain segregated they won in a sense that as an institution they evolved toward greater acceptance.  Then there is the question as to who at the university is controlling the commemoration.  If the commemoration is in the hands of black individuals at the university, those for whom the Meredith opened the door, then that adds a dimension.

Overall, the entire issue is thought provoking, but I cannot come to any sort of conclusions, nor would I want to as a northern, white liberal.

 

Here are the details as to what Meredith said according to Cord Jefferson for Gawker who reports:

Though he is alive and in good health, the now 79-year-old Meredith refused to attend the services, believing them to be misguided, according to reports.

“I ain’t never heard of the Germans celebrating the invasion of Normandy, or the bombing and destruction of Berlin. I ain’t never heard of the Spanish celebrating the destruction of the Armada.”

Asked to clarify, Meredith said: “Did you find anything 50 years ago that I should be celebrating?”

Additionally he noted ”Mississippi has so humiliated me,” telling the AP”They ain’t never acknowledged that there was a war.”

Radical Views of Slavery, Africa, and Blessings

Arkansas State Rep. Jon Hubbard published a book entitled, “Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative” and various bloggers have been pointing out some strikingly problematic passages in that book:

“… the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.” (Pages 183-89)

“[African Americans must] understand that even while in the throes of slavery, their lives as Americans are likely much better than they ever would have enjoyed living in sub-Saharan Africa.”  

“Knowing what we know today about life on the African continent, would an existence spent in slavery have been any crueler than a life spent in sub-Saharan Africa?” (Pages 93 and 189)

These are very troubling, inexcusable quotations and for an elected representative who is presumably educated and knowledgeable about the world.  However, when I think of the way Africa is presented in the media, I understand how Americans might hold at least some of these views.  Consider the average news coverage of Africa, coups, wars, starvation, violence,  torture and other forms of mayhem and suffering.  Except for one interview on the BBC, I do not recall any coverage of economic success, the urban middle class, or other forms of African success or progress recently. When I have talked with African exchange students they often complain of this perception gap.

Given this gap, I do not find it hard to believe that some Americans (hopefully not elected officials) have come to view Africa as a horrible place to which any alternative is preferable.  Certainly it is a leap to considering the indescribable suffering of slavery as a fair price to pay to escape the supposed horrors of Africa, but I can see where this idea could come from if one only has a very limited view of Africa.

In some twisted way Barack Obama’s background could even support this interpretation.  His father came from Africa, conceived a child in America who became president, a story that could be interpreted as showing the great superiority of American opportunities–such great superiority that any means of coming to America becomes worthwhile.  I do not agree with that logic, but depending on what one knows and sees I can understand where it could come from.

Creativity Gone Too Far: African American Names?

Janelle Harris on Clutch writes a humorous, thoughtful piece on the African American names she encountered while substitute teaching.

Here is the crux of what she encountered:

“Taking attendance seemed like it would be the easiest part of my day. But I glanced at the list to discover that 65 percent of the names on it were a cryptic montage of dashes, accents marks and arbitrarily inserted capital letters. There was a La’ Niaheesa. There was a Devaughntay. There was a Quaymar. There was a Knakeya and a Khaneeka. There were consonant clusters that would tangle a linguist up and combinations that looked like they should be pronounced one way, but in actuality sounded completely different.”

In summary she reaches this conclusion:

“There are so many things I love about our people, not the least of which is our innovativeness. We’ll turn something mundane and dry into something fun and interesting, whether it’s food or music or, apparently, distinctive names for our offspring. But is there such a thing as too over the top when a child’s first name looks like a foreign language vocabulary word and they were, in fact, born to English-speaking parents? How creative is too creative in the pantheon of African-American nomenclature?”

I do not want to weigh in on the extent of creativity a group of people should or should not display, but what does interest me is her statement in the middle of the article.

“There are names that are distinctly Jewish and distinctly Latino and distinctly Asian but just like almost everything else, it’s a different standard for us.”

I think this observation is likely true, those who are hiring or otherwise choosing between candidates may accept and select applicants whose names are clearly Asian or Latino.  I wonder what the reasons are.  There is likely a constellation of issues involving race, class, and nationality involved.

The start of a names list, but these names do have very clear linguistic meanings unlike many Harris encountered