In Impromptus today, I have a typical mélange: politics, foreign affairs, music, sports, language. Much of what I say is contentious. But “this is the business we’ve chosen,” as Hyman Roth says. My column is here.
Earlier this month, I had a column titled “Our Ongoing Dilemma.” Its subtitle was “Notes on race in America: political, social, and personal.” The column was occasioned by claims that Kamala Harris is a “DEI hire.” I received lots of mail, full of stories (personal ones) and opinions. I will publish a sample. Thanks to one and all who wrote.
A reader says,
Dear Jay,
May I tell a story or two (relevant, I think)?
In 1959, I applied for a bank-teller position at a credit union in Manhattan, which was created to serve Con Ed employees. There were two other applicants and we were all interviewed at the same time. We were told to wait in an anteroom for the decision.
We all got to talking with each other, and the question of high-school background came up. One fellow said he went to a public school in Brooklyn; the other said he went to a public school in the Bronx. When I told them I had graduated from Mount Saint Michael, they looked at each other, and one said, “Hell, you got the job. They always give precedence to Catholics.”
I got the job.
Earlier in my life, a schoolmate told me that his mother, a real-estate agent, had shown a large neighborhood property to Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella. My schoolmate was excited, and so was I, and blabbed it to everyone I knew. We were all Yankee fans, but, hey, this was Roy Campanella!
His mother rang our doorbell at dinnertime, enraged at my parents for permitting me to let anyone think that she would sell a house to “coloreds.” It was my first experience with real racial animosity.
I have since come to understand that racial, ethnic, and religious animosity is firmly rooted in the essence of huge swaths of my fellow citizens. This is what fuels the firestorms of hate in the political arena today.
I first saw it during the rise of Puerto Rican political power during my school years, and again during the Irish “troubles” of the ’60s and ’70s, and again as Donald Trump rose, and most recently in the increased visibility of antisemitism.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Not as many of us as I used to think, I’m afraid.
Another reader quotes from the memoirs of Bill Russell, the late basketball great. Those memoirs are called “Second Wind,” and they are “filled with fascinating insights,” says our reader. Here is one of the passages our reader quotes:
In Boston, there was a period when I was plagued by the “I didn’t notice” liberals, a bunch of whom used to hang around the Celtics. For example, in conversation one of them might bring up the name of someone I couldn’t place.
“I don’t remember her,” I’d say. “Was she black or white?”
“I didn’t notice,” the answer would come, sweet and innocent, sometimes a little proud.
“You didn’t notice?” I’d ask, amazed at the power of guilt. On good days l’d laugh, on medium days l’d scowl, and on bad days I’d lecture.
A reader writes,
Jay, when you say you have never really thought of your race — because you are in the racial majority in our country — I totally get that. Being white has just been a fact, a peripheral, for me.
A number of years ago, I read Thomas Sowell’s A Man of Letters and Clarence Thomas’s My Grandfather’s Son. Because they are both conservative, and because I agreed with them on issues such as affirmative action, I just assumed they would be like me. As I read those autobiographies, though, I became aware that being black was an integral part of their understanding of their identity. This was an entirely new idea to me.
There are those who would say this was “white privilege.” I think it’s more “majority privilege.” As you say, if everyone were tall, being tall wouldn’t be a thing.
Anyway, those two books really challenged me. It made me aware, or at least more aware, that people can agree with me, but that does not mean they are me. They have their own perspectives, goals, priorities, etc. The opposite can be true as well. People can disagree with me but have more in common with me than I might realize.
A reader writes,
We should give up on trying to eliminate racism, sexism, etc., and admit that forming groups, judging appearances, and practicing conformity are inherent human behaviors. I shouldn’t treat a good-looking woman better than an ugly one, and I shouldn’t be more upset that a deer got run over than that a rat got run over, and I shouldn’t want Brandon Nakashima to win his next tennis match because he is a Japanese American like me, but I do.
Biological tendencies need to be tempered — overeating, lust — but we should face up to the fact that in the war between biology and logic, biology will win in the long run.
Maybe one more note:
We should strive for colorblindness, it’s an admirable goal, but we should also be realistic in that not everyone is there, nor will everyone get there. There are always going to be “deadenders” on race, those who want to “see” race everywhere and exploit differences. But we cannot let that fact deter us from aiming at a better way.
Again, my thanks to one and all. In my “Ongoing Dilemma” column, I said, “Race is America’s sorest, stickiest subject.” Isn’t it though?