Mitchell: ‘Racist’ Defines an Attitude; Racism is an Inheritance

People know what “sexist” means. A sexist believes people of the opposite gender are inferior. A policy or law is sexist it if is based on this belief.

People seem confused about what “racist” means. It works the same as “sexist.” A racist believes people of another race are inferior. A policy or law is racist it if is based on this belief.

Time and misuse have clouded the definition.

A white 25-year-old in Mississippi or even a 50-year-old has likely had black teachers he or she respected. This person has likely encountered black entertainers, authors, health-care providers, chefs, judges, law enforcement officers, bosses, co-workers and many others who merited respect, appreciation, admiration or friendship.

Today, people of all races have had enough experience with other races to get past any belief that qualities such as loyalty, energy, intelligence, honor or trustworthiness are linked to race.

So, to say that Mississippi is a racist state or that America is a racist nation is wrong. Yes, there are people of all colors who remain slow to place their trust — some who flat-out refuse to place their trust — in any person of another color. But in public life overall there are no longer laws that categorize people.

What we’re experiencing and witnessing are consequences of racism. It’s an unwanted inheritance.

Let’s turn to events like those in Baltimore. Many point out that when a black person kills a black person or a white kills a white person no one other than the immediate family seems to care. But when a black person perishes at the hands of or while in the custody of white police officers, a city erupts.

There are lots of reasons.

A contributing factor is media folks, especially broadcasters, who know that outlandish acts will draw a large audience.

Dovetail with that another factor: Opportunists know the more outlandish their actions, the better their chances of getting on TV, becoming famous and, perhaps, drawing more donations to their causes.

But before moving on to the major cause, we need to exclude criminality from the conversation. Those who rob, set fires, destroy are, in the words of President Obama, just along for the ride. “They are not protesting,” the president said. “They are not making a statement. They are stealing.”

It’s others we need to consider — those who conclude that black people, because they are black, are uniformly bullied, tormented, abused and sometimes killed by white offers? This belief is at the root of the statement, “Black Lives Matter.”

Well, all lives matter — including those of blacks killed by blacks, whites killed by whites and the officers of all races paid to patrol our streets and roads, as in Hattiesburg, and who increasingly become targets.

If the source of this giant rift in society isn’t rampaging racists with laws, policies and practices to back them up, what is it?

The answer, again, is that it’s a legacy. Perhaps it’s better described as a scar.

America was a racist nation with race-based laws, starting in 1789 with the compromise in its basic law that said slaves would be three-fifths of a person. (Northern states said they shouldn’t be counted at all; Southern states insisted they were people, at least for census purposes.)

Even after involuntary servitude was abolished, second-class citizenship for blacks Native Americans and other immigrant groups persisted as a matter of law and custom for more than 100 years.

Remember this: It was the last emperors of Rome who adopted Christianity and caused it to flourish. But what do we remember most about all those Caesars? That early Christians were tortured for sport in Coliseum spectacles. And that was 2,000 years ago.

No one has a cure-all, immediate solution for the tensions that persist in America today. Wounds inflicted by generations of injustice can be healed, but not quickly.

Here are things to avoid:

• Forgetting the definition of racist and using it as the default explanation for any and every bad thing that happens to black people.

• Failing to recognize that opportunism, whether for personal glory or criminal purposes, is a separate matter.

• Expecting people to forget the past or stop thinking that events today are in not linked to anything that happened yesteryear.

Mississippi and America today, in matters associated with race, are not what they were in 1800, 1850, 1900 or 1950. Only clear thinking, continued awareness and open conversation will allow us to gain perspective.

Charlie Mitchell is a Mississippi journalist and assistant dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. Write to him at cmitchell43@yahoo.com.