One proverb that universities teach us very effectively is that “if at first you don’t succeed, just cry racism.” It’s a surefire solution to all failures. Students First! last year used this slogan very effectively. Everyone who has tried to cut funding to The Koala shouts it. Ethnic studies courses attribute nearly all failure of cultures to white hegemonic racism.
This author only wishes that this sort of childishness would halt at the university level. College students are hopeless because we learn to think so far outside common sense.
But it goes that there might be hope for the real world. Clearly, this author has his hopes set too high. For example, the recent mayoral election in Milwaukee, which shows the worst of college thinking seeping into the real world.
“Racism is alive and well in Milwaukee. It’s alive and well and thriving,” insisted Dianne Pratt, wife of defeated Milwaukee mayoral candidate Marvin Pratt. Mrs. Pratt’s reason for assurance of “thriving” racism? Her husband lost.
Two weeks prior, very left-leaning Democratic candidate Tom Barrett, who is white, defeated Marvin Pratt, another Democrat, who is black. The city is in upheaval over the results because of the perception that the result was racist.
The reason Mrs. Pratt says she is justified in playing the race card is because her husband was initially ahead in the polls. According to her, racists used negative campaigning against her husband because he’s black. This turned the tide of the white voters, who have a definite numerical advantage, and her husband lost accordingly. Unfortunately, a large portion of the city believes Mrs. Pratt.
Some people are determined to keep it alive in places it just doesn’t exist.
It is true that there was a flurry of negative attention against Mr. Pratt toward the end of the campaign, and a lot of it was under the direction of his opponent. However, every one of the negative ads was concerning Mr. Pratt’s unsettling financial history, breaking campaign financing laws, and woeful financial bookkeeping — to which Mr. Pratt admitted.
Mr. Pratt’s campaign was a mess. Before the election, he was already mired in scandal. During the election, it was worse. A campaign bus parked directly outside a polling place and blasted Pratt-for-mayor slogans. Mr. Pratt himself went to the wrong polling place, against warnings, and chatted with volunteers, according to the poll workers, which is a direct violation of campaign laws.
But above it all, Mr. Pratt himself was honorable enough to deny that that racism was a factor, against his wife’s judgment. He said that race had become an issue because the black community was unwavering while the white community became worried about his financial credentials. In an orderly financial town like Milwaukee, this is logical. However, he said that he never mentioned racism as a factor in his defeat.
Furthermore, 57 percent of white voters voted for Mr. Pratt in the primary. Is this the racist white Milwaukee we were hearing about?
It doesn’t even stop there; poetic justice may also be found in the fact that this battle over race is occurring within the Democratic Party, the party affiliated with affirmative action and other racial quotas.
To top off this wonderful irony, the third-place position in the primaries went to a black conservative sheriff, David Clarke. If there was racism to be decried, it would be in his defeat. According to the stereotypes portrayed by the disgruntled Milwaukee communities, whites wouldn’t have voted for him because they are racists and the blacks wouldn’t vote for him because he is conservative. So, while gross stereotypes are being made, why is Mr. Clarke ignored?
As fascinating as the irony is, these situations are actually very frustrating. No matter how hard people try to redefine racism as an archaic evil, others will find it somewhere even more obscure and use it as an example of racism “thriving.” It doesn’t matter if there wasn’t even a shred of racism involved, people will create it.
The answer to this conundrum is quite simple. Unless there is a clear indication of racism afoot, then stop using the word for every failure or slight. There are a lot of reasons that people fail. It’s a shame that so many people have to forego personal responsibility to lay the blame at the feet of society.
For the people of Milwaukee, this is a terrible precedent. For us college kids, this is the norm. For those of you who don’t remember the Students First! outrage last year, the entire slate was disqualified after several campaign violations. But of course, to the candidates, it was clearly racism. The candidates expressed their disagreement when the disqualification was met with wonderfully intelligent slogans like “Racist bastards!” and “Take your fucking white privilege and kiss my ass!”
And the worst aspect of this sort of lunacy is that it desensitizes us to the word “racism” and to racist acts. Most people have encountered true racists at one point or another. It is shocking. In this author’s opinion, it is always worse than you imagine it would be. But what is more shocking is that “racism” is fast becoming a meaningless word. It is demeaned each time college students cry wolf and hope everyone comes running to protest.
As college students who were accepted here for intellectual merit, we must be better than this. It is embarrassing that beacons of the American future try so hard to find racism where it doesn’t exist, rather than trying to eradicate real racism while appreciating the civil rights leaders and activists who have brought the country this far out of bigotry. One must truly be blind to think that we have not come far.
There is a scarier underlying theme. Perhaps the angry protesters and race-baiters are not actually upset about race, but rather finding a convenient way to eliminate all other views they disagree with, using race as a convenient catalyst. Therein lies the real, and shocking, possibility of racism.
As intellectual beacons, let us take an example from the ridiculousness of Milwaukee’s mayoral election and try and commemorate those who endure racism by fearing the word, rather than overusing it as a catchphrase.
