For over 45 years, most white Americans have been put in theimpossible position of having to prove a negative. It now appears thismight be changing.
Something strange is happening in America. For the first time, awhite man is standing up to a black man’s charge of racism. And he isbeing supported by his employer. In another first, the media coverageof this event is not employing the time worn premise that only whitescan be racist.
For those of you who may have missed the unrelenting 24/7 mediacoverage of the latest racial tempest in a teapot, the basic facts: Awhite policeman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the alert for 2reported black burglars, detained a prominent black professor. Theblack professor then proceeded to play the race card, accusing theofficer of being a racist. After challenging the authority and themother of the policeman, professor Henry Gates was arrested fordisorderly conduct.
This incident may have gone the way of millions of others but forthe fact that this professor was a friend of President Obama. Luckilyfor Henry Gates, the most powerful man in the world took time out frompressing affairs to take his call.
The President then announced publicly that the Cambridge PoliceDepartment ‘acted stupidly’, even while acknowledging that he wasn’tfamiliar with all the details. That our president chose to get involvedin the first place is a discussion for another time.
What makes this incident unique is the fact that the automaticassumption of racism on the part of the white policeman is actuallybeing questioned. In a very public way – signaling the possibility thatthe ‘white guilt’ America has embraced for the last 45 years mayfinally be consigned to history.
White guilt is best described by author Shelby Steele, who says“White guilt is literally the same thing as black power.” Steelehypothesized that America lost its moral authority when it acknowledgedand apologized for the sin of slavery in the early 60’s. This ‘moralauthority’ transferred to the victims of historical racism and becametheir great power. The power to stigmatize one as a racist became apowerful tool. A tool that has been wielded for decades with virtuallyno opposition, until now.
The power to evoke white guilt and the stigma of racism has beenused time and again to bring corporations, politicians and publicfigures to their knees. White guilt has also played a significant partin the shaping of public policy and political correctness. It has alsoshielded generations of blacks from accountability, with predictableand damaging results.
Because white guilt is a vacuum of moral authority, it makes themoral authority of whites dependent on proving a negative. As in, ‘Haveyou stopped beating your wife yet?’ For over 45 years, discussions ofrace in America have been constrained by the threat of being deemedracist. For over 45 years, most white Americans have been put in theimpossible position of having to prove a negative. It now appears thismight be changing.
As usual, the Rev. Al Sharpton weighed in with his predictable and automatic assignment of blameto whitey, calling the case an “abuse of power” by the officer. But, inyet another first, the media declined to anoint this blowhard his usualstatus as commentor in chief on all things racial. Poor Al failed toget his usual ‘face time’. His comments were, gasp, not news. Perhapsthe media sees the writing on the wall.
The writing that seems to indicate that charges of racial oppressionand racism ring false now that a black man has been elected to thePresidency. The writing that indicates that most white Americans areever so tired of having to prove day and night that they ‘are notracist’. The writing that indicates that America has paid its debt tothe black man and they are now welcome to compete, on an equal footing,with the rest of America. The writing that indicates that frivolouscharges of racism will now be challenged.
Finally, Martin Luther King’s dream may become a reality – Americansmay now be free to judge a man based on the content of his characterinstead of the color of his skin. High time.*
* Americans have always been free to judge a man based on the content of their character as opposed to the color of their skin. But doing so has never been a required substitute toward one’s natural proclivities for their own kind. And truth be told, non-white races adhere to this old King adage a great deal less than whites do and everyone knows it — Ed.