Photo Credit: Tom Jenz
Let me begin with a definition: Racism is the system that allows the racial group that’s already in power to retain power. In the United States, Wisconsin and Milwaukee, that happens to be the white race. Our ivory tower political leaders, academics and media columnists suggest the following cures for the disease known as systemic racism:
- Gaining public support and awareness for anti-prejudice social norms.
- Interaction with outside social groups.
- Alerting people to the inconsistencies in their own entrenched beliefs.
- Passing laws that require fair and equal treatment for all groups of people.
Is Life Fair?
Wonderful ideals. But what about reality? What about the undisputed concept that life isn’t fair or even equal? Never has been. Face it. We the people are tribal by nature. Since homo sapiens first appeared, human beings have grouped themselves off by tribes. Just like the wild pack animals. Why? It’s about survival. If I protect members of my own tribe, then I too will survive. Who cares about the other tribes? That attitude. Hard to believe that after a few hundred thousand years of religious, tribal, and economic class wars, racism still remains. In some cases, racism reigns. “Civilization” be damned. I find it unfortunate that so many people give into the dark side of character. Could it be the natural survival instinct? I don’t know but talking about it doesn’t hurt. Or does it?
The paradox of human emotion. The majority feel sorry for victims, but the majority do not want victims too close to them. Yet, by the very core of human nature, minorities become victims. Given our flawed nature, is it possible to change this paradigm? I don’t know. But I do think, reduced to its base, racism is about fear.
The Fear Factor
It’s that fear I’d like to consider. For example, there is the kind of personal prejudice as in where I dislike the homeless, the uneducated, braggarts, or loud talkers. Then, there is systemic racism as in the whites control the economic, political and social power in this country. Their system is designed to either suppress people of color or turn them into victims who are expected to be grateful.
Take racism in Milwaukee, the most segregated city in the country. For the past few generations, the powerful whites have kept the Black citizens roped off into an area now called zip code 53206 or the inner city. Why? Fear of the unknown. Fear of people whose skin is the wrong color, whose culture leans toward the emotional. The theory goes that if we whites give the isolated Blacks welfare, healthcare, childcare, and charity, then they are out of our way and taken care of, and we don’t have to feel guilty. Sure, inner city Milwaukee Blacks struggle with crime, drug addiction, domestic violence, and family dysfunction, but it’s not our fault. We try to live our lives in peace. Why can’t they? And that, my readers, is systemic racism.
Oh no, you are thinking. Here is another older white guy who is going to add his tired old opinion on how to solve systemic racism and prejudice. You’d be wrong. This white guy is only going to lay it out as he sees it through his experience in Milwaukee.
Consider Milwaukee
The Milwaukee Black intellectual, Reggie Jackson, leads seminars at corporations and businesses on inclusion and overcoming racism in the workplace. What does he teach? He told me, “You always have to remember that each of us comes from a unique background that shapes our prejudices.” For example, a white person drives North 35th Street, and a cocky young Black man speeds past him, his boombox blaring, as he shouts “honky motherfucker!” Aftermath? That white driver has an excuse to globalize into the broad judgement that all young Black men are to be feared. Or a white redneck pickup driver yells “nigger” at a Black man on the street. Aftermath? Now all white men are bad. Once an unsettling incident occurs, the mind leaps into fear and instant judgement. It’s called the inductive leap because deduction is cast aside. Logic is shoveled over.
I grew up in a small, white Wisconsin town, no Blacks, no Asians, and only a few Hispanics. My parents told me never to be prejudiced against people of color. That was easy. I never encountered people of color. As I got older and lived in various big cities, what did I do about my so-called lack of prejudice? Nothing. Other than infrequently in the workplace, I rarely associated with Blacks. And weren’t my favorite singers Marvin Gaye and Ray Charles, my favorite athletes Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan? Didn’t I support Dr. King and civil rights? I was OK. It was comforting to know I held no prejudice, that Blacks were taken care of through the welfare system, and they were safe in their own communities. After all, weren’t Blacks finally being included in colleges, businesses, the law, even politics? Didn’t they have the NAACP for help, and lawsuits to protect against discrimination? Back then, little did I know as the Black activist and Milwaukee minister Clem Richardson recently told me, “There was a mental prison in our neighborhood in 53206. The worst kind of prison is when you are free but don’t know you are free. You are still a nigger.”
Value of Human Contact
Can we legislate against systemic racism? We already have. The laws are in place, and any private company, government, or person violating the anti-discrimination laws will suffer at the hands of an army of trial lawyers. But the key question is what will these bureaucratic laws do for individual prejudice, whether tribal, community, or face to face encounters. I believe they will do very little anymore. The way to deal with personal prejudice and systemic racism is through person to person connections. Getting to know someone who is not your color or your tribal member, listening to and understanding a different way of life, a personal history foreign to the mind’s paradigm. But wait a second. What if we have disagreements? So what? Hell, we don’t have to all agree. By nature, we do have some prejudices built into our DNA. We don’t have to live together in systemic harmony to be accepting. Yet surely we are capable of understanding, of doing unto others as you would want done to you. Humans have always been divided by economic classes as a way to provide safety and security. 30% of us do the important work, invent things, start businesses, hire people, run governments, entertain audiences, and 70% of the rest of us do the everyday work.
OK then, who the hell am I to be handing out these observations? Why should you care about what I say? In recent years, I’ve made an effort to connect with Milwaukee persons whose color is opposite mine, met them in their neighborhoods, had one on one conversations, involvements, disagreements, exchange of prejudices. I’ve listened to symphonies of anger but also melodies of love. The myriad media gurus, pundits, authors, and political elitists keep writing about this broad topic of systemic racism. They keep reminding us about our terrible history of racism and human failings. I’ve given up on them. I’m going radical. I’m going personal. I prefer one on one involvement. That’s about all I can do.
Nearly 70 years ago, an American psychologist, Gordon Allport, studied apartheid in South Africa. He wanted to find out where prejudice came from and how to prevent it. After years of research, he concluded an answer so simple that it defied logic. What was that answer? Human contact. Yes, one word: contact. My hope is that someday most of us will make contact with another person who is opposite in color and cultural behavior. Would fear ago away? Would systemic racism sink into history? Probably not. But the simple effort of contact might start to cure the awful infection of racism.
Central City Stories is a collection of visual narratives from Milwaukee's central city by writer and fine arts photographer Tom Jenz. You can see more of his work at TomJenzAmerica.com.
