Lumpy Racism

Charles Blow has been on a tear lately, for obvious reasons, but he raises a valid challenge in light of the heartfelt support so many have offered by risking death by COVID-19 to protest racism.

Allies, Don’t Fail Us Again

Many white people have been moved by the current movement, but how will they respond when true equality threatens their privilege?

In her book on crim law reform, Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration, NYU prawf Rachel Barkow raises a concept called “lumpy laws,” where laws are enacted to address the worst example of a crime, but are broad enough to sweep into its ambit far lesser examples that some, maybe most, would find unworthy of inclusion.

There is a similar “lumpy” problem with the current protests about racism. If the issue is black men being killed by police, then most people of good conscience will take to the streets to protest, even at risk to their own health and welfare. After all, it’s a life and death question.

But what happens when the issue starts to slide.

Many of the white liberals who supported the movement had been moved by embarrassment, moved by images of cruelty rather than the idea of genuine, equitable inclusion.

At the moment, there are many “allies,” a fashionable word with far deeper implications than mere going out to march or dancing the Macarena with Officer Friendly. Some white allies have knelt and apologized for their crimes against equality, swearing an oath to dedicate their lives to the elimination of racism. Others have adopted the religious symbolism of washing the feet of black people.

But this is happening now, at the confluence of two things: First, protests addressing the worst of racism, the killing of a human being. Second, the passion of the moment, where so many are being swept up in the protests and validation of their virtuous concern about racism. When all your friends are marching, twitting, facebooking and instragramming about racism, it’s not only easy to join in, but hard not to. If this is what everybody is doing, you want to do it too.

White allies had disappointed, once again.

But as Blow knows, the winds will shift and there will some new catastrophe that will catch the attention of the unduly passionate soon enough, and they will abandon their protests to chase down the next squirrel. But that’s only part of his challenge, maintaining focus on the problem long enough to see it through to completion.

We must make sure, make a statement, that this is a true change in the American ideology and not an activist-chic, summer street festival for people who have been cooped up for months, not able to go to school or graduate, not able to go to concerts or bars.

This is not the social justice Coachella. This is not systemic racism Woodstock. This has to be a forever commitment, even after protest eventually subsides.

He’s right. We’ve been here before, and let’s face it, the unduly passionate are the sweetest of allies until something newer, cooler, more chi chi, comes along. And then they’re gone, because that’s the nature of people who join up when its cool.

But there are other lumpy problems too.

You might be willing to risk your life to end the killing of black people by police, but are you willing to die because some white woman wore hoop earrings and corn rows? Death is huge, but is someone saying “America is the land of opportunity” just as huge? What about not enough black students getting into Harvard? Will you take a rubber bullet to the head for that? The issue of equality is a lot bigger than the worst case scenario of death, and while death got you off your butt, will you remain on your feet when the issue changes from death to hurt feelings?

But there’s more. While you may find the symbolism of kneeling and swearing an oath, or washing feet, deeply moving, does it move you enough to hand over the keys to your car or house, to give up your kid’s seat at Yale, to quit your job so a black person can sit at your desk? Will you go out today and change your Last Will and Testament so that your generational wealth isn’t passed down to your children, but to those who parents have nothing to leave them?

But we must resist efforts to simply pacify and quell, to simply stop the awful images. We must strike at the root: that the entire system operates in a way that is anti-black, that it disadvantages and even punishes blackness, that part of your privilege is built on my oppression.

We must make ourselves comfortable with the notion that for the privileged, equality will feel like oppression, and that things — legacy power, wealth accumulation, cultural influence — will not be advantaged by whiteness.

At this moment in time, there is no shortage of allies going to extremes to demonstrate their support of the fight against racism. Will it still be there tomorrow? Will it still be as passionate when it’s no longer life or death, but hurt feelings over some relatively petty outrage? Will it be zealous enough for you to take the food out of your children’s mouth so that a black child can eat it instead?