Minnesota's racial disparities in education, unemployment, income and health are among our biggest public policy problems right now, and these differences rightfully have been dominating news coverage in recent years. But in her latest Star Tribune column, featuring 753 words of ridicule directed at a conference designed to raise some rather uppity questions about this disadvantage, Katherine Kersten did not write a single phrase acknowledging that racial inequality might be of any concern whatsoever. Kersten combs through the White Privilege Conference events (organized by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs) archives in recent years to find the angriest rhetorical excesses and then dismisses the entire event as a “rich smorgasboard of white guilt.” I too personally disagree with some of the harsher statements Kersten attributes to some of the organizers. But a closer look at the agenda uncovers plenty of positive and constructive content, and the conference actually seems to be suffused with the spirit that more knowledge and cultural awareness can and must lead to reconciliation and greater equity. In following up on Kersten's “story,” FOX TV right-winger Sean Hannity actually did a better job at balance, rounding up Bucknell University professor James Peterson to defend the event, between being interrupted rather rudely, of course.
But more important, the article drips with disdain and a strong implication that ANY concern about racism and disadvantage is laughable, now or then. Kersten mocks the assertion that the United States was founded “by white people, for white people,” even though that is essentially accurate and in fact the original Constitution counted African American slaves as 3/5 of a person. As recently as my own birth, mid-20th Century, more than 2/3 of the American population – women and all racial minorities, were discriminated against or lacked full legal or de facto equal rights, in some ways in most states. And yes, in the way the world really works, this discrimination and unfairness and white privilege continues. Lucky for all of us, Kersten is distinctly at odds with our mainstream business, religious and community leadership on this score. The literature of the Minnesota Business Partnership and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is replete with analysis and prescriptions, including investment in early childhood education and reforms in schools, to reduce the racial achievement gap. Mainstream church leaders rank our racial unfairness as a growing and pressing problem that must be addressed. And one of the organizations that sponsored the White Privilege Conference, the St. Paul Foundation, has done some particularly constructive work through its Facing Race initiative, which will hold its annual “Ambassador Award” event on May 3.
We are still a long, long ways from the Promised Land of racial harmony alluded to by Martin Luther King. And we probably won't get there in our lifetimes. But we can make faster progress if we acknowledge some uncomfortable truths about the past and present.
Dane Smith
Right on Dane! Thank you for a rational exploration of this difficult but important issue. And thank you for sharing that a broad range of mainstream associations from our business sector to our faith communities, embrace and support the need to address racial inequities. The buy-in by this diversity of leadership reflects a mature view of how critical and commonsensical it is for us all to learn about racism, and how to end it, if we are to sustain an economically and socially healthy society. This is serious work that rises far above the juvenile mocking that characterized Kersten's column.
Posted by: Carlos Mariani Rosa | April 15, 2011 at 01:42 PM