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In the past year or so, I've noticed a disturbing trend. This trend worries me, because I fear it holds a very real potential to cause a major regression in our culture, robbing us of advancements that were long in coming, costly for many, and vitally important to the health of our society and our Nation.
I'm talking about the epidemic of racism accusations we are hearing lately. It seems today that one cannot tune in the news, read a paper, or engage in much of any discussion of current events without someone mentioning the latest allegations of racism against one group or another.
What disturbs me most about this is how frequently these allegations are patently false, and the only reason for making the accusation is to discredit or otherwise marginalize a group or movement. Like some kind of cultural trump-card, it's perceived that the moment racism is alleged, the debate is "won."
Most recently, I heard news accounts wherein the claim was leveled against Glenn Beck's recent rally in Washington, D.C. Let me state for the record that I'm not a member of Beck's audience. I've never listened to his broadcast, nor read any of his books. I can't even say for certain whether he has a blog or other articles on the web (I find it difficult to imagine him NOT having such a web presence, but I've not personally heard it mentioned, nor gone looking for it). I have no vested interest in defending Beck's rally, and until it started making news a day or so before it happened, had no clue it was even planned.
What I find odd, though, is that the quotes and excerpts I've heard from the rally - from both sides of the media - seemed rather benign. Photographs showed a diverse group of people assembled for the rally, and as near as I can tell, the theme was that of embracing spiritual values in order to help restore this country.
Yet, marchers for another rally that passed near the Beck rally, decried Beck's group as "racists." These accusations weren't just hearsay rumors passed by detractors of the other rally, but rather were reported and shown on the news.
Similarly, the recent passage of SB1070 in Arizona, and similar proposals being considered in other states, to deal with problems associated with illegal immigration, have likewise been branded as "racist." Funny; the law applies just as much to illegal immigrants from Canada, as to ones from Mexico or Central America. It has nothing to do with race, and only with whether a person has legal status to be in the United States. In one discussion recently, a friend went so far as to compare asking someone for identification with a Nazi asking a Jew for papers.
Really? We're comparing checking people's identification with the Holocaust, because we don't like a law? Oddly enough, I haven't heard similar comparisons made for when I need to show my papers to the Army Checkpoint between Hermosillo and Nogales, in Sonora Mexico, or that if I am stopped by los Federales along the highway in Sonora, I am obligated to show my passport and entry permit, or face legal consequences. Such laws are normal for every country on the face of the Earth. When I showed my passport to customs officials in Fiji, I certainly didn't feel I was being interrogated by the Gestapo.
I believe this trivializes what the victims of the Holocaust suffered, because the comparison is tenuous at best. One might as well compare a police officer asking for my driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance during a traffic stop, with the organized pogroms in Russia and Germany in the early part of the 20th century. It's like suggesting that the ingrown toenail that's troubling me right now is as bad as losing one's legs to an accident or cancer.
The two rallies, Beck's, and the other, both occurred on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and I wonder what the late Civil Rights leader would think of what is happening to his work today.
You see, much like the story of the little boy who cried wolf, the copious accusations of racism do nothing to improve race relations in this country, and actually serve only to further rifts between people. Real cases of racism end up getting lost in the shuffle, while resentment grows over the perception that we cannot dialogue rationally without being accused of a morally reprehensible attitude.
At the same time, one of the keys to eliminating racism is for everyone - of all races - to put aside our personal biases and embrace the truth that we are all people. The quality of a person is shown by how they live and what they do, not by the color of their skin, or what country their ancestors came from. We need to understand that debates may be honest disagreements, based on personal ideologies, and are not based on, "I'm just disagreeing with you because you're different from me."
For the record, this has to happen in all directions. The elimination of racism requires that ALL of us, regardless of our race, make the choice to forsake racist attitudes. It is no less racist, for example, for a Black to hate a Hispanic because he's Hispanic, or for a Hispanic to hate a Japanese, because he's Japanese, than it is for a White to hate an Arabic person. Racism is not a trait that is exclusive to one race or group. It crosses all cultural boundaries, and frankly, isn't attractive in any of them.
We need to stop leveling slurs at each other just because we disagree. We don't need to agree to accept that another viewpoint may have some merit, or at least some foundation in facts or experience. We need to understand that we don't make a problem go away by exacerbating another problem.
We need to honor the work of men like Dr. King by recognizing that his efforts were to unite our society as people who are equal, and that we cannot further that effort by fostering polarization.
We need to quit shouting labels and accusations, and start talking to one another, because the consequences of continuing the way we're going are way too dire. Maybe if we start talking, we'll find that we can reach solutions that we can all live with, and that - maybe - we're not so far apart as we once thought.
Either way, we shall all share either the benefits or the consequences. No group will be exempt. A nation and a community have been likened before to a ship, and the analogy is apt. If this ship goes under, we all go under with it.
It's time to quit crying wolf. Or racist. Or Nazi. Or whatever other defamatory label we can pin on another group, lest our words create the very reality we fear.
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