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Everyone is ‘Racist’ (and We All Must Fight Racism)

The media has spent the past week debating whether or not Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., is racist. I have a definite answer for you: yes, he is. He, like all of us, is swimming in a sea of -isms, and all of us are wet. All of us are products of the times we grew up in, and even a baby born today is born into a world where racism, sexism and other forms of intolerance and unfair privilege are the norm.

All of us are struggling to free ourselves of a lifetime of lessons we have learned from our families, friends and the media: to presume that our leaders should be rich, white, male, heterosexual, powerful and Christian, and that the rest of us are presumed to not be leadership material unless we, on an individual basis, prove ourselves. We have let the “is-he-or-isn’t-he-racist” discussion rule our lives, instead of the more productive discussion about how we can work together to eliminate continuing, provable intolerance of all kinds.

Those who oppose racism and other forms of unfair privilege must do more than help a person of another race to find a job, as Sen. Lott has done (although that is a good start). Centuries of systemic exclusions and restrictions on people of color have led to a self-serving belief among whites that they really are superior to others, and that the second-class status of people of color is deserved, because of inherent inferiority or learned self-defeating behaviors.

Sen. Lott understood this when he said that a racist feels superior to another person, and he pointedly said to his African American interviewer on Black Entertainment Television, Ed Gordon, “I don’t feel superior to you.” While that was a nice gesture, his actions and his votes over several decades do not back up his words.

If Sen. Lott is truly serious about changing his ways, he will spend the rest of his life following the example of one of my childhood heroes, Elsie Hugo. Miss Hugo (as we called her in the pre-“Ms” era), was my mom’s friend. She was a white nurse from the United States who went to India as a medical missionary. Instead of going there to tell the people how great she was and how great her religion was, her goal was to be a living example of the best aspects of her faith. To that end, she vowed to spend 10 years helping the community she lived in to build enough capacity to help itself. Aside from providing medical care, she trained several of the local young people so that, when she left, the community had more awareness about health issues and a trained cadre of health care workers.

If he is serious about ending racism, Sen. Lott could set a good example by moving into an African American community in Southeast Washington and getting involved to improve schools, social services and other aspects of life. It has been too easy for Sen. Lott and the “compassionate conservatives” of the GOP to say that they support equal rights while not setting a goal and timetable for ending the poverty and systematic bias that have engulfed too many African Americans and the poor of all backgrounds in this country. President Bush is committing us to spend billions overseas to promote an American vision of democracy and opportunity that is not enjoyed by many of our own citizens.

Democrats, too, have patronized the African American and other minority communities by taking our votes for granted and not setting a timetable and goal for when our elected legislatures will look like the nation. Women and minority candidates are backed, to be sure, but usually when the candidate is in a long-shot race against an entrenched incumbent. Take a look at the “parity meter” on the website of the Asian American Action Fund (http://www.aaa-fund.org) to see how far the APA community has to go before we have elected officials commensurate with our populations in any state but Hawai‘i.

No matter what happens to Sen. Lott and his career in the Senate, however, his dilemma provides us with a teachable moment, comparable to the Anita Hill allegations against Clarence Thomas in 1991. During the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Justice Thomas, Hill, who used to work for Thomas when he was head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleged that he had sexually harassed her. The media frenzy that surrounded these allegations, and the discussion about sexual harassment that followed Hill’s allegations and Thomas’s denials, created an opening for all of us to address a pervasive and hurtful reality of life for working women.

Although Thomas ultimately was confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice by a vote of 52 to 48, the national awareness this debate spawned had a number of positive effects. More sexual harassment claims were filed, more victims won awards, more companies took sexual harassment seriously and more men re-thought their attitudes toward women. Hill was hailed as a champion for women trying to be taken seriously in the workplace.

Aside from behavioral changes, the Hill-Thomas episode led to structural and political changes that continue to this day. 1992 was heralded as the “Year of the Woman,” when record numbers of women ran for office and won. The lack of women senators that was glaringly evident during the Hill-Thomas hearings in the Senate chamber led to 24 new women being sworn in as members of Congress after the 1992 elections. Some of them later moved up to the Senate itself.

Many questions remain for those of us concerned about Senator Lott’s remarks. Why are comments such as those he made not scrutinized more carefully by the press and denounced more regularly by our elected leaders? What are the mechanisms still in place, in Mississippi and elsewhere, that continue to systematically disempower African Americans and others? And how can we encourage young African Americans and others who support equality to run for office and make the promise of America a reality in the 21st century?

Reach Phil Tajitsu Nash at pnash@campaignadvantage.com.