I regularly experience V8 moments. You never know when someone will say or do something that will stay with you. Years later you find yourself in or very close to being in a tricky situation. You say, "Wow. I just did that again" or better, "Wow, I'm about to do that again. I better not, it stung last time."

I remember hearing a man say, "Everybody's right." If you have a disagreement with someone, they're not trying to torment you, they actually believe what they're saying is true. Simple, right? Well it was sort of a light bulb moment for me.

I wanted to write about the Imus meltdown. Then I didn't want to write about it. I'm going to write about one aspect of it.

That's exactly what should have happened.

The sound and fury resulting from this incident had more causes than Imus' long history of derogatory comments. It directed our attention to some serious ongoing problems in the United States. Chief among them is race.

Race relations are an issue that one part of America doesn't want to think about while another deals with it every day. Let's start with a baseline. For purposes of this column, I'm talking about relations between black and white America.

An educated guess says the average quirkee.com reader is white, middle to upper-middle class and under thirty five; having only sporadic contact with people who look different.

In my case I'm old enough to have experienced court ordered school busing for purposes of integration and educational equality. My professional, recreational, and residential situations have periodically found me in a position of being in the minority. All that makes me an expert on is me.

Here's what I think. Everybody, to a greater or lesser degree, is a racist. That's not a justification, it just happens to be one of Homo sapiens' less charming characteristics. And you're significantly more racist than you think you are.

Humans want to feel comfortable. As a general rule they tend to want to live with others like themselves. The divisions may be along lines of race, class, or both. Whenever two groups of humans gather in the same place, there will be a majority and a minority. The majority will, on a conscious and unconscious level, try to dominate the minority. The larger the majority, the greater the domination. Not surprisingly, the minority finds the situation humiliating and infuriating.

To compound the situation, the majority is only aware of a fraction of its negative impact on the minority. What it does see appears normal and fair. It is genuinely mystified by the hostility of the minority. It's just as true in Boston as it is in Bosnia.

If you squeeze long enough and hard enough, something's got to give. The L.A. riots, the O.J. verdict, and the Imus conflagration all demonstrate that the pressure is going to be relieved somehow.

The Imus meltdown gave me some unexpected answers to some of my questions.

Why do the Reverends Sharpton and Jackson become the automatic spokesmen for any incident of racial injustice? The mainstream media (MSM) in America is just too lazy to find anyone else to ask for statements. Perhaps it's a case of the MSM being unaware of other leaders who already exist in the black community. Make that the lazy, unaware, white owned and operated MSM. Are you listening, Rupert?

Al Sharpton's wasn't the first voice raised or the one that would lead most directly to the end of Imus' current career. That belonged to The National Association of Black Journalists. When even Al Roker from the Today show is writing editorials saying "enough is enough," you're done.

Why do African Americans have such a problem with Imus and give the language of certain hip hop artists a pass? Firstly, Don Imus had a thirty year history of racist and sexist remarks. He chose to pick on a group of student athletes who were unable to defend themselves against the slander of a media titan. He had shifted from satire to cruelty.

The African American community has been trying to fight the negativity of certain hip hop artists' lyrics for some time. One of the leaders in this effort is Al Sharpton. Of course they're encountering stiff opposition from the artists and the white owned corporations who make so much money selling CD's to white suburban teenaged boys.

Essence, the leading magazine among black female readers has teamed up with the historically black university, Spelman College, in a campaign aimed at encouraging women and rap music listeners to fight back against the offensive images in rap lyrics.

Is any of this information new to you? You can thank the previously mentioned lazy, unaware, white-owned media conglomerates for not reporting it.

The black kids coming into our junior high didn't like busing. Neither did the white kids who were already there. I don't know if anyone benefited educationally from the experience. I can assure you, however, that racial tolerance and understanding can't be forced on anyone.

Whites aren't the only group that prefers to be left alone by another race.

I don't have any solutions to our nation's seemingly intractable problems related to race. It couldn't hurt to try to be aware that there might be another side to the story.

If you've had a certain experience, you don't like strangers who haven't had that experience telling you that they understand. They don't. Ask any combat veteran. Bill Clinton can get away with saying, "I feel your pain," but I wouldn't recommend that you try it.

There will always be differences between the races but it doesn't always have to be serious.

For a time I frequently found myself at the intersection of MLK and Springdale. This is a popular place for members of the Nation of Islam to hawk their newspapers. I had a nodding relationship with the regulars. Whenever a new Brother showed up he would approach me with a paper. I'd borrow a phrase from Elijah Muhammad and ask him if he really wanted that kind of information in the hands of a ‘blue-eyed white devil.' Then I'd grin as he sputtered about who some of his best friends were.

---

Tag this article: