More than this.
Words.
"The furor over Sen. Harry Reid's remarks about President Obama's race, reported by The Times in several articles, has gone way overboard. His remarks, however -- that Obama is "light-skinned" and speaks with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one" -- may yet prove useful in sparking a badly needed, frank conversation about race in America. Indeed, we can never understand what Reid meant -- and our reaction -- unless we have this conversation.
Though I accept Reid's apology and take the president at his word that this is a nonissue, we must be honest with ourselves about the context of what Reid said. It is true in America that our white brothers and sisters have a different level of comfort with people of African descent, and that their personal comfort impacts and influences opportunities in employment, grading in schools, civic engagement -- and especially voting. Additionally, many African Americans learn the art of "code switching," where our outward display of attitudes and behaviors is sometimes geared toward what we believe will help our white counterparts feel more comfortable, even as we act and talk differently when the company is exclusively or predominantly black. This has much to do with how we look, dress and speak.
...Lest one thinks that this question has been raised only recently, I am reminded of a line from an old folk song sung by black slaves, as reported by social scientist Russell Ames in 1950: "Got one mind for white folks to see, 'nother for what I know is me."
...While racial politics in the U.S. have indeed changed over the past half a century, they haven't change enough to allow African Americans to let down their guard. Americans simply cannot suddenly abandon their long-held biases about dark- versus-light-skinned black folks or those who talk in standard English versus what some perceive as urban or "ghetto" slang.
...Perhaps Reid's remarks can serve as an invitation for us to continue this conversation about race and move us closer to true racial understanding."
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