“There’s suddenly been a rebirth of bigotry and hate. The only difference I saw between back in the day and those men marching with them torches in Charlottesville was that (the people in Charlottesville) showed their faces, no sheets.”
– Pop gospel icon Mavis Staples (Doyle, 2018)
Many Americans, especially those who deplore prejudice in all its forms, would prefer to think of racism as an antiquated remnant of American history. Sadly, this is far from the case. Racism is alive and well in America today. Evidence of this can be found all around us.
David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, nearly won a Louisiana Senate seat in 1990. Or consider that during the 2012 election, the incumbent Barack Obama lost the primary in 10 counties in West Virginia to Keith Judd, a white felon incarcerated in federal prison, who racked up more than 40% of the Democratic-primary vote. (Coates, 2017)
“There are a lot of racists in America that white people don’t see, but black people do.”
– Amber Ruffin (2018, p. 102)
When the Hunger Games movie came out, many were upset that the character “Rue” was black, even though the book describes her as having “dark brown skin and eyes.” Many fans took to Twitter with tweets like, “call me a racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn’t as sad” or “Why does rue have to be black not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie.” (Boyd, 2014, p. 162)
“When you’re young and black,” writes Amber Ruffin, “it seems like your parents are obsessed with racism. You think it can’t possibly be as crazy as they think it is. But then you get older and see they were not exaggerating.” (Ruffin, 2018, p. 102)
Doctors in America often experience racism from patients. “I’ve had patients request reassignments since I was an intern,” says Darien Sutton-Ramsey, an African American doctor. Many refuse to even believe he’s a doctor, and others call him the N-word. Another African-American doctor was assigned a patient who made her read his chart in front of him to prove she was literate; because he didn’t think black people could read. Dr. Farzon Nahvi, a doctor of Middle-Eastern descent, faces a different brand of racism: “I had a patient one time who immediately said, ‘You look like someone who’s going to blow this place up. You’re not a doctor. ‘” (Reddy, 1-23-2018)
Many people don’t even recognize their views as overtly racist. Consider the teen girl who posted a Facebook status update saying, “Not to be a racist, but I’m starting to see that niggers don’t possess a single ounce of intellect.” (Boyd, 2014, p. 161) Umm…not to be a racist? Whenever someone starts a statement with that phrase, it’s a pretty good indication that what follows is going to be really racist.
Looking on the bright side, racial attitudes are constantly in flux, and some things have improved dramatically from the recent past. “In some polls,” write Thompson & Hickey, “during the 1990s, more than 90 percent of whites said they would vote for an African American presidential candidate – something that would have been inconceivable only a few decades ago. There are similar trends in attitudes concerning interracial dating and marriage. In a 1980 Gallup Poll that surveyed teens about interracial dating, only 17 percent noted that they had dated someone of another race. Toward the end of the 1990s, 57 percent of teenagers surveyed reported that they had dated interracially. …Likewise, in the 1950s, only 4 percent of Americans said they approved of interracial marriage. By the end of the twentieth century, more than 60 percent voiced approval of black-white marriages.” (Thompson & Hickey, 2008, p. 285)
There’s still a lot of work to be done before we can consider ourselves a post-racial society. In fact, we seem to be backsliding a bit, with racist attitudes enjoying a resurgence in recent years. Prejudice tends to rise in lockstep with feelings of insecurity, and so I fear we could be in for a tough road ahead, as Americans seem to be growing more insecure and disgruntled by the day.