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I admit to little real
understanding of racism. I know what it is: an irrational belief
that one’s character, intelligence, or temperament is somehow
determined by race. I even have some notion of what motivates it:
ignorance, intellectual laziness, and/or a lack of much else to be
proud. No, what escapes me is a working knowledge of the nuances of
racism in practice.
Consider the strange case of
Lisa McClelland, a 15-year-old freshman at Freedom High School in
Oakley, California. While most of her classmates were still trying
to memorize their locker combinations, Ms. McClelland found herself
under the microphones and cameras of CNN, Fox News, and BBC. When I
ran a search of wire service stories, five of 22 articles I turned
up began with some variation of the sentence “Lisa McClelland says
she is not a racist.”
And why would anyone ask?
McClelland wants to start a “Caucasian Club.”
Anyone who pays the slightest
attention to the social winds of the day would know the girl is in
for trouble; what’s harder to get is why. Freedom High reportedly
has a Black Student Union, an Asian Club, and a group called Latinos
Unidos. All, by school policy, are open to anyone of any race. The
same is true of McClelland’s proposed organization, which, like the
school’s other ethnic clubs, would hold fundraisers for field trips
to museums and other places of historical and cultural interest.
Since we have convinced
ourselves as a society that there is nothing divisive about clubs
divided by race, why not a Caucasian Club? From the media reports
it appears few Freedom High students of any race have problems with
the idea; the adults are another matter.
Principal Eric Volta,
who must ultimately approve or quash the idea, told BBC “A club by
that name tends to make people nervous. Even school administrators
as far as what its purpose is.” This is apparently in spite of the
fact that McClelland’s proposal simply mirrors the campus’ other
cultural clubs.
Darnell
Turner, vice president of the East County chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, explained its
opposition to the Contra Costa Times: “When we use the word ‘white’
or ‘Caucasian’ or whatever, it has always been associated with
racial bigotry. Using that term opens up old wounds, and we don’t
need to go there.”
It’s too obvious to observe
that had a largely white organization objected to the Black Student
Union by confessing it always used the words “black” or
“African-American” in association with drug trafficking and
prostitution, it would have been shouted down at best or sued at
worst. Likewise, if I were to write that I find Turner’s statement
irresponsible, inexcusably divisive, and horribly offensive, I’d be
branded thin-skinned and insensitive.
Well fire up the branding iron
because Turner’s comments are irresponsible, inexcusably divisive,
and horribly offensive. The same goes for swipes by unnamed
“others” cited by the Contra Costa Times, who gravely note a
shoelace noose found on a black teacher’s classroom door two years
ago, a swastika and some fliers in a boy’s bathroom last year, and a
noose left on a redwood tree at another area school a year ago. The
blatantly racist implication is that these acts are the
responsibility of McClelland or whites in general rather than a
handful of morons of unknown (or at least unreported) ethnicity.
To understand this mindset, it
may be instructive to consider the NAACP’s reaction to the noose
found at the other school: they demanded the redwood be cut down.
Not the noose – the tree. The response to the Caucasian Club is
about as rational.
As I said, I don’t know how
racism works. After listening to the bilge focused at Lisa
McClelland, I don’t care to. |
