"Racism" in America

Lyrics From Avenue Q-Everyone's a Little Bit Racist (John Tartaglia Laura Marie Duncan)

John Tartaglia

PRINCETON
Say, Kate, can I ask you a question?

KATE MONSTER
Sure!

PRINCETON
Well, you know Trekkie Monster upstairs?

KATE MONSTER
Uh huh!

PRINCETON
Well, he's Trekkie Monster, and you're Kate Monster.

KATE MONSTER
Right.

PRINCETON
You're both Monsters.

KATE MONSTER
Yeah.

PRINCETON
Are you two related?

KATE MONSTER
What! Princeton I'm surprised at you! I find that racist!

BOTH
Everyone's a little bit
Racist, sometimes.
Doesn't mean we go around committing
Hate crimes.
Look around and
You will find,
No one's really
Color-blind.
Maybe it's a fact
We all should face.
Everyone makes
Judgments...
Based on race.

Mr. Whiteman's comment on my last Blog post regarding "small numbers" of people have racism in their hearts made me pause and reflect on my off the cuff comment.  As a part of that "introspection" I was drawn to one of my favorite Broadway musicals-Avenue Q.  My Faithful and Obedient Companion and I saw that on Broadway (I think when we lived in NY) and I could not help but to  recall one of my favorite songs from that show.  

So as usual my mind gets running with thoughts on the issue of racism and how 'widespread" it really is.  Something I did not think about much when I wrote that last blog. The result- a "new" blog post that would try in some small way address  "Racism" as it relates to America in 2019 (16 years after Avenue Q).  I cannot pretend that this will settle a damn thing with anyone's own views about this.  It will however help me to settle the uncertainty in my own head..

My gut reaction is to try and look at American Attitudes on race relations-and how they may have changed over the last several years.  But really how does one do this?  Well here goes my own  "best shot".

 As respect general human behavior, I agree with the writers of Avenue Q.  Humans (all of us) are programmed to quickly identify people in "groups" .and unfortunately that is often by outward appearances. I believe it is instinctive to our programming, like virtually all of the animal kingdom.  However, humans increased mental capacity allows us to distort this behavior for both good and moral evil.   But race is not the only identity we use.  I recall reading a piece not to long ago (although I cannot find it now) on food preferences and aversions.  It discussed for example, how some cultures like cheese (European) and some abhor it  (Korean).   The social scientists that did the study contended this originally was used as a means of "identifying" one's belonging to a particular "group". Now this may seem like a trite example but it is indicative of how humans are predisposed to "pigeon hole" themselves and others into perceived self identified groups.  As an example combining racial and food identification will  fit my next narrative perfectly, so I cite it! .

Virtually every Saturday I buy fish for dinner at our local Safeway.  Almost always the guy who is behind the fish counter is an older surley "white" guy.  Two weeks ago I was met by an "Asian" looking young man who greeted me with a smile.  My immediate thought was yea they moved a guy in from the sushi counter on the other side of the store!.  Finally good fish counter service!  The bad news- as it turned out I had to explain to him which fish was salmon,  he could not judge where to cut it properly. In short he could not handle this simple purchase of fish.  He literally  spent 15 minutes just trying to cut and wrap it.  When I got home I even said to my "Faithful and Obedient" companion- so much for racial profiling!

Ok so I was clearly biased and even a little "racist" in my private thinking-but I would like to think I am incapable of committing a hate crime.  Which of course is the real subject of my post.

First based on this experience alone I must confess that the "small number" of people with "racism in their hearts" I cited in my last post was quite incorrect.  Fact is, on reflection, we are likely all "a little racist" as Avenue Q aptly pointed out.

So my next step was to try to figure out "how racist" is the average  "White" American, to arrive at the overall theme of my last post.  How many among us might be so overtly racist that they would take their racism to a level of outward "hate".  I could (given my own publishing deadlines) come up with only one way I felt might work.

A few months back I posted about American attitudes toward "marriage" of their kids.  In that post I mentioned that while  the majority did have a problem with marriage to one of an opposing political view,  they now have no problem with interracial or same sex marriage.  I decided to try to dig deeper to find out how most Americans feel about interracial marriage.  My logic (which may not be perfect) -if you have no problem with the interracial marriage of your children it was very unlikely you would commit outward acts of hateful behavior based on race.

After much searching I picked this: 

From a Pew Study in 2016 Pew-intermarriage

According to this Pew graph About 4% of white Americans were opposed to interracial marriage.  

Pew also has a chart (you can access via link above) that shows 12% of white Americans were opposed to Inter-ethnic Marriage (?).  I cannot find a "reconciliation" in the study!   The questions were subtly different one was ethnicity and one ws "marrying a black person".  Whites had "less of a problem with "black" apparently??  Could this be some polling fear by respondents?  While I coincide this creates a few questions, I will proceed anyway since I do think the study seems "credible".  I welcome your thoughts to the contrary.

Interestingly Blacks were much more opposed to inter-racial marriage in general....however Black on White hate crimes are not the focus of my piece, but I believe these are real as well.

Now if one looks at the current % of Whites in America based on population you get somewhere between 30 Million (12%) and 10 Million (4%) of White's that think interracial marriage "is bad". For my purpose I decided to choose 8% about halfway between the two numbers. Not  small numbers for sure.  But let's say 20 million is a good starting number. While one could argue that if 92% of white Americans now accept interracial marriage the remaining potentially hateful Americans are a comparatively small number percentage wise.  However, in reality having  20 Million people theoretically open to hate crimes is still an awful lot of people.   

Before finishing my own "crude" analysis I must mention 2 other facts when looking at potential haters and those 20 million potential hate crime numbers.  Unfortunately PEW did not break these categories by race.

1. 12% of  all WOMEN  (of all races) are opposed to interracial marriage while only 7% of men are.

2.  Only 5% of the population under age 29 and 6% ages 30 to 39  (of all races) are opposed to interracial marriage.  The largest age group of anti interracial marriage is the population over 65 at 14% (which actually makes sense).

My point here is simple.  The 20% of "potential hate crime perpetrators is still likely well overstated.  Why? Because  younger white males, those usually cited (proud boys etc)  is a much, much smaller group within that 20 million. While I could be wrong, I do not think many women are involved in outward hate groups, nor do I think that white males say age 70 and over out committing hate crimes like we saw at Charlottesville etc.  As a result I remain an optimist that the vast majority of White Americans on the whole have accepted the idea that race should not be a big "social" driver in their own lives.   This is a narrative that I think runs counter to today's political divide and mainstream media accounts.  But make no mistake I do not believe we will ever reach total "racial" harmony.  Humans are just humans after all.  Stowe is actually a great example of "lily white" social isolation but frankly social and racial stratification is more subtle and in many ways logical.  Why?  Because having a totally "inclusive" society where people with like interests (say skiing, religious beliefs and yes political beliefs etc.) are prevented from gathering in communities where they are truly happy is only possible if the government enslaves us. BS statements that
"I have benefited from 300 years of racial oppression of "blacks" is frankly a virtue signaling attempt to cop out of your own voluntary behavior in the world's freest society.  I will talk more about Stowe and it's makeup in a post prior to heading that way in a few weeks.

In closing, to Ellsworth's point- my post stating "a small number are racist in our hearts"was in fact an overly simplistic view.  Upon reflection I would like to make the following  "supplemental" Observations.

1.  Evidently by my crude "social science study" there may be potentially 20 million white racists, not a small number for sure.  But I think that this  broad indicator vastly overstates the number of true hate crime perpetrators.In fact I remain convinced that the vast majority of our  population is not "hateful" at all towards those of a different race.  The stats just do not support that.  If anything we have made a great deal of social "progress" since Avenue Q. 

2.  Yes everyone of us is likely "a little racist"  particularly when we meet someone we do not know -like an asian guy selling fish.

3. Racial animus depicted in that Stowe reporter article(and so many media outlets) as being rampant, is simply not true.  It is statistically LESS LIKELY than it was just 10 years ago, based on the views of most Americans on race as depicted by PEW.  However the "idea" that race drives everyone's thinking is used by both sides of the political divide to push an agenda.  I think I know why and stated so in my last piece but I will leave that judgement up to each of  you.

In closing, like that Avenue Q  song so well depicts, just about everyone is a little racist;  whites, blacks, asians and hispanics-even "monsters".   Even a 67 year old white guy buying fish.   But as Avenue Q aptly stated 16 years ago, that does not mean they commit a bunch of hate crimes.  It's also unlikely they yell "Monkey" or the"N"  word out a car window in Stowe Vermont. 

With that I bid you adieu.

PS I also mentioned Stowe Land Trust as a means of "blocking" new housing in Stowe.  4,000 Resident's (including kids) somehow raised 6 Million... for this.

$6 million donated to buy forest

• By Caleigh Cross | Stowe Reporter
 
• Jul 3, 2019 Updated 6 hrs ago
• 
  

 Closed! The Stowe Land Trust now has the money in hand to buy the Brownsville Forest July 30.

At 750 acres, Brownsville Forest is the last large, undeveloped parcel of forest that can be protected in Stowe.

The land trust aimed to raise $5.75 million to buy the forest and conserve it, but donations reached almost $6 million, said Kristen Sharpless, the organization’s executive director.

PSS:

Right before I published this I made a quick internet check on "Hate Crimes number"   I am usually not a big "fact check guy" and this fact check in itself likely has political overtones....as they all do..  I welcome you to read this, "fact check" on a CNN interview with Amy Klobuchar.

Anyway if you choose to look, I think by looking at  ALL hate incidents from the Justice Department I my  statistical "inference" was not to far off.

Way more than enough said!

Below are links:

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/apr/03/hate-crimes-are-increasingly-reported-us/

BJS 2019 Hate Crime study 

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