Can't Beat This "View"

The women from ABC’s “The View” are on our radar again THIS WEEK (we have commented on their discussions previously). The timely bloggers are all over this, and most of them have it right on. For more, we suggest you read Carmen Dixon’s astute take at Black Voices, as well as the reader comments from Jonathan Adams’s post at Race Wire (as always, some comments are more sophisticated than others).



This is all a response to an episode two weeks ago (see video below) where Rev. Jesse Jackson was caught criticizing Barack Obama’s campaign rhetoric toward African Americans (has he been dining with Ralph Nader or what?!). A few days after the tape was aired on Fox News, reports surfaced that on a different part of the tape, Jackson used the n-word (not directed at Obama) – a word he has vociferously condemned throughout the latter part of his career.



We will try to add a bit to this conversation.

What’s most interesting to us is Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s adamant statement that we “live in one world,” with Whoopi Goldberg responding vehemently that we do not. This is an excellent illustration of the unfortunate legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the eyes of white Americans. We believe that Hasselbeck, like most white Americans today, is sincere when she indicates that she wishes for one world. Hasselbeck is not a bigot; she is, however, racist, but like most whites (progressive or conservative), refuses to admit it. Goldberg used the word “understand” multiple times during the exchange.

What Goldberg may fail to understand – and what Hasselbeck certainly fails to acknowledge – is that it is very, very difficult for whites to understand systemic racism. Whites have lived in a world where their skin color has not been perceived as a negative characteristic. Stereotypes of whites have not served to keep them in disproportionate poverty, and to lead to disproportionate levels of illiteracy, incarceration or unemployment. In short, race really doesn’t matter to whites, and they believe (like nearly everyone) that it shouldn’t matter.

Hasselbeck’s tears were real, and they are of real concern, not because she has a huge audience for her ignorance every weekday, but because she represents the feelings of many white Americans, whether they subscribe to the rest of her conservative political views or not.

We are bound by the limits of our consciousness, and without the lived experience that being a racial minority provides, combined with our broader culture’s incessant focus on the American myth of individualism and equal opportunity, it truly is very difficult for whites to understand.

This is reflected in a recent CNN story that an Obama presidency could make things worse for African Americans. The story (with extensive quotes from RaceProject friend Dr. Andra Gillespie), notes that Obama’s election (and we would argue, his nomination, irrespective of whether he goes on to win) will serve as a signal to white Americans that the barriers of systemic racism have been exaggerated.

If we consider this in combination with a New York Times / CBS poll that was released last week, which showed that Obama’s candidacy is not closing the racial divide, we can envision an Obama administration that will likely attempt to address systemic racism with policies, but will have to work hard to overcome the attitudinal barriers that have been (and will be) solidified by the historic occasion.

That’s okay with us. For those who think that public policy cannot move social justice forward, we need only look at the historic Brown v. Board of Education (1954) case, which failed to integrate public schools (our schools are more racially segregated now than they were in 1954), but effectively provided “mainstream” (white) legitimacy to a movement that would bring about meaningful change for African Americans.

It is clear that electing Obama would not be a solution to racial inequality, but it may, over time, help Elisabeth Hasselbeck to figure out why a lot of African Americans are okay with saying the n-word, even though they do not want whites to say it.

For more on the “n-word” issue, watch our public debate, or visit Stephen’s YouTube channel.

Thanks to loyal readers Sunny Sunbir and Dr. Michele Ramsey for helpful tips as we constructed this week’s blog.