Post racial? The Minority View

by Donal Davis

This week's discussion was very interesting. Interesting to me in that so many people expressed that they felt that hip hop was post racial. I found myself bewildered by the fact that so many shared this view. It forced me to recognize that it was not ridiculous or far fetched, and challenged my own views on the subject. I pride myself on not being obstinate and ignoring the facts around me, and this weeks discussion made me consider why so many would feel that hip hop and our society had evolved past race.

I grew up in a very culturally diverse set of communities in New Jersey, and have gone to school with people from all over the world. I have also moved around the country and been an observer of how race is handled in various parts of this country.

As a youth in New Jersey we were certainly race conscious, a fact that was certainly exposed during the Rodney King verdict in 1992 when neighbors began attacking each other on the main streets of our suburban community. Daily you were reminded that race mattered even in this highly integrated community if you happened to try to run to class through the Latin door, or worse the Roman door, if you know you should use the Black door. Of course, you could always just play tough and kick your way through the Jewish door, or take your chances at the Arab doors. This is the foundation from which I observe things. When the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 became news it was easy to observe the unease in the Arab community and see the prejudice levied against them in the aftermath. The worst part of the above description is that it is the best that I have yet to see race handled in our country. Every one knew who they were and how they were different, and found their own identity and left others to have theirs and express it freely.

As I began high school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I had the misfortune to attend Robert E. Lee high school which by my estimation took its namesakes position on the education and treatment of young black children. I arrived at the school to find that though I was a freshman, I had taken all the math classes that the high school had to offer save one honors math for seniors. My presence in the class was met with scorn and mockery. When there was a state wide math-a-thon which my teacher encouraged me to participate in the other students mocked me, because in their view the new black kid didn’t stand a chance against their resident red head. Well, when the results were announced later that week that, not only, had I scored best in the school, but third in the state. It did nothing to ease my acceptance by the other students. Obviously, the black kid had found a way to cheat.

My travels across Md, TX, Ca, NY, DC and many other places have various examples of how we are not a post racial society, yet one that struggles with self identity and the identity of others. Tennessee has been a true eye opener more because of how the black community seems to segregate itself more than it seems to be segregated by others. I have only recently become accustomed to being the only black family at many events we attend here in Hardin County. We’ve always found ourselves welcomed, but also glaringly out of place racially. I’ve later asked others in my community why they didn’t go to that park or attend that dance and I always hear the same answer “That is the White Park” or “the White dance”; “The Black park is over there.”

It is from this perspective that I am forced to reconcile what I have seen in the discussions versus what I know from first hand experiences. I am slow to discount others views or intelligence simply because they draw different conclusions from my own, and am reluctant to do so now. I can however observe that there has been a large effort over the past several years by those in authority and the media as a whole to convince the viewing public that our society is past racial divisions and stands as a united America. In light of my observations of the general consensus of many participating in the discussions, I would have to acknowledge that these efforts to convince are going well. I observe, however, that the efforts to actually change the behavior, rather than just the perceptions of people are not coming along as well.