Conservative hypocrisy on race

In my previous post, on Americans and (in)curiosity, I cast some aspersions on right-wingers (one of my preferred pastimes). Continuing in this vein, Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic had a pertinent commentary the other day on “Conservative hypocrisy on racial profiling and affirmative action,” in which he pointed out a glaring contradiction in the argument of the ghastly right-wing pundit Victor Davis Hanson, who, like many conservatives, has used the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman verdict to let loose on the question of race in America. Conservatives have a hard time talking about race. The American right had no problem with the pre-1960s racial status quo in America, had nothing to do with the civil rights movement—when it didn’t oppose it—, and built its post 1960s base on white Southerners who defected to the GOP as the Democrats became the party of civil rights and political home to the vast majority of newly enfranchised black voters (Nixon’s ‘Southern strategy’, etc). Since the 1960s conservatives—such as Victor Davis Hanson—have adopted a color blind discourse and systematically opposed policies that hint at racial preference. But, as Friedersdorf observes, VDH and other conservatives suddenly cease to be color blind when it comes to racial profiling. For VDH & Co., it is not okay to see blacks as blacks, except when it is.

In a recent National Review column on “Facing facts [sic] about race,” that Friedersdorf links to, VDH writes the following

In middle age, [my father] and my mother once were parking their car on a visit to San Francisco when they were suddenly surrounded by several African-American teens. When confronted with their demands, he offered to give the thieves all his cash if they would leave him and my mother alone. Thankfully they took his cash and left. I think that experience — and others — is why he once advised me, “When you go to San Francisco, be careful if a group of black youths approaches you.” Note what he did not say to me. He did not employ language like “typical black person.” He did not advise extra caution about black women, the elderly, or the very young — or about young Asian Punjabi, or Native American males.  In other words, the advice was not about race per se, but instead about the tendency of males of one particular age and race to commit an inordinate amount of violent crime. It was after some first-hand episodes with young African-American males that I offered a similar lecture to my own son. The advice was born out of experience rather than subjective stereotyping.

What dickheads, both father and son, to give such advice to their kids. As a generally white-looking person who lived for most of his youth and early adulthood in urban America, I could recount plenty of personal stories myself on this subject—of aggressions but more non-aggressions—but will resist that temptation (and which would take up a few hours of my time; I am utterly certain that I have had far more personal experience on this matter than has VDH or any of his politically kindred spirits who may be reading this).

Let me just recount one story here, a discussion with my 19-year-old daughter that happened precisely yesterday evening. Now my daughter has lived her entire life in Paris and (since age five) in our urban inner banlieue. She’s a city kid and has been out and about, navigating on public transportation, and going into Paris with friends or on her own since age 13. And as she entered her late teens, she started going out on weekend nights and coming home very late. As one knows, there is a certain level of criminality in Paris—crime rates in France and elsewhere in Europe are about the same as the US (with the singular exception of homicide)—, and with incivilities and street crime disproportionately committed by young males belonging to what Americans would refer to as racial or ethnic minorities. Now we—my wife and I—have never offered any advice to our daughter—not once, ever—about being wary of males of particular racial or ethnic groups. Not only did such never occur to us but she, as with any minimally street smart kid and with sources of information apart from her parents, was perfectly capable of figuring this kind of thing out for herself. So in the discussion yesterday, my daughter, as she was getting ready to go out on the town with friends, started to talk about—in a specific context—the incessant, daily harassment—sometimes threatening—that she and her girlfriends are subjected to on the street by young males. It was by no means the first time we’ve had this discussion but it’s always interesting to hear about it again. I rhetorically asked her—not for the first time—if the guys who bothered and said stuff to her were mostly renois and rebeus, i.e. blacks and Maghrebis/Arabs. She said of course, that it’s only them, that no blanc—white guy—or Jew would ever harass her, come on to her in public, or make unpleasant comments. C’est toujours les mêmes. But in pushing the discussion further, she specified that it’s not all the blacks or Arabs who may be hanging out on the street or on the train, or even most. She instinctively knows which ones are okay and which are not by their look—by the way they’re dressed and carry themselves—and how they behave. There are a number of cues, not just skin color. And it mainly comes down to social class. The assholes are the lumpenproletariat layabouts from the cités. My daughter and her copines do not racially profile. They read each situation as it develops—or does not develop—and react accordingly. They do not preemptively avoid young men of color. Their default posture is, in fact, not to do so. And they are not going to be wary of guys who are manifestly minding their own business. As my daughter has grown up in an urban multicultural and multiracial environment—and which has been reflected in her friendship circles—, her attitude on this is only normal. And is rather more sophisticated than that of VDH and his conservative crew.

On the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman verdict—of which I have read much—, let me link to just one commentary, by UC-Riverside English lit prof Vorris L. Nunley, “George Zimmerman never saw Trayvon Martin.” The lede: “Instead he encountered a black trope, a figure occupying the anxiety-ridden terrain of the white imagination.” And that imagination includes Victor Davis Hanson’s too.