From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Progress (Was : Re: The Literary Canon)
Date: 8 Sep 92 20:52:29 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <1992Sep3.155007.29485@athena.cs.uga.edu>, heath@athena.cs.uga.edu (Terrance Heath) writes:
> In article <12123@optilink.UUCP> cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
# #Now, just to show that it wasn't ignorance responsible for this
# #guy's problem, he had told us in class of a little practical joke
# #he and a white gal had played on a landlord they knew, back in the
# #1950s.  The two had approached the landlord when a "for rent"
# #sign was up, and asked to see the apartment.  The landlord had
# #a heart attack as a result of the stress of seeing an interracial
# #couple ask to see the apartment.
# #
# #Nothing has changed in the hearts and minds of white America?
# #Dream on.
# 
# 	I'll post here not merely for the sake of arguing with
# Clayton, that would be a waste of time and energy on my part (seeing
# as how I'm probably not going to change his mind, and he's certainly
# not going to change mine), but to make a point.
# 	I suppose he (Clayton) is weighing the material acheivments of
# the particular black man in this case against the reaction of the
# landlord to an interracial couple (a rather sad reaction, in truth,
# which could be passed off as comical).

Tell me, how many elected black officials were there in almost
entirely white cities in 1950?

Can you imagine an interracial couple going to rent an apartment
causing a heart attack today?

# 	Allow me to offer a differenct scenario (one that has happened
# before), in which this black man might be be pulled over by your
# average city cop. (Perhaps after running a stop light or something.)
# Now, the cops don't know anything about the man, except that he's
# black. One thing leads to another, perhaps he resents being stopped
# and resists being arrested. Now the cops think he's probably on drugs
# or something. Judging from the looks of his clothes and his car (very
# expensive, very nice), he might even be a drug dealer, or a drug lord.
# Next thing you know, the man is on the ground, being beaten rather
# severely by cops who are afraid he might be on PCP or something.
# Well, its easy to see how things might go from there, and all from
# something as simple as being pulled over by a cop.

You can achieve similar responses if you are white, you know.
Race doubtless exacerbates the problem, because racism hasn't
gone away -- and I wouldn't claim that it has gone away.  But
it is clear that the mindless prejudice of 1950 is gone, and
not just because some manifestations of it have been prohibited
by law.

# 	Its a lot easier to change laws (laws which make material
# acheivement possible, and allow avenues of redressing discrimination)
# than it is to change the hearts of people.  Civil Rights legslation
# did not do away with hatred and prejudice in this country.  It simply
# make the physical manifestations of hatred illegal (except, of course,
# the burning cross, which is protected by the first ammendment).
# 	If you wish to count Civil Rights discrimination as progress,
# I'lll give you that, because is has allowed for material progress.  I,
# however, am not so satisfied with the progress that has been made. You
# see, racism has died in law, but not in the hearts of people.  I think
# that is where is must really die before we can claim progress.  
# 	WE ARE NOT YET IN THE PROMISED LAND. WE ARE STILL IN THE
# WILDERNESS.
# 
# Terrance Heath 

Did I say that racism had disappeared?  No.  But enormous progress
has been made in the last 30 years -- I'm old enough to see how
rapidly it has changed.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
Alcohol prohibition didn't work; drug prohibition doesn't work; gun
prohibition won't work.