G21 TRIO: A Series of Voices
A couple of weeks ago Radio Raheem wrote a parody piece in this space about people of color being turned white and suddenly finding all of their problems solved.
Here in Maryland, we've just gone through a case of political race-baiting that makes Raheem's piece especially apropos. State Senator Larry Young (D - Baltimore) got caught taking bribes from companies that do business with the State, specifically health care companies whose contracts were approved (or disapproved) by the Senate Health Care Committee, which Young chaired until last Monday, when the State Senate voted to throw Young out on his ass.
Young only had one defenses to offer: They went after me cause I'm black and The White Power Structure always comes down on successful black men.
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This defense was all it took for busloads of demonstrators to descend on the State House in Annapolis with signs and bullhorns. It was enough for all the black State Senators (except one, who recused himself) to vote against Young's expulsion from the State Senate, and all it took for every talk show host -- and most callers -- on black-owned radio station WOLB to accuse everyone who had a hand in Young's downfall of racist motives.
BUT WHAT IF YOUNG WAS WHITE?
This is the question no one has dared to ask.
We've had plenty of corrupt white politicians around here in the last few decades but they've all had the good grace to resign quietly when their sins became public knowledge. Young speechified mightily about a "double standard" in how we apply our laws. What he didn't mention is the fact that whites don't routinely rally around known criminals because of shared skin complexion. He didn't mention the sad case, a few years ago, in which Joel Lee, a Korean-American college student, was killed by a black man during a robbery, in front of witnesses, and an all-black jury let Lee's murderer go free because, as one jury member put, "There are already too many young black men in jail."
More and more, when I hear a black criminal claiming he is the victim of racism, I end up asking myself, "What if he was white?"
In almost every case, my answer is, "He would still be a criminal, and I'd rather have him behind bars than walking loose on the streets."
I know two white guys who were beaten as badly by police as Rodney King, but since there was no racism involved they had no legal recourse, even though both had plenty of witnesses.
Aside from race, these men have almost everything in common with King, including an aversion to work, drug and alcohol habits, histories of driving drunk, long arrest records for assorted petty crimes, and a tendency to fight with cops whenever they get caught. But being white, they accept the fact that when they mouth off at The Law, the batons are going to come down, over and over.
Does it really make that much difference if the cops call a black criminal a "dumb fucking nigger" and a white criminal a "dumb fucking redneck?" Apparently it does in front of an all-black jury, but not in front of an all-white jury.
Please note, too, that when O.J. Simpson got away with murder, there were no white riots to protest his release. If this isn't a double standard, I don't know what is.
LET'S TURN EVERYONE WHITE
As Raheem said in jest, this would solve all racial problems immediately. But places like East Oakland and West Baltimore would still be crime-infested, drug-ridden slums where no one decent would want to live. People like (former) Maryland State Senator Young would no longer be able to claim they were victims of racism when they committed criminal acts. Teenage mothers would still be teenage mothers. Men who refused to marry their pregnant girlfriends would still be scum. Crack whores would still call out to passing male motorists. Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry would still be a national laughingstock. "The Rev" Al Sharpton would be forced to get an honest job. Both the Ku Klux Klan and the Nation of Islam would go out of business.
BUT FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE...
...we seem to be stuck in a society where every non-black person who ever says any black person is less than perfect is called a racist (or worse). I am perfectly willing to judge any person I meet on the basis of their character, not on the color of their skin. This is why, whenever I hear someone like (former) State Senator Larry Young blame white racism for his self-created problems, I ask, "What if he was white?"
And sadly, most of the time, my answer is, "If he was white he'd have all the same problems he has now -- and would be forced to take responsibility for them instead of blaming them on someone else."