America in Denial , livre ebook

State University of New York Press - Lori Latrice Martin

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130 pages

English

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In America in Denial Lori Latrice Martin examines the myth of a race-fair America by reviewing and offering alternatives to universal, race-neutral programs and policies as well as other allegedly race-neutral initiates. By considering policies and programs related to wealth, health, education, and criminal justice, while presenting themselves as race-neutral, Martin reveals that black scholars and politicians, in particular, seemingly capitulate and have become proponents of these programs and policies that perpetuate the myth of a race-fair America. This (mis)use provides cover for elected officials and presidential hopefuls needed to garner the support and authenticity required to increase public support for their initiatives. These issues must be unpacked and debunked, and the material and nonmaterial harm historically done to black people, and still felt today, must be acknowledged. The idea that programs available to all people will benefit black people is demonstratively untrue, and the alternatives presented in America in Denial will generate much-needed conversations.
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Road to a Race-Fair America: How America Lost Its Way

2. Wealth, Inclusivity, and Exclusion

3. From Compulsory Education to Universal Disappointment

4. The Color of Justice

5. Resistance and Racial Progress: Kaepernick and the Practice of Leadership

Conclusion: Changing Course: Race-Transcendent Prophets Must Lead the Way

References
Index

Sujets

États-Unis

History of the Americas

21st century

United States of America

USA

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Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	01 avril 2021
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9781438482989
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1648€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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AMERICA IN DENIAL
SUNY series in African American Studies

John R. Howard and Robert C. Smith, editors
AMERICA
in
DENIAL
How Race-Fair Policies Reinforce Racial Inequality in America
LORI LATRICE MARTIN
Cover image by Dan Brandenburg / iStock.com
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Martin, Lori Latrice, author.
Title: America in denial : how race-fair policies reinforce racial inequality in America / Lori Latrice Martin, author.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2021] | Series: SUNY series in African American Studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438482972 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438482989 (ebook)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In Memory of Johnnie G. McCann and Kenneth O. Miles
Contents
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I NTRODUCTION
C HAPTER O NE
The Road to a Race-Fair America: How America Lost Its Way
C HAPTER T WO
Wealth, Inclusivity, and Exclusion
C HAPTER T HREE
From Compulsory Education to Universal Disappointment
C HAPTER F OUR
The Color of Justice
C HAPTER F IVE
Resistance and Racial Progress: Kaepernick and the Practice of Leadership
C ONCLUSION
Changing Course: Race-Transcendent Prophets Must Lead the Way
R EFERENCES
I NDEX
Acknowledgments
I am forever grateful for the support of the following individuals throughout the development of America in Denial: How Race-Neutral Policies Reinforce Racial Inequality in America : Lee and Edith Burns, Emily and John Thornton, Rachel Nichols, Stephen C. Finley, Biko Mandela Gray, Roland Mitchell, Linda Smith Griffin, Juan Barthelemy, Maretta McDonald, Landon Douglas, Sarah Becker, Annemarie Galeucia, Ifeyinwa Davis, John Aggrey, Walter Holliday, Nikki Fargas, C. Keith Harrison, Advancement of Blacks in Sports (ABIS), Black Student Athletes Association (BSAA) at LSU, Black Scholars Roundtable in Sports, Derrick Martin Jr., David I. Shannon Rudder, Hayward Derrick Horton, John Sibley Butler, Dorothea Swann, Bobbie Commodore, Frances Pratt, Dominique Dillard, Mahalia Howard, Ashley Maryland, David and Shannon Rudder, Ewart Forde, Constance Slaughter Harvey, Michael Rinella, and Emir Sykes.
Introduction
The refusal to acknowledge that a problem exists and persists does not mean the problem is not real and it certainly doesn’t mean that it will somehow cease being a problem without one or more interventions. Refusing to adequately address enduring racial disparities on many issues results in a host of actual and metaphorical deaths, which may best be understood as death by denial. Far too many Americans have arrived at the conclusion that efforts to adequately compensate black people for the discrimination they faced (and continue to face) is unfair to present-day white people and/or “politically unfeasible” and is, therefore, not worth the fight. White privilege, some argue, is not experienced equally by whites, as evidenced in variations in outcomes by gender, for example. Moreover, poor white people, regardless of gender, and more affluent whites have little in common, others have claimed.
The idea of white disadvantage extends further; it extends to the idea that white people are actually one of the most at-risk groups in America. White people are believed to be at risk due to perceived black progress and external threats ranging from terrorism to illegal immigration, among other claims. This was on full display in Charlottesville in 2017 and the Unite the Right rally. Protestors gathered to contest the removal of a monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The protests resulted in the death of Heather Heyer, who was killed when a supporter of the rally deliberately drove into a crowd of counterprotesters (Sweeny 2019). The belief that whites are at risk has seemingly increased over the past decade and has politically energized many white Americans, including around such themes as Make America Great Again.
The consequences of these developments are many and are not limited to upticks in overt manifestations of white supremacy, such as in the case of the burning of historic black churches, but also include a potentially dangerous and harmful decline in commitments to speak truth to power when the issue is 1) clearly about race and 2) involves the experiences of black people in America.
Various groups ranging from white liberals to selected black scholars and black politicians are among the former freedom fighters that have seemingly thrown their hands up in surrender and tossed in the proverbial towel. Former advocates for the rights of historically disadvantaged groups appear to have traded in their social activist credentials for the opportunity to become proponents of programs and proposals that defy history, logic, and hundreds of years of scholarly research and embrace the existence or emergence of a race-fair America.
The types of programs and policies advocated by these performers—influential individuals promoting changes they claim are beneficial to black people but will actually set black people back—have been shown not only to do more harm than good to black people but also simultaneously provide additional benefits to already advantaged groups. Some black scholars have become closely associated with this latest iteration of colorblindness as demonstrated in their push for a program that would issue bonds to every newborn in America as a way to address persistent racial wealth inequality. The scholars are among a high-profile group claiming race-neutral policies and programs provide the greatest chances for the creation of a race-fair America. These claims persist despite decades of research that point to the role that antiblack sentiments had in creating, transforming, and perpetuating a racialized social structure that remains fully intact even today and will remain intact for the foreseeable future.
Black people continue to bear the brunt of the blame for enduring racial disparities in virtually every area of social life from wealth, education, health, to crime. Efforts claiming to address such issues, particularly those adhering to the idea of a race-fair America, tend to focus on pathology of blackness that is rooted in antiblack sentiment. Consequently, related solutions to racial disparities call for behavior modifications that will lead to conformity with mythical so-called white middle-class standards. At the same time, current so called race-fair solutions to racial disparities also direct attention away from the need for systemic changes and the need for the erasure of antiblack sentiments from both the American psyche and social fabric.
The road to a race-fair America is paved with universal programs, which are: 1) focused primarily on behavioral modifications, 2) open to all, and 3) claim to benefit the common good. There are a number of problems with this line of thinking.
First, the root of America’s race problem is the systematic exclusion of black people in all areas of social life. Second, the term common was never meant to (and still does not) include black people. Third, the material and nonmaterial harms done to black people that are still felt today must be acknowledged. Just compensation is long overdue. Fourth, the idea that programs that are available to all people will necessarily benefit black people has been shown time and time again not to be the case.
Millions of black people have been in (and are still caught in) a disadvantage feedback loop, whereby generations of black people suffer the effects of antiblack practices and policies. These practices and policies tend to enrich members of the dominant racial group both literally and figuratively. This exploitation and exclusion is not new, but it is a fact some wish to forget, or chose to ignore, for reasons unknown. Doing what is right is not something that any individual or group should give up so easily. The right thing to do is to be truthful about the origins of racial disparities in America on a host of sociological outcomes. The causes of racial disparities in wealth, education, and the criminal justice system in America are varied but tend to include one of two dominant narratives: culture versus structure.
Culture versus Structure
C ULTURAL E XPLANATIONS
Culture arguments tend to focus on the need for behavior modifications for individuals and groups. A number of classic as well as contemporary research studies exemplify this approach to explaining historic and contemporary racial disparities on a host of sociological outcomes. Oscar Lewis’s “The Culture of Poverty” is one of the most cited studies and, by his own account, one of the most misunderstood. Lewis attempted to explain why poverty persists and distinguishes simply being poor from living within a culture of poverty (Lewis 1966). In fact, Lewis made the argument that it would be easier to end poverty than to eliminate the culture of poverty. Lewis like many others focused on culture,