Symbolic racism

Ah, symbolism. The PoMo Prof just can’t let go of those symbols; must deconstruct and unpack them. Reading an otherwise reasonable and well-reasoned article in the WaPo by a professor from Emory University, I was abruptly brought up short by this sentence:

Symbolic racism means believing that African American poverty and other problems are largely the result of lack of ambition and effort, rather than white racism and discrimination.

The plain meaning of this sentence? Black poverty and other problems are largely the result of white racism and discrimination.

This is Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson territory, and it looks like it’s taken hold in academia. But that’s no surprise. What is surprising is to see it so boldly stated by a white professor. Usually the academics are much more subtle about blaming whites for all black problems.

Is there still white racism? Sure; just as Jeremiah Wright reminds us there is also black racism. We are human, and therefore sin. Among those sins is the sin of tribalism: marking those different from us in some outward aspect as the “other.” That will be with us always; the best we can do is minimize its impact.

Writers such as this Emory prof would drag us back to those antebellum days when all bad things that befall blacks can be pinned on whites. This is, in its way, just as wrong as those who, even today, pine for a renewed Confederacy, complete with chattel slavery.