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It’s time to call it what it is

June 18, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Anthony Carnovale

Remember when you were young and you challenged somebody to a race – a foot race, a bike race – you know, the first to the top, first to the bottom type of race, where it didn’t really matter who won, just as long as you were all running in the same direction; when you could be both a winner, and a loser, and still be friends in the end?

I have a question: when did talking about race get so complicated? When we talk about race today, there are still winners and losers, but we’re no longer running in the same direction, and the consequences of coming in second can be devastating.  We throw out words like equity, diversity and tolerance, when we don’t even know what they mean. We’re tripping over our tongues, stumbling over our words, and have no idea where the finish line is. 

In the beginning was the word. 

The Oxford Dictionary defines the ‘white’ as: having a coloUr like that of fresh snow or milk; morally, spiritually pure. The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘black’ as: angry; threatening; implying disgrace; gloomy; depressed; wicked, sinister. 

One of the problems about talking about race today, is that too many people aren’t thinking before they open their mouths or offer their opinion. Just because you have an opinion doesn’t mean you should share it. To share your thoughts, especially in a public forum, and not think that people could be offended by things you write or say, reeks of privilege. In my mind, words are like weapons. Words are like bullets fired from the barrel of our mouths. The words we use and, sometimes, don’t use can hurt people. They keep records of people killed by guns. They should keep a record of those who have been felled, or injured, by words. 

Words matter. Words matter more than ever because in 2020 a conversation is taking place that requires new ideas and new modes of thought. The old conversation went something like this (these are things I’ve heard recently):

√ ’m allowed to be racist after all that I’ve been through. 

√ lack people need to help themselves before they ask for help from others.

√ When I came to this country, I was treated like Blacks are treated today. I’m allowed to say the things that I say. 

√ ow can they expect to be helped and taken seriously, when they shut down conversations, attack police and loot stores and businesses? 

√ f you want me to stop being racist towards Blacks, they need to stop being racist towards me. 

The old conversation wasn’t much of a conversation at all. And the reason this is, is because White people do not know how to talk about race. Race has always been some other group’s issue.  

In her book, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, Robin Di Angelo writes: “When I talk to white people about racism, their responses are so predictable I sometimes feel as though we are reciting lines from a shared script. And on some level, we are, because we are actors in a shared culture.”

This is why I have to take exception with Sandy Brown’s column from last week. I don’t know Sandy. I know that I voted for him because he seemed like a sensible person. He was articulate, sincere, and, well, wasn’t Jeremy Williams. When I sent him an email recently, he responded quickly and in kind. I don’t have a problem with Sandy, I have a problem with his views and what they represent. He decided to share his opinion in a public forum. I’m going to use my privilege, and this space, to address his piece. I picked a few statements that I feel set the tone for his entire column. 

First: While, I cannot claim to be understand (sic) the daily reality of a minority… 

It should be very clear, by now, that this is not an issue of how minorities are being treated. What we are seeing, hearing and reading about is anti-Black racism. Refusing to call it anything else, is irresponsible and leads me to think that you’re missing the point. Charles Baudelaire’s wrote: “The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing people that he does not exist.” Anti-Black racism exists. Name it. 

Second: Many of the situations in the U.S. and Canada have had their beginnings in a mental health, or substance abuse situation.

Now, this statement is the one that really did my head in. You see what’s happening here, Mayor Brown? You’ve taken the conversation in a completely different direction. When you make the conversation about mental health and substance abuse, white power and privilege is rendered invisible. You seem reluctant to name it. In his book The Skin We’re In, Desmond Cole writes: Whiteness can rhyme off the sins of blackness even as it resists any collective agency or responsibility for itself. So long as the spectre of blackness looms largest, whatever whiteness is doing cannot be so bad, or at least can’t be worth mentioning.” And what situations are you referring to?

Your column reads as if you’re placing the blame on the victims. I would have liked to have seen some facts to back up your claim. We need facts, not sweeping generalizations. I don’t recall reading, or seeing, anything about these men being in any particular distress at the time they came into contact with police or vigilante civilians. I mean, Eric Garner was selling loose cigarettes; 12 year-old Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun; Amadou Diallo was reaching for his wallet before being shot at 41 times (only 19 of them hit their target); Freddie Gray died in police custody- his feet and hands were bound in chains; Walter Scott was killed, after being shot in the back; Rumain Brisbon was shot because an officer mistook Brisbon’s pill bottle for a gun; John Crawford was shopping for an air rifle at a Wal-Mart in Ohio, when police officers shot and killed him. Ahmaud Aubrey was out for a run when he was lynched; Trayvon Martin was eating a bag of Skittles. Christian Cooper is, thankfully, still alive. He was looking out for flycatchers and red-bellied woodpeckers when Amy Cooper called the police on him because he had asked her to leash her dog. Christian Cooper was not in any distress until he was threatened by a white woman. George Floyd was sitting in his car. The only time he appeared to be in distress, was when Derek Chauvin had his knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.

Again, this issue is not about improving social services. This is not about focussing on how racism hurts people of color and the services they’ll need to help with that hurt. This is not about substance abuse. This is not about accessing services in a system that is clearly broken; this is about imagining an entirely new system. This is about white people being asked to examine whiteness and how racism elevates white people. We’re being asked to examine a system that was designed, and is protected, by white people and white privilege. The first thing we need to do is name it and speak to it. Until we do that, nothing will change. We are not born racist, but we are born privileged. White people need to recognize that the race has never been an equitable one.  

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