Rights Progress Hurt by Painting Whole Groups With Same Brush

Present-day black Americans are better off because of the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. Few would return voluntarily to an era when we were subjected to various forms of degrading and often legally sanctioned racial segregation. Nevertheless, not all have benefited in tangible ways from the civil rights reforms of the 1960s.

It is clear that civil rights reforms did not address all of the problems in the black community. However, it is time for us to break with the evils of the past and embark on a new political and economic course. During the L.A. riots, the vast devastation was felt deepest in the very communities the rioters lived in. In essence, in venting our anger from the frustrations of oppression and racism, we hurt our own community. Clearly, this was not a viable solution to force judicial reform and equality. Nonetheless, many blacks feel that but for the riots, the Rodney King civil rights trial never would have occurred, and the two white officers never would have been convicted.

My classmates have been honest enough to share with me that I am the first black person they have ever had more than an arms-length relationship with, and this is probably true for many people. Therefore, the only exposure some people get to the black community is what they see on television or read in the newspaper. Many are left with the image of black faces, of all ages and genders, looting, trashing and burning our own communities.

Unfortunately, we live in a discriminatory society which has chosen to identify its citizens on the basis of race, color, gender and/or national origin. Additionally, we live in a society where people are more comfortable classifying and grouping individuals of the same race, color, gender and/or national origin and attaching like behavior to the whole.

As a society, we also are inclined to believe one point of view over another or one group’s accusations over another based on our classifying entire groups with like behavior. For example, when Susan Smith accused a black man of carjacking her and taking her children, we as a society believed her and were not shocked or taken aback because this type of behavior has been attached to the black male. However, there was a collective, nationwide gasp when we found out that Susan Smith herself sent her children to an underwater grave.

The inclination to believe an accusation based on how we classify entire groups of people explains why the O.J. Simpson jury would not convict. There are Americans who are inclined to believe that police officers are corrupt. Blacks have an even stronger inclination to believe a police conspiracy theory given the black community’s history with law enforcement.

There are a couple of issues that have been overlooked by the media: (1) O.J. Simpson abandoned any and all ties to the black community more than 20 years ago. He was not a black hero; he was America’s hero who incidentally happened to be black. (2) The media coverage and the statistical analysis provided is slanted to show an exuberant black community and a disgruntled white community, painting both communities with a broad brush. (3) O.J. Simpson was able to do something no other criminal defendant, black, white or purple, was able to do: He assembled a criminal defense team that is unparalleled.

So, since O.J. Simpson is no more a black hero than Jesse Helms, why were there some African Americans who were exuberant? Again, some blacks believe the verdict a small moral victory against the justice system that has sent a disproportionate amount of black men to prison and to death throughout history.

Finally, a word about Louis Farrakhan and his “Million Man March.” When a so-called black leader speaks, as a society we do two things: (1) We focus on the personality of the messenger and disregard the message. (2) We assume that this black person is speaking on behalf of every black American. It is important that everyone realize that the black community can have more than one spokesperson espousing more than one idea. We can no more label one black person as a spokesperson for the black community than we can label Newt Gingrich or Bill Clinton as the single spokesperson for the white community or the late Cesar Chavez as the single spokesperson for the Latino community.

As a society, we made some of our greatest advances toward racial equality during a time when all races and cultures worked together, marched together, and rallied together.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a society where “black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics would be able to join hands.”

But this will never be accomplished by heightening racial and cultural division.