The Race Line and the Magic Bullet

It certainly has been a big Labor Day weekend in the news cycle. To try and encapsulate all of its events would be nearly futile as my day job efforts continue to distract me from this outlet; however, I do have some thoughts to share.

Kanye West gave voice to the subtext nearly everyone who is either a minority or liberal was thinking, at least a little. The man has a point, sort of. However, I will be contrary here and say that Bush cares, but only to the extent that his privileged upbringing and executive bubble existence allow him to. The man and probably a majority of this administration plebes more than likely have no clue how to begin to appreciate the magnitude and gravity of what has happened. Nor do they have any real concept of what life is truly like for most people of color in this country. That the poor have been the most affected by the devastation of Katrina is no surprise. That the poor are mostly black and minority is not so much a surprise, but is more telling of the racial problems still saturating American society.

I think the Civil Rights movement in the United States accomplished a Herculean feat in its efforts to break down the walls of racial division, achieving equal rights and considerations under the law for minorities. However, using Katrina’s devastation as evidence, it is more than clear that the progress made by Dr. King and President Johnson and those that followed either did not take root or those roots are still shallow. To the point, inequality in this country has only grown and more often than not, the economic spread is greatest between white and black. Legislation was only the beginning. More needs to be done.

To say that legislation was not enough to overcome a racially divided America is pretty easy. To hear that coming from a white guy like me may be a bit unconventional. More unorthodoxy like this is needed from many more people. I had some friends run for President back in 2000. The Brown/Milner platform was certainly eccentric. However, in its eccentricity, there was a brilliant, if not cartoonish jewel within it. One of their platform items was a proposition for mandatory interracial marriage. This allusion is not an endorsement as much as it is just a rehashing of a cool radical idea. It is always better to deal in facts, but to get outside the box, what if something like mandatory interracial marriage came to pass? Moreover, consider what could be learned about the similarities and differences between people.

At the end of the day, love is going to do what it will and you can’t legislate it one way or the other *cough*. The learning is what is important here. Education is the magic bullet that can solve this problem better and faster than any law ever could. For those of us who had the good fortune to ever partake of a study abroad program or join the Peace Corps or like outfit, how much did it teach you? What did you learn and how much of that still influences you today? It was profound and you couldn’t get it from a book. Right? Experience is the ultimate educator regardless of who you are.

LBJ said, upon signing the Civil Rights Act, that it would kill the Democratic Party in the South for the next several decades, and he was largely right. In the 2004 election, I can’t remember there being any blue states south of Maryland. This cannot flatly be construed as the LBJ prophecy manifest, but it colors the observation. Having technically grown up in the South (shout out to NoVa and Band Camp) I can attest, that with some exception, there is still a color line in the country. Tour around North West DC and take it in, then go to South or North East and tell me if you think there is a color line. I can safely guess that it is similar or more pronounced further south of the Mason Dixon line.

Like love, you can’t legislate culture. Some have tried, but barring something glaring that I am overlooking because of mindless busy work here in corporate America, all have failed. What does have impact on culture, to point out the obvious, is prevailing thought and trends as dictated by art, literature and events on a broad scale. The rift between the races and the economic classes has been somewhat breeched by these things, but not as much as it should or can be. Again, more needs to be done. Certainly we can say again that there are two Americas. Making one America is essential to get back to what the country once was. A place where the streets are paved with gold and the average person can expect that with hard work and tenacity, they can earn the American dream.

So, with mandatory interracial marriage not being a realistic or viable option, what do we do? How do we get the kids from Laguna Beach to realize that their lives aren’t realistic? How do we get kids from the slums of Akron Ohio to see that there is a way out and up? How do we get a welfare kid from South East DC to be friends with a millionaire kid from Potomac, Maryland? How do we get that kid from Potomac, Maryland to realize that he isn’t all that different from the South East, DC kid? How do we get an elected executive that grew up privileged with no cares in the world to see that his life is just as valuable as that of a garbage collector that lost everything he owned and loved in a storm?

These are all highly idealistic questions, but they need to be asked and more weight needs to be given to that kind of idealism. That weight was once there and can be again if our kids are taught to think, question and be a part the community and world around them. If all that starts with Kanye West speaking subtext to power, I am all for it.

Off Topic: Is it just me or is the BBC kicking the b'jesus out of American network news coverage of the Katrina aftermath? Also, has anyone picked up on the incongruity of newscasters, i.e. Katie Couric, broadcasting from these storm pummeled places and the dome in Houston and they are looking flawless? Makeup and clothes are perfect? Does anyone else thing that this aesthetic hurts the credibility of their newscast?

Lastly, if you haven’t read Maureen Dowd today, you should. (TB)

Katrina, the Poor and Security

After reading this post from The American Scene, I was left with a couple of burrs in my saddle about the way that America is set up. It has long been my opinion that the social structure and economy of this country are far too reliant on the automobile. And yes, fossil fuels as well. I am sure there are those out there will say “Yeah, so?” So, seeing that so many people decided to stay in their homes or in their towns/cities despite grave warnings warrants an examination of their decision making process. The post from TAS looks into that and determines that many people were living paycheck to paycheck or were so precarious in their living situations, i.e. they would rather stay and guard what they have lest their belongings be taken by looters and risk life and limb rather than just forfeit it all and leave it to fate to decide how they end up. As Reihan states, if your means only provide a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle, you are “always one paycheck away from disaster.”

So, many of these people were simply unable to leave. They didn’t have cars. They couldn’t afford cabs. And, indirectly because of the social conditions that often accompany poor neighborhoods; they lacked a community to fall back upon that could bear them. The option to rely on family was not their either because of economic status or simply sheer lack of kin. They couldn’t afford to save themselves.

But this is all peripheral to the point I want to make.

My borrowing the phrase from John Edwards is by no means an endorsement of him, but the fallout from Katrina has clearly illustrated beyond any doubt that there are truly two Americas. Oversimplifying it for the sake of this argument, the “Haves” own cars and/or are able to do things to insure themselves against harm, which in this case was to get out of New Orleans. The “Have Nots” were unable to do much and, either out of desperation or inability to find (and pay for) transportation, stayed and forced to endure what came. Many paid for that choice, if you can call it that, with their lives. I am nauseous at the prospect of whatever the final death toll may be.

The point is, this country is out of balance in so many ways and we have to do something about it. The best way to address a huge problem is to start looking for simple ways to solve it, or at least part of it. What if those people who didn’t have cars did have access to trains buses, or other mass transit? This one element would not have solved the problem of getting people out of Katrina’s path, but it certainly would have helped.

What I would love to do now is shoot off on a tangent that imparts my loathing of car culture and the status that it carries and how the automobile industry has been the single largest malignancy in this country since World War II. However, that will be for another post. What I will say is that it is America’s dependence on the car, abetted by the oil business has been, in the long run, at the very least, partially responsible for the class divide in the United States today. Granted, the greed of the American consumer goes hand in hand with them. How many SUVs and luxury lines of automobiles do you need? Did you notice who stayed or was left behind in New Orleans?

Follow me in this leap. What if we broadened the idea of security beyond protection from religious fundamentalists trying to kill us? (Note that I left out the word Islamic) What if security applied to the overall strength and resiliency of our society? You could even include the notion of sustainability in defining security. So, to beat a dead horse, our fuel supply is not secure because we are at the mercy of foreign powers who set the price and as a result, have undue influence on our economic security.

Just watch the United States in the coming weeks call on OPEC to increase its production in efforts to help our recovery from this cataclysm. Sure it will be in the spirit of charity, but truly, it will be just like the dealer giving a junkie a bigger hit to tide him over until he gets through this rough patch.

As with 9/11, the toll will be great and the recovery will take years. What concerns me now is how we will recover. Will state and local leaders be able to see the problems that led to this for what they really were and are? Will our national leaders be able to see past politics and give the affected region what it needs in order to recover and make things better than they were before? Will the American people be able to recognize that there was a bold dividing line in race and class when observing who was affected by this? It will take leadership and vision. Again, as sad as this all of this is, it represents a tremendous opportunity for change in a positive direction that can serve as a glowing example to the rest of the country, if not the world.

Then again, we could just let it all go, as Dennis Hastert thinks.