Highbrow Magazine - racial divide https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/racial-divide en 100 Years After the Tulsa Race Massacre https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12086-years-after-tulsa-race-massacre <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 06/01/2021 - 12:40</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1tulsa_wikipedia.jpg?itok=Lh3se3qt"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1tulsa_wikipedia.jpg?itok=Lh3se3qt" width="480" height="308" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>Commentary:</strong></p> <p>When Viola Fletcher, 107, <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?511795-1/hearing-centennial-1921-tulsa-race-massacre" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">appeared before Congress</a> in May 2021, she <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/19/us/tulsa-massacre-survivors-congress/index.html" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">called for the nation</a> to officially acknowledge the Tulsa race riot of 1921.</p> <p>I know that place and year well. As is the case with Fletcher – who is one of the last living survivors of the massacre, which took place when she was 7 – the terror of the Tulsa race riot is something that has been with me for almost as long as I can remember. My grandfather, Robert Fairchild, told the story nearly a quarter-century ago to several newspapers.</p> <p>Here’s how <em>The Washington Post</em> recounted his story in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/05/30/the-fire-that-seared-into-tulsas-memory/dc8e1864-7f1f-477d-b43c-2e042621c956/" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">1996</a>:</p> <p><em>“At 92 years old, Robert Fairchild is losing his hearing, but he can still make out the distant shouts of angry white men firing guns late into the night 75 years ago. His eyes are not what they used to be, but he has no trouble seeing the dense, gray smoke swallowing his neighbors’ houses as he walked home from a graduation rehearsal, a frightened boy of 17.</em></p> <p><em>His has since been a life of middle-class comfort, a good job working for the city, a warm family life. But he has never forgotten his mother’s anguish in 1921 as she fled toward the railroad tracks to escape the mobs and fires tearing through the vibrant Black neighborhood of Greenwood in north Tulsa.”</em></p> <p>“There was just nothing left,” Fairchild <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/05/30/the-fire-that-seared-into-tulsas-memory/dc8e1864-7f1f-477d-b43c-2e042621c956/" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">told the newspaper</a>.</p> <p><em>The Washington Post</em> article said the Tulsa race riots of 1921 were among the “worst race riots in the nation’s history.” It reported: “The death toll during the 12-hour rampage is still in dispute, but estimates have put it as high as 250. More than 1,000 businesses and homes were burned to the ground, scores of Black families were herded into cattle pens at the fairgrounds, and one of the largest and most prosperous Black communities in the United States was turned to ashes.”</p> <p>Riots began after a white mob attempted to lynch a teenager falsely accused of assaulting a white woman. Black residents came to his defense, some armed. The groups traded shots, and mob violence followed. My family eventually returned to a decimated street. Miraculously, their home on Latimer Avenue was spared.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2tulsa_wikimedia.jpg" style="height:375px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Disturbing history</strong></p> <p>Hearing about these experiences at the family table was troubling enough. Reading a newspaper account of your ancestors fleeing for their lives is a surreal pain. There’s recognition of your family’s terror, and relief in knowing your family survived what <em>60 Minutes</em> once called “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/greenwood-massacre-tulsa-oklahoma-1921-race-riot-60-minutes-2020-06-14/" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">one of the worst race massacres in American history</a>.”</p> <p>In spite of my grandfather’s witness, this same event didn’t merit inclusion in any of my assigned history texts, either in high school or college. On the occasions I’ve mentioned this history to my colleagues, they’ve been astonished.</p> <p>In 1996, at the 75th anniversary of the massacre, the city of Tulsa finally acknowledged what had happened. Community leaders from different backgrounds publicly recognized the devastation wrought by the riots. They gathered in a church that had been torched in the riot and since rebuilt. My grandfather <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/31/us/75-years-later-tulsa-confronts-its-race-riot.html" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">told The New York Times</a> then that he was “extremely pleased that Tulsa has taken this occasion seriously.”</p> <p>“A mistake has been made,” he told the paper, “and this is a way to really look at it, then look toward the future and try to make sure it never happens again.”</p> <p>That it took so long for the city to acknowledge what took place shows how selective society can be when it comes to which historical events it chooses to remember – and which ones to overlook. The history that society colludes to avoid publicly is necessarily remembered privately.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Economically vibrant</strong></p> <p>Even with massive destruction, the area of North Tulsa, known as Greenwood, became known for its economic vitality. On the blocks surrounding the corner of Archer Street and Greenwood Avenue in the 1930s, a <a href="https://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.3239#:%7E:text=Dubbed%20America's%20%22Black%20Wall%20Street,commerce%20in%20the%20early%201900s" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">thriving business district</a> flourished with retail shops, entertainment venues and high-end services. One of these businesses was the <em>Oklahoma Eagle</em>, a Black-owned newspaper. As a teenager in the early 1940s, my father had his first job delivering the paper.</p> <p>Without knowing the history, it would be a surprise to the casual observer that years earlier, everything in this neighborhood had been razed to the ground. The <a href="https://deadline.com/2020/06/terror-in-tulsa-the-rise-and-fall-of-black-wall-street-docuseries-in-works-stanley-nelson-russell-westbrook-blackfin-1202954194/" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Black Wall Street Memorial</a>, a black marble monolith, sits outside the Greenwood Cultural Center. The memorial is dedicated to the entrepreneurs and pioneers who made Greenwood Avenue what it was both before and after it was destroyed in the 1921 riot.</p> <p>Although I grew up on military bases across the world, I would visit Greenwood many times over the years. As I grew into my teenage years in the 1970s, I recognized that the former vibrant community was beginning to decline. Some of this was due to the destructive effects of urban renewal and displacement. As with many other Black communities across the country, parts of Greenwood were razed to <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/29/case-reparations-tulsa-oklahoma#_Toc41573967" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">make way for highways</a>.</p> <p>Some of the decline was due to the exit of financial institutions, including banks. This contributed to a decrease in opportunities to build wealth, including savings and investment products, loans for homes and businesses, and funding to help build health clinics and affordable housing.</p> <p>And at least some was due to the diminished loyalty of residents to Black-owned businesses and institutions. During the civil rights movement, downtown Tulsa businesses began to allow Black people into their doors as customers. As a result, Black residents spent less money in their community.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3tulsa_wikimedia.jpg" style="height:446px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Historical lessons</strong></p> <p>At the end of my father’s military career in the 1970s, he became a community development banker in Virginia. His work involved bringing together institutions – investors, financial institutions, philanthropists, local governments – to develop innovative development solutions for areas like Greenwood. For me, there are lessons in the experiences of three generations – my grandfather’s, father’s and mine – that influence my scholarly work today.</p> <p>On the one hand, I study how years after the end of legal segregation, Americans remain racially separate in our neighborhoods, schools and workplaces and at alarmingly high levels. My research has shown how segregation depresses <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2006.10.010" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">economic</a> and social <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-009-9202-x" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">outcomes</a>. In short, segregation creates closed markets that stunt economic activity, especially in the Black community.</p> <p>On the other hand, I focus on solutions. One avenue of work involves examining the business models of <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/emerging-domestic-markets/9780231173223" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Community Development Financial Institutions</a>, or CDFIs, and <a href="https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S1084946720500028" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Minority Depository Institutions</a>, or MDIs. These are financial institutions that are committed to economic development – banks, credit unions, loan funds, equity funds – that operate in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. They offer what was sorely needed in North Tulsa, and many other neighborhoods across the nation – locally attuned financial institutions that understand the unique challenges families and businesses face in minority communities.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2blackfamily_pickpik.jpg" style="height:429px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Righting historical wrongs</strong></p> <p>There are interventions we can take, locally and nationally, that recognize centuries of financial and social constraint. Initiatives like the 2020 decision by the Small Business Administration and U.S. Treasury to allocate <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1020" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">US$10 billion</a> to lenders that focus funds on disadvantaged areas are a start. These types of programs are needed even when there aren’t full-scale economic and social crises taking place, like the COVID-19 epidemic or protesters in the street. Years of institutional barriers and racial wealth gaps cannot be redressed unless there’s a recognition that capital matters.</p> <p>The 1921 Tulsa race riot began on May 31, only weeks before the annual celebration of Juneteenth, which is observed on June 19. As communities across the country begin recognizing Juneteenth and leading corporations <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/17/here-are-the-companies-observing-juneteenth-this-year.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.apple.UIKit.activity.Message" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">move to celebrate it</a>, it’s important to remember the story behind Juneteenth – slaves weren’t informed that they were emancipated.</p> <p>After the celebrations, there’s hard work ahead. From my grandfather’s memory of the riot’s devastation to my own work addressing low-income communities’ economic challenges, I have come to see that change requires harnessing economic, governmental and nonprofit solutions that recognize and speak openly about the significant residential, educational and workplace racial segregation that still exists in the United States today.</p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Gregory B. Fairchild is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-grandfather-to-grandson-the-lessons-of-the-tulsa-race-massacre-140925" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">article</a> originally published on May 21, 2020</em> in <a href="https://theconversation.com/100-years-after-the-tulsa-race-massacre-lessons-from-my-grandfather-161391" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">the Conversation</a>. It’s reprinted here with permission under a <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/republishing-guidelines" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Creative Commons license</a>.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><em>--<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tulsa_Aftermath.jpg" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Wikipedia</a> (Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tulsa_race_riot_inflames-1921.jpg" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia</a> (Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--Tulsa World (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tulsaraceriot1921-wounded-pickedup-fullpicture.jpg" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--<a href="https://www.pickpik.com/african-american-slavery-man-woman-black-family-38100" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Pickpik</a> (Creative Commons)</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tulsa-massacre" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">tulsa massacre</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/1921-race-riots" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">1921 race riots</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/segregations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">segregations</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/death-toll" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">death toll</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racial-divide" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial divide</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Gregory B. Fairchild </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 01 Jun 2021 16:40:20 +0000 tara 10385 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12086-years-after-tulsa-race-massacre#comments Behind the Unrest in Ferguson, Mo. https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4225-behind-unrest-ferguson-mo <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 08/18/2014 - 11:14</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ferguson.jpg?itok=PiC55Po4"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ferguson.jpg?itok=PiC55Po4" width="480" height="305" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/08/behind-fergusons-unrest-failed-federal-policy-and-the-black-white-housing-gap.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>On the surface, the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., was about local police using deadly force on an unarmed young man. But on a deeper level, it reflected the increasing poverty and economic decline that affects ethnic communities all over America.</p> <p> </p> <p>Despite rosy reports in the media about the end of the national foreclosure crisis and the recession that followed, all is not well in our inner cities and suburbs with largely minority populations, like Ferguson.</p> <p> </p> <p>The foreclosure crisis was hard on many Americans, but it was a disaster for communities of color, including the citizens of Ferguson.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Half of Ferguson Homes Underwater</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>In the zip code that encompasses Ferguson, half (49 percent) of homes were underwater in 2013, meaning the home’s market value was below the mortgage’s outstanding balance. This condition (also called “negative equity”) is often a first step toward loan default or foreclosure, according to the recent report, "Underwater America," from the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California, Berkeley.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mortgage lenders targeted predominantly black and Hispanic areas for the highest-risk, highest-cost types of mortgage loans, such as adjustable-rate mortgages and loans with high prepayment penalties. This led to higher-than-average default rates, according to the Housing Commission established by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.</p> <p> </p> <p>Many of the families that were sold risky mortgages had good credit, decent incomes and everything else necessary to qualify for traditional long-term, fixed-rate loans. Yet, they were not offered those kinds of loans, but instead “steered into exotic and costly mortgages they did not fully understand and could not afford,” the commission said.</p> <p> </p> <p>This “deliberate targeting of minority areas for the sale of risky and expensive loans,” as the commission described it, wreaked havoc on the financial wellbeing of affected families and undermined the stability of entire neighborhoods.</p> <p> </p> <p>African-American and Latino borrowers were almost twice as likely to have lost their homes to foreclosure as non-Hispanic whites, according to the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).</p> <p> </p> <p>“Communities of color got the worst of everything. They were given the highest-risk, most expensive mortgages, they received the worst servicing from their mortgage lenders, and they have suffered the most damage from the nation’s long economic slump,” said Liz Ryan Murray, policy director for National People’s Action, a Chicago-based group that has been fighting against discriminatory home lending practices since the 1970s.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Black-White Housing Divide “Historic”</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The homeownership rate for African-American households peaked at 49 percent in 2004, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies report, “The State of the Nation’s Housing 2013.” The rate of black home ownership--with all the potential for upward mobility it offers--fell to 43.9 percent in 2012. The homeownership rate among white households declined during that time, too, but remained at 73.5 percent.</p> <p> </p> <p>“The black-white gap [in homeownership rates] has reached historic proportions,” Harvard’s report said.</p> <p> </p> <p>There has also been a powerfully negative ripple effect on other property owners who never had a problem making their mortgage payments but owned property near people who did. The losses in household wealth that resulted from foreclosures and abandonment of nearby properties have disproportionately hurt communities of color, according to many sources that have studied the issue.</p> <p> </p> <p>In ethnic neighborhoods, the average decline in home prices from 2006 to 2013 was 26 percent, according to Harvard's 2014 report. That's roughly three times the decline experienced in white areas.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nationwide, about 27 percent of homeowners in minority areas had negative equity compared to about 15 percent of owners in white areas.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Little Prospect for Recovery</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Lower-income areas have little prospect for home prices to recover soon, or for businesses or banks to start reinvesting in hard-hit neighborhoods.</p> <p> </p> <p>“In some communities with many foreclosed properties, the crisis threatens to doom the entire neighborhood to a cycle of disinvestment and decay,” according to Chicago's Business and Professional People for the Public Interest.</p> <p> </p> <p>Their report goes on, “A cluster of vacant properties can destabilize a block. A cluster of troubled blocks can destabilize a neighborhood. The costs are substantial.”</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2ferguson.jpg" style="height:417px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Cities affected the most by foreclosures can’t afford to do very much to stimulate new investment or buy and fix abandoned properties. In many cases, they can't even afford to board up abandoned properties or clean up trash left by vagrants and vandals.</p> <p> </p> <p>Adding to the impact of foreclosures is the ongoing economic slump and the high rate of black unemployment. As a consequence, poverty and the despair and anger that go with it, are increasing in suburbs like Ferguson.</p> <p> </p> <p>Between 2000 and 2011, the impoverished population in suburbs grew by two-thirds—more than twice the rate of growth in cities, according to Confronting Suburban Poverty in America, a 2013 book from the Brookings Institution Press.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>50 Years Since Watts</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The year 2015 will mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of an explosive series of urban events in American history. An August 1965 traffic arrest in South Central Los Angeles lit the fuse on one of the most devastating civil upheavals in American history.</p> <p> </p> <p>African-American residents of the Watts section of Los Angeles rebelled against a mayor and a police force many considered to be racist. The fires and the violence raged for six days, resulting in 34 deaths and the destruction, damage or looting of 1,000 buildings.</p> <p> </p> <p>After more rioting in 1966 and 1967, a presidential commission on urban problems was convened and Congress enacted programs to provide affordable housing and revitalize cities. In 1968, equal access to housing regardless of race became the law of the land.</p> <p> </p> <p>To a very large extent, most of those programs worked as intended, improving conditions for millions of Americans, many of them ethnic families.</p> <p> </p> <p>Unfortunately, the United States government's commitment to housing and cities has waned in recent years. The decline in funding and elimination of certain key programs could not have come at a worse time. Meanwhile, there has been a powerful backlash among mostly white communities against federal legal initiatives to enforce the fair housing and fair lending laws.</p> <p> </p> <p>The U.S. Congress has been fixated on budget cuts, and with a contentious election coming up, much of the progress made since the 1960s is in jeopardy. President Barack Obama's 2015 proposed housing budget would restore some of the cuts in funding for housing programs made in recent years. However, even if Congress accepted his plan, it would not restore all the cuts or provide resources sufficient to address the nation’s housing and urban problems.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>'Arrested Progress' Against Poverty</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>After the riots in 1965, 1966 and 1967, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (known as the Kerner Commission) issued a report saying, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal. Segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown to most white Americans.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Today, ethnic communities are suffering setbacks again. Even as our population is becoming more diverse, our communities are becoming more segregated and income inequality is increasing.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Arrested progress in the fight against poverty and residential segregation has helped concentrate many African Americans in some of the least desirable housing in some of the lowest-resourced communities in America,” according to a 2013 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).</p> <p> </p> <p>In addition to much higher poverty rates, African Americans suffer much more from the concentration of poverty. Nearly half (45 percent) of poor black children live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, but only one in eight low-income white children live in similar neighborhoods, EPI said.</p> <p> </p> <p>If the recent trends continue, the unrest in Missouri may not be an isolated reaction to a tragic shooting, but a harbinger of things to come.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Andre Shashaty is president of the nonprofit Partnership for Sustainable Communities and author of the forthcoming book, Rebuilding a Dream: America’s New Urban Crisis, the Housing Cost Explosion, and How We Can Reinvent the American Dream for All."</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/08/behind-fergusons-unrest-failed-federal-policy-and-the-black-white-housing-gap.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ferguson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ferguson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/missouri" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">missouri</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/unrest-ferguson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">unrest in ferguson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michael-brown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">michael brown</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-american-community" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">african american community</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/poor-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the poor</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ethnic-communities" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ethnic communities</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/economy-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the economy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racial-divide" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial divide</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andre F. Shashaty</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:14:22 +0000 tara 5086 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4225-behind-unrest-ferguson-mo#comments Obama, Trayvon and the Perpetual Racial Divide https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2635-obama-trayvon-and-perpetual-racial-divide <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 07/23/2013 - 10:26</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumObamaStateofUnion_3.jpg?itok=67Ac1lPU"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumObamaStateofUnion_3.jpg?itok=67Ac1lPU" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> From <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/07/obama_and_the_problem_that_cannot_be_named.html">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/07/obama_and_the_problem_that_cannot_be_named.html">Colorlines</a>:</p> <p>            </p> <p> During his surprise remarks about the George Zimmerman verdict Friday, President Obama talked at length not only about race, but also about his experience as a black man in America. Obama’s comments remain as conflicted as they were sometimes brave—evidenced by some of the suspicion and vitriol lodged against him in mainstream, independent and social media following the press conference. The short speech stands out as one of the few times that the president has talked explicitly about race and the problem of racism. But Obama’s remarks are also notable for what he did not address, and what so rarely gets addressed when we discuss racism today: white America’s responsibility for it.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Obama rightly claimed that he could have been Trayvon Martin 35 years ago. Those who immediately took to Twitter to remind us that Obama didn’t grow up in a ghetto are correct. But they should be reminded that Sanford, Fla., is a majority white, yet mixed neighborhood—and far from a ghetto. Those who remind us that Obama attended private schools should know that racism remains alive and well in those institutions. Yes, Obama attended Columbia University in the early 80s—during a time when a whites-only fellowship was offered; in fact, the fellowship never went away. And yes, Obama attended Harvard University, just up the street from where professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct four years ago—on suspicion that he was breaking into what turned out to be his own home. Those who think that racial profiling somehow only happens in “ghettos,” which in this case is code for black neighborhoods often orchestrated for poverty, should be informed that black bodies are even blacker among white ones.</p> <p>  </p> <p> But Barack Obama hasn’t only attended institutions that have historically created unfair advantages for white students, or questioned black professors who teach there.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Obama has been a politician in the United States where, for the past five years, he’s been continually harassed about this citizenship. A convincing rumor originally started by Hillary Clinton’s supporters in 2008, Obama’s dark skin and lineage cast doubt on his ability to campaign for president. Unlike any other candidate, Obama was forced to provide a copy of his birth certificate in order to illustrate his capacity to serve if elected. And unlike any other president, the rumor that the president may have been born in another country persists. That’s because Obama truly is unlike any other president—he’s a black one. And Friday’s remarks remind us that he, too, remembers what it’s like to not only be the nation’s first black president, but also what it’s like to be the black man in an elevator when a white woman clutches her purse.  </p> <p>  </p> <p> Which is why some of Obama’s earnest comments about racial profiling remain at critical odds with his potential decision to tap the New York Police Department’s Ray Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security. Under Kelly, stop-and-frisk has disproportionately targeted New York’s black and brown residents, the vast majority of whom are neither carrying drugs nor arms. Despite its futile consequences in an era of low crimes rates that are only decreasing, Kelly continues to defend racial profiling under stop-and-frisk. Obama’s powerful words lose meaning when he muses about appointing leaders that perpetuate the type of racism that thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3mediumtrayvon%20%28WerthMedia%20Flickr%29.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 480px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> The 2008 presidential campaign trail was the only other time that Obama ever spoke about race as explicitly and at such length as he did Friday. In that speech, he not only talked about blacks and whites, but he also talked about Natives, Latinos and Asians. And when he did address blacks and whites in the bulk of his words, he did so nearly on par: using the words “black” or “African American” 48 times, and using the word “white” 30 times. He made clear that the nation would never move forward on fundamental issues like education, healthcare, or the economy unless we first tackle the issue of race in America. “Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now,” claimed then-candidate Obama. And here were are, five years later, in what Obama called the racial stalemate we’ve been fixed in for far too long.</p> <p>  </p> <p> On Friday, Obama used the words “black” or “African American” 17 times, and the word “white” only once. At times, the president appeared to be the Explainer-in-Chief, clarifying for white folks a history and legacy that they, too, share—but in drastically different ways, and usually as benefit. Yet, by not specifically addressing this audience, by silencing whiteness and choosing to center again and again on black young men, Obama gave whiteness a pass. He gave it power by masking it, and making it silent.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> While he warned black folks against violence, which he said would dishonor Trayvon Martin, he remained silent about the little violence we do know about—when a white woman attacked 73-year-old R&amp;B legend Lester Chambers following the verdict. And rather than convening a national conversation about race—which would mean having frank conversation about white supremacy and privilege, Obama talked about his daughters. Yes, Malia, Sasha and their friends are different, but that’s likely due to their security detail, and to the fact that they live in a world that most black schoolgirls simply do not.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Five years ago, Obama reminded us that we’re still bound to a terrible past, and that, as a nation, we tend to treat race as spectacle. The Zimmerman verdict is only further proof of that. But it also feels like an opportunity—and hopefully one in which we can dialogue not only about blacks, but also about whites and whiteness.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/07/obama_and_the_problem_that_cannot_be_named.html">Colorlines</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: Whitehouse.gov; Werth Media (Flickr).</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">President Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trayvon-martin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Trayvon Martin</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-zimmerman" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">George Zimmerman</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racial-divide" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial divide</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race-issues" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race issues</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Aura Bogado </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">WhiteHouse.gov</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 23 Jul 2013 14:26:49 +0000 tara 3225 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2635-obama-trayvon-and-perpetual-racial-divide#comments The Race for the White House and the Issue of Racial Divide https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1758-race-white-house-and-issue-racial-divide <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 11/02/2012 - 15:05</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumwhitehouse%20%28Rob%20Young%20Wiki%29.jpg?itok=rokxJNMl"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumwhitehouse%20%28Rob%20Young%20Wiki%29.jpg?itok=rokxJNMl" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/11/election-2012-and-the-deep-racial-divide.php">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://www.theroot.com/">The Root</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> (The Root) -- Last week, four-star retired general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama's re-election bid. Powell, a lifelong Republican, broke with his party ranks for the second time, having chosen Obama over fellow veteran John McCain in 2008.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Powell waited until after the candidates' foreign policy debate to make the announcement, observing that President Obama got us "out of one war, started to get us out of a second war and did not get us into any new wars." On Mitt Romney, Powell was reticent: "The governor who was saying things at the debate ... was saying things that were quite different from what he said earlier. I'm not quite sure which Gov. Romney we'd be getting with respect to foreign policy."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Powell -- who first supported the war in Iraq but left the Bush administration after its failure to find weapons of mass destruction -- is a proven statesman and war hero. "I don't sense he's thought through these things as thoroughly as he should have," Powell said of Romney.</p> <p>  </p> <p> He also highlighted President Obama's success in saving a diving economy and Romney's lack of a fiscal plan beyond tax cuts that favor the wealthy. As for his party affiliation, Powell said, "I'm a Republican of a more moderate mold. That's something of a dying breed, I'm sorry to say."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Despite Powell's reasonable, well-articulated explanation, John Sununu, co-chair of the Romney campaign, abruptly concluded that Powell endorsed Obama simply because both men are black.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "When you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama," Sununu told CNN. When asked to expound, he continued, "I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States -- I applaud Colin for standing with him."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Mary Curtis wrote this week in the <em>Washington Post</em> that Sununu's reaction was to "reduce two complex men to skin color. Sununu can disagree with Obama because of policy, but when Powell supports him, it has to be race."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Enter the race card -- played by old white men in the Republican Party.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> The condescending nature of Sununu's comments aside, it speaks to a mindset in the modern GOP, and one that is having measurable effects on the 2012 election -- namely, white males are voting against the president in record numbers, and race seems to be the only explanation.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Sununu, of course, has little credibility or integrity. In 1991 he was forced to resign as White House chief of staff under then-President George H.W. Bush after press reports that Sununu had abused taxpayer dollars by using government jets for ski and golf trips, as well as other personal use, while classifying the travel as official business.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Besides a weakness for the high life, Sununu also has a penchant for race-baiting and Birtherism. He called the president "lazy" in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell and was recorded just a few months ago saying that Obama needed to "learn how be an American." (It's a curious statement, considering that Sununu himself is only a naturalized citizen of the U.S. -- born in Cuba to parents of Palestinian descent.)</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumobamaandromney%20%28NAM%29_1.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 335px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Sununu even doubled down on his initial allegations in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, claiming that President Obama "has created more racial division than any administration in history." Though these comments seem extreme, they express a sentiment that has become mainstream in conservative political circles and is having real effects.</p> <p>  </p> <p> A Washington Post-ABC News poll released last week found that Romney enjoys the support of white males over President Obama by a margin of 2-to-1: 65 percent to 32 percent. In 2008 Obama lost the white-male vote by 16 points, based on exit polls, which means that his lack of support among white men has doubled.</p> <p>  </p> <p> And among working-class whites without college degrees, President Obama trails Romney 58 percent to 35 percent. Why does it matter? White males made up 36 percent of the total electorate in the last presidential contest, and whites in general made up 74 percent of all voters.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, told CBS News that many white American males "believe the economic policies of Democrats have benefited somebody else -- not them. Women, minorities, interest groups. They don't feel Democrats have championed the interests of white male voters in modern times as they did in the days of Roosevelt and Truman."</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> So if you're Romney, dedicated to using nostalgic references that cast you as Ronald Reagan defeating one-term President Jimmy "Barack" Carter, then manipulating white Americans to vote along racial lines is a winning strategy. Why would surrogates like Sununu knowingly sow the seeds of racial animus and divisiveness? The answer can be found in the outcome.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Romney maintains his lead among white voters, even though nearly 50 percent of them believe that he would do more to favor the wealthy than the poor and middle class. And according to a recent survey conducted by the Associated Press, in the past four years the number of Americans who express explicit anti-black attitudes has increased from 48 percent in 2008 to 51 percent today. Implicit racial bias -- the kind that people may neither admit nor realize they harbor -- increased sharply from 49 percent to 56 percent. Survey respondents used Sununu's word, "lazy," and other words, like "violent," to describe African Americans and Hispanics.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It doesn't take a rigorous education in America's racialized political history to see that propaganda like that used by Sununu has a direct effect on how the wider populace perceives President Obama -- and black people in general. Andrew Sullivan, a columnist at the Daily Beast, recently called this phenomenon a cold civil war and explained that it's been slowly brewing since Obama took office.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The AP report also revealed that Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express explicit racial prejudice, by a margin of 79 percent to 32 percent. Indeed, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a white Republican and Powell's former chief of staff, told MSNBC's Ed Schultz last week that the GOP is "full of racists."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Party leaders -- and campaign officials -- can neither ignore these survey results nor deny any responsibility for having created them. Unlike Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Donald Trump, who race-bait to promote their own personal, partisan agendas, Sununu is a chairman of the Romney presidential campaign. His behavior can be seen only as an explicit strategy. Even later, when Sununu released a statement clarifying his ill-conceived words, there remained no apology -- and not a word, at all, from Romney himself.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It seems that when the ultimate prize is the Oval Office, national unity, racial harmony and democratic ideals are welcome casualties.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>E.dward Wyckoff Williams is contributing editor at The Root. He is a columnist and political analyst, appearing on Al-Jazeera, MSNBC, CBS Washington and national syndicated radio.</em></p> <p> <em><strong>Photos:</strong> Rob Young (Wikipedia Commons); New America Media.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">elections</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mitt-romney" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mitt Romney</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racial-divide" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial divide</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/colin-powell" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">colin powell</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/john-sununu" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">john sununu</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republicans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republicans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ronald-reagan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ronald Reagan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jimmy-carter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jimmy carter</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Edward Wyckoff Williams</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Rob Young, Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 02 Nov 2012 19:05:37 +0000 tara 1853 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1758-race-white-house-and-issue-racial-divide#comments