Black Crackers

The New Birth Baptist in Georgia is reported to have the largest African American congregation in the United States. They recently staged an anti-gay march starting at The King Center, and co-led by Martin Luther King's daughter Bernice King.

This isn't news any longer. The African American activists and pundits with the most audible voices are constantly running down women, Jews, Arabs, Asians, and gays. Especially gays these days. Sadly we can't blame the media, as polls of the African American community seem to bear out these attitudes.

I've noticed the reciprocal when I've had friends of color or visited other countries. In college I met many Greeks, Turks, and Arabs through my uncle's circle of friends, and most of the new immigrants would run down other minorities viciously, especially Blacks and Hispanics. My Semite acquaintances in my colleges' ESL programs tended to run each other down, but saved their worst vitriol for Blacks and Asians. The Hispanics seemed to have it in for the Blacks and Jews. Asians and Middle Easterners seemed to be the most viciously racist, at least their hate towards people not of their homeland made me the most uncomfortable.

These are people I invited to my home for holiday celebrations, and such. I invited lots of people who lived elsewhere, and was especially fascinated by people with very different cultural backgrounds. Over and over I'd tell people I detested racist attitudes, and they weren't tolerated by my family. Sometimes I'd never hear from them again. Occasionally I'd be met with relief. Most often there was a total lack of comprehension, "That's just the way they are..." I learned two things from my observations by the time I was twenty. One is that racism crosses all borders and cultures. Two was that many people thought the way to the average american wasp was through racism.

My favorite challenge was, "So you hate like people who look different from you. Well as a white with light colored hair and skin I look the most different so you must hate me the most." It was a young and snottily supercilious thing to say. I've developed a little more tolerance and diplomacy. Opening some one to my perspective is more useful than getting an obscure revenge for making me feel soiled.

I've not shared these observations before, because I find the line of reasoning so ironic. My observations of racism from the very groups we typically disenfranchise as white anglo saxon protestants are stereotypical. Yup, we tend to categorize everything, and when people are involved it generally devolves to stereotypes, the very stuff of bigotry. Racism as a shared value among the races is sad, though it is fodder for dark humor.

I have never been able to gain a personal understanding of racism, except through the super-category of bigotry. I was bigoted as a teen against gays. I was following the herd despising them to be cool, and had an interesting epiphany when I was 23. A Jesuit priest at Seattle University asked me when I decided girls would give me erections. Changed my bias against gays immediately. Ironic it came from a Catholic priest.

So, the folks at New Birth Baptist are not special. They voice all too common bigotry and irrational fears, apparently reveling in holding down others. Every time I see a news item like this I think, well they are fully integrated into white american society. When I saw this particular story my dark humor slipped into ascension. I really wanted to tell all the marchers who made such an effort to crush gay people and put them back where they belong, "That's mighty white of you."

I was heartened by this article. It is heartening that there are people who can rise above hate and fear, and have a voice. Like the white community, it is a minority and the voice is obscured, but it is there.

I guess that is my form of racial inequality. I find it more disenchanting when the black community shows so clearly it is no better at eliminating bigotry and cowardice than us whities.

A final bit of irony. This beautiful and haunting quote was on the same page where the New Birth Baptist church codifies their hate of gays. I can't think of anything more inappropriate, and I'm sure they would have no clue as to the psychotically acute irony in choosing these words.

“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.