Barriers to Truth and Reconciliation in America
There was only time to read one chapter of The Price of Racial Reconciliation by Ronald W. Walters before I have to take it back tomorrow, but what a chapter: "Barriers to Truth and Reconciliation in America". It wasn't so much that the ideas he presents are new to me, but that he brings together, with great clarity, a bunch of related ideas.
One of the most important of these ideas is the problem of simply getting White people to acknowledge the fact of Black oppression - in the past as well as the present. There are sinister reasons for denying racism (for example, keeping available a supply of cheap labour) but also stupid, human reasons: "the pain, the anguish and embarrassment" of being faced with awful historical truths, the feeling of being personally accused. Australians will recognise, from our country's treatment of Indigenous peoples, the excuses these defensive feelings produce: it happened too long ago, it's no longer a problem, it's nothing to do with me, anyway it wasn't as bad as all that, *waves flag*.
And of course, simple lack of awareness and information is part of all this, with Black voices being marginalised in public discourse in the US, and Indigenous voices similarly sidelined here. Walters points out the striking fact that there is no US museum of slavery (although one is planned for Virginia).
I'll have to return to this book, but for now, here's one quote:"Corrective public policy address toward Blacks requires the strong inclusion of the Black voice. However, introduction of the Black voice is often regarded as a negative, as a "race card", "political correctness", or some other perjorative - according to a strange idea that race should [be] blocked from consideration even where race is patently the cause or cure. While whites may live in an atmosphere where racial damage is not immediately visible, one of the great illusions of majoritarian culture is that it is not relevant to their daily lives. The desire to avoid looking at the effects of race is so strong that the introduction of racial perspectives is ofter alienating, driving the majority to suppress the Black voice even further."
- pp 144-5
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Walters, Ronald W. "Barriers to Truth and Reconciliation in America". in The Price of Racial Reconciliation. University of Michigan Press, US, 2008.
One of the most important of these ideas is the problem of simply getting White people to acknowledge the fact of Black oppression - in the past as well as the present. There are sinister reasons for denying racism (for example, keeping available a supply of cheap labour) but also stupid, human reasons: "the pain, the anguish and embarrassment" of being faced with awful historical truths, the feeling of being personally accused. Australians will recognise, from our country's treatment of Indigenous peoples, the excuses these defensive feelings produce: it happened too long ago, it's no longer a problem, it's nothing to do with me, anyway it wasn't as bad as all that, *waves flag*.
And of course, simple lack of awareness and information is part of all this, with Black voices being marginalised in public discourse in the US, and Indigenous voices similarly sidelined here. Walters points out the striking fact that there is no US museum of slavery (although one is planned for Virginia).
I'll have to return to this book, but for now, here's one quote:"Corrective public policy address toward Blacks requires the strong inclusion of the Black voice. However, introduction of the Black voice is often regarded as a negative, as a "race card", "political correctness", or some other perjorative - according to a strange idea that race should [be] blocked from consideration even where race is patently the cause or cure. While whites may live in an atmosphere where racial damage is not immediately visible, one of the great illusions of majoritarian culture is that it is not relevant to their daily lives. The desire to avoid looking at the effects of race is so strong that the introduction of racial perspectives is ofter alienating, driving the majority to suppress the Black voice even further."
- pp 144-5
__
Walters, Ronald W. "Barriers to Truth and Reconciliation in America". in The Price of Racial Reconciliation. University of Michigan Press, US, 2008.