06/25/15: Move past symbols in conversation about race

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

“While it’s possible that racism and prejudice will diminish with each generation, I’m no longer convinced they will be obliterated. There’s simply too much at stake in maintaining the status quo.”

IT’S BEEN more than five years since I wrote the words above, one of only two times I’ve addressed the topic on these pages.

In the interim, voters re-elected a black president, perhaps giving comfort to those who believe we live in a post-racial society.

But then Trayvon Martin happened, Eric Garner happened, John Crawford happened, Michael Brown happened, Tanisha Anderson happened, Tamir Rice happened, and Walter Scott happened. What started as a trickle became a flood — and I doubt it ends in Charleston.

“It” has a name: institutional racism. The largest percentage of food stamp recipients are white but you’d never know that from the way the media portrays it. Whites commit more crimes, but more blacks end up in jail. Blacks “riot” while whites “celebrate.”

Is it any wonder, then, that the police profile black suspects? That store clerks do the same to black shoppers?

Or that a young white man assassinated nine churchgoers, just because they were black?

Despite the heartwarming scene of a mostly white group in Charleston marching and chanting “black lives matter,” the harsh truth is that no march or slogan will change the racism that we encounter daily. Change comes from within  — in the hearts and minds of those harboring bigotry — not from taking down the symbols of it.

This rush to do something — in this case, remove the so-called “Confederate flag” — reminds me of a lesson I learned long ago about the differences between the way blacks and whites approach issues of race.

Back in the late 1990s, I co-founded Norfolk United Facing Race. As we held small-group dialogue sessions on the issues of race, reconciliation, and responsibility based on the model provided by the Richmond-based Hope in the Cities, it became clear that once whites became aware of racism, they wanted to do something: hold a vigil, walk Richmond’s slave trail, invite a black co-worker to dinner. Doing something — always symbolic — helped ease their conscience.

So removing the flag is “doing something.” (This flag, by the way, was not one of three national flags adopted by the Confederacy, so calling it “the Confederate flag” is a misnomer. While two of the three official Confederate flags incorporated its design, this flag is actually the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia.)

Doing something is better than doing nothing, I guess. But taking down the flag will not change the racist comments directed at the president. Taking down the flag will not stop some from thinking that every black man is a criminal and every black woman is a welfare mother.

Taking down the flag will not stop the city of Norfolk from appointing boards and commissions with the same racial makeup as the City Council — itself a racially gerrymandered body. Taking down the flag will not stop the packing of black voters into Democratic districts. Taking down the flag will not suddenly provide a level playing field to those entering the workplace or seeking a promotion or a home.

Taking down the flag will make some folks feel good but that’s about it. There’s simply too much at stake in maintaining the status quo, in staying in this comfortable place where we don’t face the effects of institutional racism on our society.

We have to do more than just “something.”

Our straight-white-male-dominated society has to go beyond symbolism and work to eradicate racism whenever it sees it. It is not enough that the n-word is not used in polite conversation; when it is used, let the speaker know it is offensive, something I have done when I’ve heard young black men use it. Call out the clerk who follows the young black woman around the store. Call out your colleagues who refuse to even interview someone with an ethnic-sounding name.

Until our society faces the racism that permeates it, eliminating its symbols doesn’t accomplish much.