HAVING OUR
SAY: TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT RACE
by Rodolpho Carrasco
Saturday, November
6, 1999 in San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group
[Rodolpho Carrasco is associate director of Harambee Christian Family Center
in Pasadena, Calif. Check out more articles by Rodolpho Carrasco here.
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In
this space I comment on a variety of topics, but no topic receives as much
feedback or emotional outpouring as race. Last month I received two completely
different letters from people who surfed through my web column archive (urbanonramps.com/rc)
and had something they wanted to get off their chest.
The first letter writer, a Mr. Lewis, wrote about discrimination against and self-hatred by Afro-Latinos. He had read articles I had written about African Americans and Latinos and weighed in with his opinion that the African presence in the Latino communities is shamefully hidden.
Lewis railed against Univision, the Spanish-language network, where he says "Blacks are either completely ignored or they are portrayed as criminals and buffoons...." He called pop singer Ricky Martin an example of how the culture of Afro Latinos is "ripped off and sold throughout the world as white Latino culture." He estimated that there are 150 million Blacks in Latin America, and lamented that "white Latinos don't want the world to know that many of them have Black ancestors. They want to be accepted by Anglos and Anglos don't believe in mixed whites."
Lewis made no direct comment to me. He aired his voluminous thoughts in an email which had no real beginning or ending. In short, he vented to someone he thought could relate to what he had to say.
The
second letter writer, a Mr. Herman, also vented, but his point was not to
commiserate. A self-described regular reader of this column, he went to great
lengths to prove to me that I am a racist.
At six distinct points in his letter Herman made comments like, "You sound like a racist," and, "You have a touch of racism in your blood." According to him, I use hyphens to describe Mexican-Americans, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans, but simply call whites "whites" rather than "Americans of European descent" or "white Americans." This, he said, he resented.
Regarding affirmative action, illegal immigration, and complaining minorities, Herman had something to say. He opined that it is unfair that the United Negro College Fund thrives even though Blacks "do not want to be called Negro." His final diatribe covered a variety of Mexico-related issues and ended with a story about his friend who was arrested while hunting in Mexico and had to bribe his way out of jail.
While his tone was adversarial, his venting was similar to Lewis's in that he had something to say about race, found a place to dump it, and dumped.
In my travels both locally and around the nation, I come across many people who are in the position of Lewis and Herman. They have things to say about race but few or no outlets in which to say them. Often, after sitting on a panel on race or giving a lecture on a race-related topic, I talk to waves of attendees who do not have questions so much as comments.
In September, in Wisconsin, a jammed-room of young leaders carried the question-and-answer period well in to the next session. There were Southern White men who were compelled to defend the South and insist that race relations were not as bad as the media portrays. Single women who had moved into inner city areas to make a difference commented on how they were not accepted by their neighbors. People from six different states remarked that they wanted to make friends with the Latino immigrants new to their area, but were afraid of offending them.
Though they are a form of dialogue, these discussions seem much closer to truth commissions than anything else. In a truth commission process, all sides in a conflict get a chance to tell the truth, in the age-old belief that truth will help set us all free.
The most famous truth commission of our times, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), has helped that divided nation inch toward healing. Another truth commission, in Tulsa, is this Fall challenging Oklahomans to confront a horrific event in 1921 when rampaging Whites killed 300 Blacks and burned 1,000 homes owned by Blacks, all because a white girl alleged that she was assaulted by a Black teen male.
Many have called for truth commissions in the United States. Those who see their historical role as the victim clamor for it. Those who will be positioned as the perpetrators wonder what "dredging up the past" will accomplish.
Anything approximating a truth commission process - such as a lengthy letter to an opinion writer - often works toward a greater good. Herman's exposé of what he believes are my racist inclinations contains a sign of hope. Nowhere did he proclaim, "I'm not a racist." He wrote, "You see, you are somewhat of a racist, too." His insistence that I, also, am a racist acknowledged his own racism, something few are willing to do.
This is progress. Most people avoid discussions about race for fear of being called a name. Many people I meet introduce themselves by showing proofs that they are not prejudiced.
But prejudice is not the issue, because all of us - Latinos, Asians, Blacks and Whites - hold some form of prejudice against others. The issue is whether we can accept that self-examination and personal exposure are pre-requisite to achieve truth and reconciliation.
If we accept the dictates of the truth-telling process, if we accept that as we vent in person or on paper we are being examined just as we examine, we might actually get around to doing something worthwhile, like resolving a racial conflict.
If we let fear of being called a name or of uncovering some ugly truth about ourselves keep us from speaking out, we doom ourselves to lives of endless, unresolved conflicts.
-- END --
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