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The real problem with race (25 May 2003)

A couple of months ago I emailed one of the neighborhood's good burghers, just for the sake of conversation, with this complaint. (I cleaned up the phraseology a little here for public consumption.)

Speaking of what's going on on Denison, what is the deal with crime this week? My boys just got held up for their bikes in front of the library an hour ago. (To their credit they told the bullies to get lost.) I outran a couple of muggers Saturday night. What is up with that?

We had a nice conversation over email about what is and isn't being done around Ward 15 on crime and quality-of-life issues, including some good points raised by my friend (let's call him "Billy Bob") about Merle Gordon's priorities.

the problem?

Around two weeks ago my friend followed up with a phone call. Now Billy Bob is known in our circles as one who is clever with words, so it came as a shock that he wanted to discuss, his words, "the Negro Problem." My witty comeback was along the lines of "What?"

Billy then reminded me of my original email and the incident with the bikes. I in turn reminded Billy that I hadn't mentioned the race of the library bullies and in fact that they were as white as Marge Schott. (So were my muggers.) These mere facts didn't faze Billy. We discussed a bunch of things, some not so racially charged, but it was hard to miss Billy's overall point: there are problem people roaming Denison Avenue, and they're not Caucasian.

I bring this up for a reason. As I've already observed, there is so much righteous indignation over openly racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan that it's easy to miss racism's more insidious day-to-day effects. From the working mother afraid to cross the river to bank branches where you can't cash your paycheck, to ethnic-baiting re-election literature... okay, it's not absolutely everywhere, but it is all over. Coming from educated people who should know better.

the new wave

In the near-eighteen years I've lived in the near vicinity of Archwood and 33rd, there's been a fairly obvious demographic shift here: our Halloweens have become multiracial and multilingual and I've been meaning for a couple years now to learn Spanish. And I suppose at the same time there's been a slow but inconsistent increase in petty crime. Someone's been in my Saturn while it was parked in the driveway one night, there has been a little disruption in Judy's gardening supplies, and every day we're subjected to the repetitive thumping beat of supersized car stereos. It's discouraging, and it seems to be progressively a little worse each year.

But when I see the actual perps, they're disproportionately white people, most often but not always teenagers. The kid two doors down whose van rocks the block whenever his grandmother is out. The two slow guys who were after my wallet on West 33rd at one in the morning. The junior hoodlums who threatened Ben that afternoon.

I guess that's not important. What's important is that focusing on the ethnicity of the bad guys is a diversion at best. While the good burghers are out pointing fingers the demographically favored catch a free pass. Forcing things into racial terms tends to define the real problem out of existence, and it also discourages newcomers who may otherwise be an asset to the community.

another approach

Consistent law enforcement and realistic community attitudes draw and maintain good neighbors of all varieties. Misinformation and cheap attacks only create confusion and divert resources that should go towards the actual problems. It's not like we have any energy to spare, or few enough problems to apply it to.

So instead of the "Negro problem" (yech) let's attack the racism problem. It's harder work but closer to home and potentially far more rewarding.

Readers respond

Barbara Payne says:

A few years ago I was privileged to help in an intense all-day facilitated program on Diversity for every single employee of the City that was requested by and participated in by the then-Mayor of Shaker Heights, Patricia Mearns. I learned something critical (and a bit discouraging) about this issue then: The workers who worked side by side with people of different colors and cultures had absolutely no issues with the individual people; they often considered them pals. But this fact--if their opinion of the other group as a whole was negative--didn't change that opinion one iota. So my brilliant idea of establishing one-on-one relationships between people in diverse groups is utterly useless. Next!

Craig Farnsworth replies:

I don't agree with Barbara's "So my brilliant idea of establishing one-on-one relationships between people in diverse groups is utterly useless." The basis for real change in this area is true friendship (one-to-one) coupled with institutional changes that remove the racial inequalities. True friendship goes beyond just working side by side with someone of a different race and having some appreciation for them as a person, distinct from the racial group they happen to belong to. It gets at the level of comfortably being in each other's homes and choosing to be together outside the workplace.

And I say back to Craig:

That sounds good. Two questions:

You start... where? Should I grab the next person I see of sufficiently different ethnicity and invite him or her over for dinner?
You talk about a one-to-one relationship building process. When I ask what "we" can do against racism, I'm thinking "we" as in big picture, whole society, mass culture. How to apply this?

Then Bill Callahan, who happens to live about eight houses down and across the street from me, chimed in:

Looking at the problem from a slightly different angle: I went to City Planning's neighborhood hearing at the Jones Home a few months ago. They did the small-group thing, and we were asked to identify our biggest neighborhood concern.
I said: The biggest problem I see in Archwood-Denison is that too many people are poor. Heads nodded.
Then the next person said: Yes, I agree, we have to stop so many poor people from moving in. Heads nodded again.
I said no, no, I meant we should be thinking about how to help more of our neighbors become more prosperous. This time only a couple of heads nodded. Most of the group looked blank. And the discussion moved on... to the appearance of Pearl Road, or some safe topic like that.
Our neighborhood, like a few others in Cleveland, has lots of prosperous college-educated (mostly white) residents living in the same territory as lots of less-educated, poorer folks -- many of whom are Black or Hispanic. In the old ethnic-neighborhood era (as in some minority communities today), the better-off members of the community were expected to take an interest in the fortunes of their neighbors. That's why so many ethnic churches started building and loan societies.
Maybe some of us better-off types in Brooklyn Centre (and Tremont, and Ohio City, and Detroit-Shoreway) should start asking whether we could be more helpful to our neighbors who are struggling. I bet there are a few Rhodes High sophomores and juniors down the street who could use help in getting more competitive for college applications -- we know all about that, right? I bet there are a lot of families around here who'd love to get some free help with computer skills. And I'm damn sure there are hundreds of our neighbors who would love to get any leads at all on job openings with decent pay and benefits. With a little organized effort, I bet we could do a lot of good and make a lot of new friends.
Obviously this is about reaching out across class, rather than racial, lines. And it's not exactly the same thing. But I think you'll agree that there's an awful lot of overlap.
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