Several years ago in my hometown and the area around it, we had an absolute slew of public meetings in an effort to decide what our area was going to be. Were we going to be an extension of the campy tourism that attracted hordes to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge? Were we going to be a tourist trap with a different set of lures? What if we didn’t want to be a tourist trap at all, what then?
A lot of opinions were expressed and notes were taken. Plans were developed. Some of them were immediately discarded but others made it further along in the process before being discarded. A few came to some level of fruition.
One of the ideas was developed into a concept and some conceptual drawings were made for the benefit of those of us whose internal graphic generator doesn’t function as well as your average architect’s. The architects & developers chose to present one of the concepts with a large PR push to help sell it. The concept was graphically revealed during a program at a recently renovated theater.
I was there in the theater, near the back of the main seating area. When they unveiled the artist’s rendering of how their project would look, I reacted verbally loud enough for those in my immediate vicinity to hear although I was mostly talking to myself. I said something to the effect that “apparently Black people will not be welcome”. I said that because the artist’s rendering was liberally populated with people but all of the depictions appeared to be of white people. There was some strained laughter in response to my comment and again, only the folks sitting about three or four folks in either direction would have heard me in that 1500 seat theater. Still, a week or so later when I saw another version of that artist’s rendering posted publicly, it contained what appeared to be depictions of Blacks and other minorities along with the whites.
I am not of the opinion that my casual linguistic expectoration somehow interrupted a sneakily planned racist act. As a matter of fact, I do not have any reason to believe there was any racist intent at all. That’s a problem in itself. Neither the artist, the architect, the developer or the money people they showed it to first saw a problem. Not one of them (and yes, I acknowledge they might have served more than one role) noticed the absence of their neighbors of color when presented with the graphic. If you ever need a clear example of institutional racism, there it is. There was no racist intent because there didn’t need to be. The lack of intent however, does nothing to stop an act or behavior from having a racist effect.
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A while back I expressed to a friend that the first time I ever saw a Black person on television for something that had nothing to do with being Black, it was Neil DeGrasse Tyson explaining something about an astrophysical event that was going on and that it happened well after my exit from the USN in 1983. My friend concluded that I must be misremembering. Now, I have no idea why that was their kneejerk response. Perhaps they could recall several instances of that happening and I just didn’t see it. Perhaps it was simply a “That can’t be right” moment.
In the end, the response doesn’t matter. What matters is the effect experienced by all of those who could make a claim similar to mine. It is a particularly insidious form of racism which, like the theater reveal, does not necessarily result from racist intent. It has been taught in several disciplines for a long time that you can’t do what you can’t see yourself doing. You have to be able to mentally visualize yourself doing a flip or a jump or a kick or beating a time record etc etc. When young me watched television or movies, the folks who did stuff were white, criminals were “other”. Scientists? White and male most every time. Drug dealers? “Others” most every time.
Consider how many folk might have made amazing contributions to the nation or to humanity in general if only they had known they had the ability. Plenty of minorities have done amazing things in this nation and elsewhere. They have overcome the issues I describe and probably several others. Imagine what they might have done if instead of wasting time and energy “overcoming” the various obstacles - whether they were intentionally or unintentionally placed, they instead started from a position of confidence and encouragement. Racism takes on a life of its own. It reaches a stage where no driver or decision is needed, no intent need be expressed. It is built into the system and it keeps working unless steps are taken to stop it. It effectively becomes autonomous.
Things are better now than they were in the early stages of my lifetime. Images of minorities as successful people are not difficult to find. But if you think racism is over, especially institutional racism, do a Google image search on the phrase “welfare queen”. Do that with the knowledge that the majority of folks on welfare in the USA are white people.
The engineer in me feels the strong urge to remind you that “better” is not the same as “all good” or “perfect”. It may be heading in that direction but it aint there yet. The Voting Rights Act made things better for minorities. The effect was dynamic rather than static and it had a tendency to spread. But while it made things better, there is still a significant amount of work to be done. The Google search I suggest above is not the only example of that by far but it is an example of it. The VRA’s work is not done and anyone who actually looked and was honest with themselves would not need that explained to them. Tennessee’s governor and other state politicians clearly have no desire for honesty, either expressed to them or from them. Unfortunately, TN is not unique.
The VRA was a known entity. It was peaceful, predictable and not punitive. I do not know what comes next. In that not knowing, neither I nor anyone I know is willing to guarantee that the next thing will meet those criteria. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” — John F. Kennedy
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