Colored Waiting Room sign
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(Note to reader - this was an essay that I wrote on racial violence as part of my master's program at KSU.)
“Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through.”
In order to comprehend the origins of racial violence one has to understand the “veil” idea that was cast by W. E. B. Du Bois in his book The Souls of Black Folk. This idea separates the many areas of accessibility concerning the African American people from the white people of this country. Among these many areas are education, equality, justice, sociality, politics and economics. In David R. Roediger’s book The Wages of Whiteness he writes about some of these same areas, mainly focusing on the American working class and the “veil” that separates African Americans from whiteness concerning this topic. Two other authors in scholarship readings have brought whiteness to the forefront. Nell Painter’s New York Times article What is Whiteness explains differences between whiteness and blackness and Philip Deloria’s chapter “Counter Culture Indians and the New Age”, from his book Playing Indians, explores the white race and how they use Native American culture in the postmodern world to identify their own culture.
Through these writings of Du Bois, Roediger, Painter and Deloria, I will analyze the origins, causes and continuation of racial violence in the United States through their similarities and their differences. Then I will introduce the 2015 death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray by members of the Baltimore Police Department and explain how, by analyzing the different theories of these authors, scholars and activists can find possible solutions of preventing a tragic event like this one again. Finally, I will expand on how these theories could be useful or problematic in various mediums of scholarship and activism.
The veil concept mentioned by Du Bois is fascinating because it describes a barrier that separates the African American race from the white race, but one thing occurred to me through the course of this study, if the veil exists on the African American side, then a veil might exist on the side of the white race as well. This white veil manifests itself into racism, just like the black veil manifests itself into frustration in seeing who the African American people really are, concerning their race. There must be an acceptance that racial issues exist from the other side of the white veil, lifting this veil to show that racism is acknowledged. Du Bois believed that racism was taught by an early age to children from their parents, which I myself have always believed. After all, remember the online videos of a white child running to embrace a black child, before corrupt teaching and ideals were set into place. Du Bois writes that the African American “simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.”
This “opportunity” which can be viewed in many different facets, is written about in Roediger’s book. He explains that in the pre-American revolution era in the United States, Native Americans were considered lazy by the white workers and, as a result, white workers classed them below their own kind. As the population of Native Americans began to decline the white workers began to look to African Americans to compare themselves to. Because of this comparison, the African American “doors of Opportunity” described by Du Bois began to close by cutting off the many ideals of human experience. But not only does Roediger write about racism concerning different people of color, but within the same color scheme as well. A whole section of Roediger’s book is dedicated to the problems arising between the Anglo-Saxon Protestant race of colonial America and the influx of Irish American immigrants that came to the United States in the 1840’s as a result of the Irish famine.
Deloria writes about whiteness and identity to the Native American race that “whenever white Americans have confronted crises of identity, some of them have inevitably turned to Indians.” It is interesting to note what Roediger said about the pre-revolutionary period and how white Americans perceived Native Americans as lazy. Deloria describes the playing Indian concept of white people accepting the traditions of the Native American in his article. The reason for this occurring is because of the changes in white identity and what white people perceived as a possible extinction by modern weaponry, such as nuclear bombs. Even though a racist element originally existed, over time white people found themselves imitating the same people that they originally vilified.
Nell Painter, in her New York Times article What is Whiteness?, explains that it is not the origins and understanding of blackness that we need to study, but the origins of whiteness. “We don’t know the history of whiteness, and therefore are ignorant of the many ways it has changed over the years. If you investigate that history, you’ll see that white identity has been no more stable than black identity.” There seems to be a valid point to this idea. This study of whiteness could definitely help in supporting my idea of lifting the white veil that is mentioned earlier.
My focus on a contemporary current event of racial violence is the death of Freddie Gray that occurred in Baltimore in April of 2015. Gray, a 25-year-old African American man was arrested by six members of the Baltimore Police Department for possessing a knife and used excessive force during the arrest process, in which death was caused by trauma to Gray’s spinal cord. This trauma was apparently caused by the police giving Gray a “rough ride”, which is a form of police brutality in which a prisoner is handcuffed in a vehicle without a seatbelt and the vehicle is purposely driven erratically.
As a result of Gray’s death protests and rioting broke out in the downtown Baltimore area in which many businesses were looted and burned. Later that year the trials of the six officers involved in Gray’s murder occurred with the results being acquittal, mistrial or the case being dropped altogether.
My beliefs of racist violence and how to diminish it is manifested mainly through the writings and ideals of W. E. B. Du Bois. He described that racism is taught at a young age by parents. I believe this is one of the major reasons that racial violence occurs. My opinion is that this type of violence can be diminished in today’s time through the teaching of non-violence and love for all humankind. Through activism and organizations this idea can be brought across so people of this time period understand the implication of hateful teaching. I believe that many of these incidents of racial violence could be stopped, including the aforementioned incident involving Freddie Gray. I also believe that better training of law enforcement authorities brings positive results. Also, harsher sentencing of those law enforcement personnel who believe that they are beyond the law should be implemented.
One explanation that would help scholarship and activism would be what Roediger describes in his book. “The most pressing task for historians of race and class is not to draw precise lines separating race and class but to draw lines connecting race and class.” In my opinion, the continued study of blackness and, most recently, the new study of whiteness in our culture can help to draw those lines connecting race and class that Roediger writes about, not separating them. Because of my belief in studying both sides of an issue historically, I believe that these lines of connecting can become successful.
Through the course of writing this essay I was reminded of a story my mother told me years ago. I decided to email my mother for clarification. It helps to explain the concept of education and how listening to one another can solve our problems. My father, when my parents were first married in the 1960’s, began a four-year tour in the Air Force. My parents were stationed at Nellis Air Force Base just outside of Las Vegas. After applying for many jobs my mother was able to get work as a receptionist at the base hospital. She worked alongside an African American woman named Lois.
My mother writes in our email correspondence “just about that time, the racial tension in the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles began to boil over. Fires were started, buildings looted, and people were shot. Pictures of the riots were on TV every evening. Lois and I began discussing it one day and I told her that while I understood the frustration in the black community, I could not understand why people rioting felt the need to carry and use guns. She said something that I'll never forget. "All your life you try to do the right thing and talk, talk, talk. Nobody ever listens. After a while you just pick up a gun.”
Throughout this essay I have attempted to explain the ideas put forth by Du Bois, Roediger, Deloria and Painter concerning the origins of racist violence and possible ways that it should be dealt with. I’ve tied these ideas with the current event of the murder of Freddie Gray and have written about a possible way to deal with this ongoing problem. People need to listen, especially to each other regardless of their race, and work together to solve the problems of racial violence through community activism and education.
Racism and its violence will never end. It will only dissipate over time. Through the course of this time there will be ebbs and flows. I believe the human race needs to work together to reduce racial violence and, as generations pass, racism will become less prominent.
According to my mother, it is questionable whether that this can be accomplished. “On a plane trip to visit my folks in Louisiana, there was an elderly black lady sitting next to me. She sang softly the whole trip We Shall Overcome. That was over 50 years ago. I'm not too sure anything has changed.”
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