Thursday 17 September 2009
Old Man Racism
Race row erupts over Carter claim (The Independent)
Jimmy Carter is an old man who grew up and cut his political teeth in the racist deep south. Of course he sees the entire world though racialist eyes and all black-white interaction is judged by him on racialist grounds. To Carter, and most liberals of his generation (born in the 20s), anything bad said about a black person by a white person is racist.
Fewer of the baby boomers (Joe Wilson's generation and mine, born in the 40s) see the world in these terms, though still a significant minority. Even Barack Obama's generation (born in the 60s) has a fair smattering of these dinosaurs, though most who feel this way will try to conceal it. In the next generation (those born after 1980), Americans who see the world in solely terms of race are dwindling to a radical fringe.
The epitome of 1920s-generation racialist thinking was Hitler's 3rd Reich and the reaction to this kind thinking goaded America to pass civil rights legislation. But, because the entire world view was still racialist, we achieved little real change until Joe Wilson's generation became a battle ground for the hearts and minds. Reaction to this battle allowed Obama's generation to wake up and see that race did not matter quite so much, and led to most of the current generation seeing race as only occasionally relevant.
The problem with letting Carter's generation lead the debate on racial issues is that their world view is worse than not helpful today and, so, their comments do more harm than good.
Wilson's "you lie" was not code for "you black". It was code for "you disagree with me, therefore you are evil." Sadly, this narrow-minded polarization is a disease seeded in Joe's (and my) generation that has grown through each successive one. It's epitome is 9/11 and the suicide bomb. If Carter's comments are unhelpful, verging on the harmful; Wilson's were incendiary, verging on the lethal. Joe did not intend this when he spoke, his was merely an expression of the Zeitgeist.
So both Carter and Wilson, as Pink Floyd used to say: "All in all, you're just another brick in the wall."
Jimmy Carter is an old man who grew up and cut his political teeth in the racist deep south. Of course he sees the entire world though racialist eyes and all black-white interaction is judged by him on racialist grounds. To Carter, and most liberals of his generation (born in the 20s), anything bad said about a black person by a white person is racist.
Fewer of the baby boomers (Joe Wilson's generation and mine, born in the 40s) see the world in these terms, though still a significant minority. Even Barack Obama's generation (born in the 60s) has a fair smattering of these dinosaurs, though most who feel this way will try to conceal it. In the next generation (those born after 1980), Americans who see the world in solely terms of race are dwindling to a radical fringe.
The epitome of 1920s-generation racialist thinking was Hitler's 3rd Reich and the reaction to this kind thinking goaded America to pass civil rights legislation. But, because the entire world view was still racialist, we achieved little real change until Joe Wilson's generation became a battle ground for the hearts and minds. Reaction to this battle allowed Obama's generation to wake up and see that race did not matter quite so much, and led to most of the current generation seeing race as only occasionally relevant.
The problem with letting Carter's generation lead the debate on racial issues is that their world view is worse than not helpful today and, so, their comments do more harm than good.
Wilson's "you lie" was not code for "you black". It was code for "you disagree with me, therefore you are evil." Sadly, this narrow-minded polarization is a disease seeded in Joe's (and my) generation that has grown through each successive one. It's epitome is 9/11 and the suicide bomb. If Carter's comments are unhelpful, verging on the harmful; Wilson's were incendiary, verging on the lethal. Joe did not intend this when he spoke, his was merely an expression of the Zeitgeist.
So both Carter and Wilson, as Pink Floyd used to say: "All in all, you're just another brick in the wall."
# posted by Had It in Holland Park @ 01:35 
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