Racism: The Problem of Perception

A ruckus was caused recently at the University of South Carolina when a 'racist' dance number was performed at a sorority fundraiser. (Critical Mass has a report on it here, which includes a link to the news story)

I have no comment on the incident itself, which appears to be more or less an innocent incident blown out of proportion by the USC Association of African-American Students. But let's look at some of quotes from various people stemming from the incident:

"This is not just a black or white issue...[e]ven if people don't intend to offend anyone, there is a distinction you have to draw between intent and impact." -- Carl Wells, director of USC's office of multicultural student affairs

“Regardless of his intentions, there was a reaction. It’s not always about our intentions, but how we’re perceived.” --an unnamed USC student.

Critical Mass laments the implication that 'if someone thinks you're a racist, you are', but I think these two comments demonstrate an important truth about racism in America. Namely, the problem of racism isn't just the existence of racism, but also the perception of racism.

Let's suppose I've been granted omnipotent power over humanity, 'Bruce Almighty'-style, and decide to wave my hands and instantly remove all racist attitudes and opinions from all men and women on the planet. After that's accomplished, now let's suppose we have a HR guy for company XYZ who's interviewing applicants for a managerial position. There are two final candidates, one white and one black, who are virtually the same in education and experience. The HR guy, who happens to be white, decides on the white applicant to fill the position. The black applicant feels that he was the most qualified candidate and feels the white interviewer has discriminated against him because of his race. Of course, this can't be true because, remember, I just eliminated racism everywhere with a wave of my hand. Obviously the HR guy had reason(s) unrelated to racism in choosing the white applicant over the black one, but does the actual reason matter anymore? The black applicant who feels wronged will still file complaints and/or law suits and enlist the help of local black organizations and media outlets in exposing and fighting against this 'racist' company, and company XYZ finds that it has a huge problem on its hands--a racism problem despite the fact that racism doesn't exist anymore.

Of course, there is still racism in the world; often serious and violent racism. But the above example shows why in my opinion the problem of racism will NEVER EVER be eliminated, because even if the existence of racism is reduced or eliminated, the perception will never be--and the perception is a root cause of the problem. Eliminating racism is a difficult enough task, but unless you were able to convince everyone that racism was eliminated (an even more difficult task), it wouldn't matter. Just like in the situation at USC, the 'impact' matters just as much (if not more) as the actual 'intent'. And when currently universities and companies are automatically labelled 'racist' if the percentage of minority students and employees don't exactly equal the percentage of minorities in the local community regardless of the reason, we can see that the problems from perception will exist in America for a very long time...

Oh, by the way...want to know the Baron's solution to combatting racism (of which he is currently an active participant)? Support interracial marriages! Have mixed-race kids! The more interracial kids there are, the less race ceases to be a factor in their identities. After a couple of generations, race wouldn't be an issue anymore in anything...