The
Deprogramming Dilemma – 18
The Rashomon of Racism
By D-Jay
Aficionados of Japanese cinema
will be quite familiar with legendary director Akira Kurosawa’s 1950
masterpiece, Rashomon. In
it, a ruthless bandit rapes a young woman and murders her samurai husband…or
did the woman seduce him and he then killed her husband in an honorable duel…or
was the wife disgusted with both men and goaded them into an inept and unwanted
fight with each other…or did the samurai kill himself out of shame with his
wife’s ornate dagger after she tried to run off with the bandit? The basic facts are all the same, but the
interpretation depends entirely on the point of view and self-image of the
person telling the story (or spirit speaking through a medium, in the case of
the samurai) and their attempt to paint themselves in the best possible light.
Looking at reactions to the
George Floyd murder trial and other police killings of black civilians, along
with the crime statistics released by the FBI and the those of police killings
of civilians compiled by the Washington Post, I’m more and more reminded of
Kurosawa’s classic film.
The Rashomon of racism, if you
will.
If you watched CNN or MSNBC in
the wake of the George Floyd killing through the Chauvin trial, conviction and
sentencing, or listened to the statements made by some Black Lives Matter
activists, you’d probably come away with the impression that every police
action taken against a person of color is proof positive that America is a
racist nation and that every police department in the country is little more
than an organized goon squad whose sole purpose is the subjugation of
minorities.
Watch reports about the same
incidents on Fox “News” or listen to any Trump supporter, however, and you’d
find instead that America has bent over backwards to offer a hand up to black
ingrates who are too lazy to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and don’t
appreciate the opportunities they’ve been given. As for Chauvin and every other police officer
who’s ever harmed a black person, they’re the real victims. Heroic guardians of the peace just trying to
protect their communities from the rampaging mob.
Or consider how people view these
2019
crime statistics compiled by the FBI (the latest year available.) A total of 6,816,975 arrests were reported by
police to the FBI that year, of which 1,815,144 were attributed to blacks –
26.6%, roughly twice their 12.4 percentage of the population. For the category of murder, the disparity is
even greater. Out of 7,964 killings, blacks
were charged for 4,078 – a full 51.2% of the total.
To many black Americans these
disparities constitute clear and compelling evidence that the police are
unfairly targeting their community, while on the Trumpian side says that the
same statistics prove exactly the opposite…just how dangerous and
out-of-control our African American community can be.
The Rashomon of racism.
Could it be that both sides
are right?
And both are wrong?
Trapped in their own
perspectives, do the loudest and most opinionated people on both sides
completely miss the nuanced reality of a complex situation…and with it the
chance to find solutions to real problems that might actually work.
After all, it’s so much easier
to blame others for the bad stuff in your life than to look long and hard at
what your side might do better. And you
get the added bonus of claiming for yourself a constant sugar-high of snooty
self-righteousness.
So white folks – especially
those who act as apologists for everything done by our race, let’s think for a
minute. Is America an irredeemably, 100%
racist country?
No.
But that doesn’t mean that a very
real legacy of racism doesn’t exist.
Just because lots of African
Americans have been wildly successful in America, it doesn’t mean that millions
more aren’t born into an intractable cycle of disadvantage and poverty.
Having for hundreds of years
been largely shut out of programs and opportunities that would have allowed the
development of the kind of multi-generational wealth and security enjoyed by
many white families, is it any wonder that many black families are stuck in
poor neighborhoods that foster high crime rates and a sense of despair?
Who are we to denigrate and
disbelieve the experience of moderate, intelligent, successful black people like
Eugene Robinson or James Clyburn when they basically tell us that, yes, they do
encounter racism on a regular basis…and, yes, it sucks?
All this being said…and
rightly so…in Rashomon, everyone was spinning what they had experienced to suit
their purposes. To paint themselves in
the best possible light. To make
themselves believe that they were the blameless victim. The only one with integrity.
So too it is with the Rashomon
of racism.
Yes, racism exists in the USA,
and, yes, lots should be done about it.
But to all our black brothers
and sisters. To all the oh-so-woke white
folks, activists and academics who want to demonstrate their moral superiority
by making the cause their own…even if they take it much further than 70% of
ordinary African Americans themselves would probably like it to be
taken, if a recent CBS/YouGov poll is to be believed.
To all of you I have two
simple questions.
Which is more important to
you…feeling that you are right and having a sense of moral superiority…or
helping to see real steps taken that might actually solve the problem?
If you make your point
brilliantly and everyone in your circle applauds you loudly, but we end up with
Donald Trump back in the White House in 2024, his enablers back in control of
Congress in 2022, highly effective voter suppression legislation in place
throughout the country and any realistic chance for racial reconciliation gone
for at least a generation. Is that okay?
If not, a little bit of
attitude – and message – adjustment is desperately needed.
The hard-core 30% - the true
Trump cultists and QAnon types might not be reachable…but tens of millions of
others are.
Reachable by both sides, that
is.
They aren’t card-carrying
practicing racists like a certain orange-colored resident of Mar-a-Lago and his
most fanatical followers, but they do see themselves as being patriotic lovers
of America and strongly pro-police. And
they really, really, really don’t like it when people like George Washington
and Thomas Jefferson are condemned 200 years after the fact and every police
officer is regarded as a storm trooper.
Do they have a too narrow and
one-sided view of history and how it casts its long, dark shadow even today?
Maybe so.
But they also vote.
In their millions.
And if too many of them are
too turned off but what they see coming from the “progressive” community, make
no mistake, the massive voter suppression effort now underway nationwide will
succeed, we will lose the Congress in 2022, and the presidency in 2024.
If not to Trump himself,
perhaps to someone smarter who has learned how to press the same buttons.
But don’t take my word for
it. Check out what James Carville said about
our “wokeness” and anti-police rhetoric problem.
Wokeness
is a problem and everyone knows it. It’s hard to talk to anybody today — and I
talk to lots of people in the Democratic Party — who doesn’t say this. But they
don’t want to say it out loud…Because they’ll get clobbered or canceled.
And
maybe tweeting that we should abolish the police isn’t the smartest thing to do
because almost fucking no one wants to do that.
The
only way Democrats can hold power is to build on their coalition, and that will
have to include more rural white voters from across the country. Democrats are
never going to win a majority of these voters. That’s the reality. But the
difference between getting beat 80 to 20 and 72 to 28 is all the difference in
the world.
So
they just have to lose by less — that’s all.
Not convinced? How about James Clyburn on “defunding
the police?”
We
need the police.
We
want the police.
They
have a role to play.
I
don't want us to allow sloganeering to hijack this movement & cause people
of goodwill to resist making the changes we need to make.
So yes
to reallocating resources & reform.
No to
defunding the police.
Got it?
If we want to break out of the
Rashomon of racism’s vicious cycle, we have to recognize that people on the
other side might not be looking at the issue the way we are. We don’t have to agree with them, but can’t
we at least stop doing and saying things that just push them into the waiting
arms of Donald Trump?
*****************************************************************************************
Contributing factors to our democratic decline:
From the Right
Truth
Decay – Destruction of the Ability to Distinguish Fantasy from Reality
Ever
Worsening Demonization of the Media
Manufactured
Distrust of Science and Expertise
The
Iron Bubble of Disinformation
The
Dark Money Conspiracy
Information
Warfare Aimed at Us
Domestic
Terrorism
Emergence
of a Full-blown Cult of Personality
Ongoing
Voter Suppression and Gerrymandering
Election
Security
Continued
Weaponization of Social Media
Toxic
Right-wing Pseudo-Christianity
Racism
Sexism
and a Pseudo-Macho Mentality
Putinism
and the International Neo-Fascist Movement
Lack of
Education in Civics and Critical Thinking Skills
Destruction
of Crucial Democratic Norms
The
Collapse of Good Manners and Propriety
Radicalization
Sedition
From the Left (and Sometimes the Center)
OTT PC
(Over-The-Top Political Correctness)
Inept
Messaging
Lack of
Media Investment
Arrogance
Surrender
of Rural America Without a Fight
Failure
to Call Out and Counteract Toxic Right-Wing Christianity
Failure
to Call Out Right-Wing Racism, Sexism and Fascism for what it is, and
Counteract it in Time
Framing
Too Many Issues as Being Rooted in Race Rather than Economics and Class
Failure
to Recognize Just How Bad Things Can Really Get
Forever
Bringing Beanbags to a Knife Fight
Failure
to Protect Critical Norms
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