The discussion about race in America is far from over. It should be a common topic of discussion for folks of all races, genders, and backgrounds. And yet it often gets relegated to being a “minority topic,” similar to how “women’s issues” are seen as being only for women to discuss.
But of course the reality is that every responsible member of society should participate in these important discussions. The Washington Post reported that one Virginia high school was trying to engage students in a discussion of race by showing them a short video called “The Unequal Opportunity Race.” The video (produced by the African American Policy Forum a decade ago) shows four runners on a track, two are white and two have brownish skin tones. The non-white runners face multiple obstacles that prevent them from keeping up with the white runners.
The Black runners can’t even start the race when the white runners do: they are faced with a clock starting at around the year 1400, as words like “Slavery,” “Dred Scott,” and “Segregation,” flash across the screen. As the years tick by, the white runners carry batons with a dollar symbol. The wealth grows larger and larger, and the older runners pass their fortunes onto the younger white runners. A white female runner joins the race in 1908. The Black runners start at 1964, having been lapped multiple times by the white runners.
The race carries on into the present day, with the Black runners facing “Discrimination,” “Poor Education,” and “Underemployment,” represented by various physical obstacles. The race is won by a white, male racer (of course!), with a white, female racer close behind.
Predictably, the white kids’ parents and grandparents got enraged that their children should have to watch a video about race from a non-white perspective. Parents labelled the video “a white guilt video” and demanded that the school ban it.
One student brilliantly summed up the discord:
“A lot of people thought it was offensive to white people and made them feel bad about being privileged. Others thought that it was good to get the information out there. There is oppression going on in the world, and that needs to be looked at with a magnifying glass, I guess.”
It may sound like he’s agreeing with the butt-hurt-ness of the white parents, but he’s not. And what he has to say is important– not for pressuring a school into banning a video on racial privilege, but for opening an important discussion. Is it offensive to white people to discuss a history (and a present) of racial disparity? Why? What should we do about that? Do white people have a responsibility to discuss this topic even if it makes them uncomfortable?
That’s what the school *should* have said. But, unfortunately, they apologized for the video and called it “racially divisive.” Talk about missing out on a teachable moment. In this case, what the school board taught the students is that white people’s discomfort is more important that non-white people’s honest voices.
Plus, when a school only considers the complaints, refusing to seek input from those who are not complaining, they tend to only hear the most privileged voices. Ravi K. Perry, an associate professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University (who planned and moderated the event at the school), points out the error of the school administration’s thinking:
“It’s where you assume, for example, that the only types of folks you should be paying attention to are the ones who call your office. If you only pay attention to the people who call or email you, you are immediately shutting off the people who don’t have the time or the resources to get in touch and that goes to the heart of what was being talked about in that video.”
