Race Fixation

The acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin has inspired commentary throughout the punditocracy, including much that is very bad coming from otherwise sane and sober people.

And thus we have Tavis Smiley, a proud liberal and advocate for the poor who, in that capacity, has mustered the courage some progressives lack and criticized, as appropriate, President Obama.  On Sunday's This Week (transcript here) with George Stephanopoulos, Smiley remarked

In just a matter of weeks in this nation we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and that wonderful brilliant speech by Dr. King, "I Have a Dream." In that speech you will recall the one line that we all seem to know, not much else, but we know that one line. "I want my children to one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

George Zimmerman knew nothing of Trayvon Martin's character. All he saw was his color. Something is wrong in this nation. Fifty years after the March on Washington, while the Voting Rights Act is being gutted, speaking of the Justice Department, what they'll do about that perhaps, something is wrong when adults can racially profile children.

Trayvon Martin was a child, racially profiled and gunned down in...
...
Turnabout, I guess, is fair play, and the defense endeavored to paint Trayvon Martin as a threatening young man.  And, in fact, at age 17, Martin was not an adult. But he also was not a "child," which the Free Dictionary defines as "a person 14 years and under. A 'child' should be distinguished from a 'minor' who is anyone under 18 in almost all states."Martin was a teenager and minor. He was not a child.  Certainly, Zimmerman "knew nothing of Trayvon Martin's character." As a watch captain in a neighborhood on edge, Zimmerman was suspicious of the young man precisely because he was unknown in the gated community.

Presumably, Martin was "racially profiled" and would not have drawn Zimmerman's attention had he not been black, notwithstanding the tension  prevailing in Twin Lakes.  But he is even less likely to have been profiled by Zimmerman had he not been male or not been young.     Martin fit the stereotype of the individual-  young, black, and male whom residents of the community believed most responsible for recent criminal events.   He fit the stereotype also of the individual most likely to commit offenses in black neighborhoods.  Once, the suffering black communities suffered at the hands of young, male thugs piqued the interest of liberals, who recognized in the examination an opportunity for positive change.  Alas, such concern these days is passe.

Though such interest no longer in vogue, it is common to play the race card while claiming pure motives of your own.   So we find Tavis Smiley invoking the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, adamant that individuals "not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."    Then Smiley, putting forth no evidence or line of reasoning, says "all he (Zimmerman) saw was his color" and consequently the victim was "racially profiled and gunned down."   Smiley implies race doesn't matter to him anymore than to Dr. King, after which he  proves otherwise.

Smiley's skill at strategic communication extends beyond referring to the victim as a "child." There is nothing more likely to incite the ire of whites than to accuse the whole country of or all non-blacks of "racism."   Accusing a whole swatch of individuals or a nation of 300 million+ is acceptable but the word "racism" must be assiduously avoided..   So we have Tavis Smiley describing the verdict as "just another piece of evidence of the incontrovertible contempt that this nation often shows and displays for black men."  No charge of racism is made, only that of an "incontrovertible contempt" displayed not by Zimmerman, the defense attorneys, the jury, or the Florida penal system.  His condemnation is not directed toward an individual, a small group, or a state, which might have provoked the fashionable demand for apology.   Instead, the criticism applies to everyone, for it is "this nation.".  No stereotyping there.


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Barack Obama, Above Criticism

Randall Kennedy is, justifiably, disappointed in President Obama. In his recently published "The Persistence of the Color Line-Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency," Kennedy noted" Obama has been more conservative than regard for public opinion requires him to be" and criticizes his "excessive caution" on various issues.

But don't count Kennedy as another African-American who has figured Barack Obama out. A critic of the Tavis Smiley/Cornel West campaign to draw attention to the plight of disadvantaged Americans, Kennedy contends that Smiley has "voiced skepticism whether blacks should back Obama." (Our hero is being attacked; time to circle the wagons, guys.)

Smiley and West have embarked on a tour of 16 poor, most of them minority, communities across the nation, highlighting the failure of the federal government to address their concerns. Presumably, Rep. Maxine Waters, frustrated by the policies of President Obama, would approve. Recently addressing an audience in Detroit, the California Democrat remarked "our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don’t know what the strategy is. We don’t know why on this trip that he’s in the United States now, he’s not in any black community…we don’t know that.”

Smiley and West, the latter advocating "massive job creation programs and massive investment in public housing, education, transportation and health," have been widely criticized in the black community. As early as February, 2008, in a post entitled, "Who died and made Tavis king" (a headline Kennedy recently quoted), prominent Obamite Melissa Harris-Lacewell remarked "I can't figure out what motivates Tavis."

Clues to Smiley's motivation may lie in an interview West recently had with bet.com in which he explained

We’re going to an Indian reservation in Wisconsin, we’re going to hit the brown barrios, the Asian poor communities, white poor communities, the Black hoods and we’re ending in Memphis to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s fundamental commitment to sanitation workers there, and of course his assassination.

While reminding the media of Dr. King's support of working people of all ethnic groups, Smiley/West is not content to go to disadvantaged black communities and are not neglecting poor Hispanic, Asian, or white communities. Economic injustice was not banished on November 2, 2008 and recognition across ethnic groups of the obstacles people of varied backgrounds face is critical to building a progressive movement.

This is acknowledged by too few of the progressive/liberal critics, but perhaps they are more exorcised by West's pointed criticism of the President, who

says he has the exact same responsibility to every member of society. I just say it's not true, he's lying. It's clear that he has more commitment to investment banks than he does to poor people. it's just clear when they got in trouble he gave them $700 billion; he subsidized them. They have not made poor people a priority. That's why we're going on the tour.

Barack Obama always will have in the black community apologists such as Steve Harvey, Tom Joyner, Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson, Mellisa Harris-Lacewell-Perry, and Kennedy. Fortunately, though, we have the likes of West and Smiley around to remind us that the oceans are still rising and the planet has not yet healed.

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Quote Of The Week

"Yes. It--the bottom line is that Dr. King warned years ago against taking the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. We're not going to reform health care doing it gradually. He's got to be bold about this. My grandad, David, said all the time, if you're going to stand, stand. If you're going to sit, sit. But don't wobble. The president is wobbling on this issue, and he can't do that if we're going to reform health care."

-Author and talk-show host Tavis Smiley on the Sunday, August 23, 2009 edition of Meet The Press

Quote(s) Of The Week


"It would be a mistake to take the success of one man and extrapolate it to the masses."

"Hawaii to Chicago is very different than Mississippi to Chicago."

-Tavis Smiley, from MSNBC's Morning Joe on November 5, 2008, cautioning against excessive exuberance about the impact on society and black electoral prospects of the election of the first black President of the U.S.A.