Race :: December 18th, 2002 ::
So. If you follow political news in the United States, I imagine you’ve heard about the continuing saga of Trent Lott as he tries to account and apologize for those unfortunate things he said at Strom Thurmond’s birthday party. He’s had a hard time explaining what he was referring to when he spoke of “all these problems over all these years,” because he was in fact referring to the problems that have arisen as a result of the efforts of integration. To say that it was anything else is an insult to our understanding of the history of race in this country, not to mention our understanding of the awful, mean-spirited and divisive politics that Thurmond ran for president on, (and based his political career on, for that matter). But what’s more painful than listening to Trent Lott’s bigotry or watching as he tries to account for his sentamentalism for the politics of segregation is the fact that, as we focus so much on the bigotry of this one guy, we wind up ignoring the larger social problem of racism that fosters exactly the sort of mentality that Lott exhibited at that fateful party.
The things Trent Lott said showed a mentality of racism, and he is being held accountable for it. That’s a good thing. But he should not be held accountable without looking at the reasons for that mentality. To start with, he comes from a generation of Southerners who had accepted segregation. That generation fought integration whenever they could, and many of its members became angered and politically disenfranchised when the Federal Government forced them to abandon their laws, and with that, their culture as well. Lott was an active participant in the fight to preserve the laws and culture of segregation. While it was a fight that the South eventually lost and he had to alter his strategy so he could maintain political relevance, his cultural understanding — including his racist mentality — endured, and we saw it, among other places, at Strom Thurmond’s birthday party. So if we see Lott as coming from a culture that has a longstanding history of racism and social injustice, we begin to see his comments in a much different light. They sprang from a deep-seeded racist mentality that he didn’t even know was there. And while he should be held responsible for what he said, I think that our society needs to be held responsible for its hand in perpetuating that racism. That means that, in some sense, we’re all responsible.
But that’s the long view. There is much to be done in the immediate future. Watching the reaction to Trent Lott’s comments and subsequent apologies, it is clear that the dialog on race that we are engaged in right now is not particularly useful, and it is not progressing toward more equality or justice. It is instead making a scapegoat of Trent Lott, which, unfortunately, lets the rest of us off the hook.
Of particularly important meaning has been John Lewis’s reactions to Trent Lot. His initial criticism, then forgiveness of Lott is particularly important, given Lewis’s stance on racism, and his history in the civil rights movement. He has fought for justice and equality, and nearly died for his beliefs. For him to forgive Trent Lott when so many others have been unwilling to shows something about what’s wrong with how we deal with racism; but it also shows the direction we should be going.
I’ve been trying to find the language to describe what’s been happening in regard to this issue, but I’ve been having a hard time of it. I would like to hear your opinion.
