Race to the Bottom

Bias and prejudice have been the way of the world since Homo sapiens began to dominate the earth. An innate suspicion of “different,” which some social scientists trace to a general survival emotion in which caution at the unknown prevails over other more warm and cuddly human instincts, can be traced to the earliest writings. As mankind has moved up the emotional evolutionary ladder, notions of democracy, brotherly love, tolerance of differences and the removal of that emotional threat perception have increasingly become the more dominant human values, more likely seen in more modern and progressive societies. But add precipitous change and impaired economic times, and watch the cultural backpedalling.

As Russia and Uganda move to reinforce their traditional anti-homosexual phobias, there is plenty of evidence, from proposed anti-gay rights legislation in many American states to out-and-out racism not just in the lingering backwater communities in the deep south, but even in the bastions of liberal American education in the north, that bigotry is alive and well in the United States. But even as some racially-motivated students recently placed a noose (with a Confederate emblem flag) around the statute of civil rights champion Medger Evers, the first African American to enroll in Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) and a man who was assassinated for his activism, evidence of continuing racism at the University of Michigan also made national headlines.

Black may be beautiful and deeply embedded in Michigan’s biggest cities, but the number of African American undergraduate students attending the prestigious University of Michigan is dropping – from 6.2% of the total enrollment in 2009 to an embarrassing 4.6% in 2013. As the economic strain of skyrocketing tuition costs and lower access to financial aid, particularly in state institutions, the toll among those least able to afford the cost of education has been steep.

But looking down on minorities is today as much an issue as it has been for too many years. “The scene at the undergraduate library one night [in mid-February] was quite different, as hundreds of [U of M] students and faculty members gathered for a 12-hour ‘speak out’ to address racial tensions brought to the fore by a party that had been planned for November and then canceled amid protests. The fraternity hosting the party, whose members are mostly Asian and white, had invited ‘rappers, twerkers, gangsters’ and others ‘back to da hood again.’” New York Times, February 24^th.

Black students at U of M watch their numbers drop, and a feeling of isolation mars their educational experience. But with an African American president, people are beginning to believe that we live is a new world where the racial divide has all-but-dissipated. “In the news media and in popular culture, the notion persists that millennials — born after the overt racial debates and divisions that shaped their parents’ lives — are growing up in a colorblind society in which interracial friendships and marriages are commonplace and racism is largely a relic.

“But interviews with dozens of students, professors and administrators at the University of Michigan and elsewhere indicate that the reality is far more complicated, and that racial tensions are playing out in new ways among young adults… Some experts say the concept of being ‘postracial’ can mean replicating some of the divisions and insensitivity of the past, perhaps more from ignorance than from animus. Others find offensive the idea of a society that strips away deeply personal beliefs surrounding self-identification…

“The number of complaints related to race and ethnicity filed against colleges and universities rose to 860 in 2013 from 555 in 2009, according to the Office for Civil Rights at the federal Education Department. Some experts believe that the increase reflects, at least in part, the role of social media in creating and then publicizing episodes… Students nationwide responded to a reporter’s request on Facebook and Twitter for stories about racial issues on college campuses. The experiences they described ranged from overt racism to more subtle forms of insensitivity…

“David J. Leonard, a professor in the department of critical culture, gender and race studies at Washington State University, said young people often viewed racism as something associated with extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. ‘People who don’t see themselves like this think: ‘We can poke fun. We can engage in stereotypes,’ ‘ Dr. Leonard said. ‘Racism gets reduced to intent, as if intent is all that matters.’” NY Times.

The bottom of the socioeconomic ladder has been particularly brutal for young Black males: “Approximately 12%-13% of the American population is African-American, but they make up 40% of the almost 2.1 million male inmates in jail or prison (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009)…

·         A black male born in 1991 has a 29% chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life.2

·         Nearly one in three African American males aged 20–29 are under some form of criminal justice supervision whether imprisoned, jailed, on parole or probation.

·         One out of nine African American men will be incarcerated between the ages of 20 and 34.

·         Black males ages 30 to 34 have the highest incarceration rate of any race/ethnicity.” Wikipedia.

The President announced the official start of his “Brother’s Keeper” mentorship/support program, a venture between private donations and a federally-funded effort, focused on “at risk” minority boys, who are the raw material for the above statistics. “The aim is to ‘start a different cycle,’ Obama said. ‘If we help these wonderful young men become better husbands and fathers and well-educated, hardworking, good citizens, then not only will they contribute to the growth and prosperity of this country, but they will pass those lessons on to their children, on to their grandchildren...

“The White House posted a list of figures it said underscored a need for the initiative: The unemployment rate for African-American men over the age of 20 was 12 percent last month, compared with 5.4 percent for white men. Hispanic men over the age of 20 had an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. The U.S. Census Bureau showed a poverty rate of 27.2 percent in black households and 25.6 percent for Hispanic households in 2012.” Detroitnews.com, February 27^th.

Without some pretty strong support from our school systems and more opportunities for higher education, these statistics could actually get worse. And with increasing beliefs that racism is no longer an issue, it is unlikely that these anomalies will be corrected. Change for the better requires a positive environment, a sympathetic constituency and, most of all, a recognition that the underlying problem is both serious and not remotely “solved.”

I’m Peter Dekom, and unless we all pull together, some of our nation’s most serious inequalities will continue unabated.