By: Jon Schwartz
Over a lifetime of playing five on five pickup basketball in many places I’ve noticed something about race relations. Seems whenever I play with only 9 other white guys, there’s no racial issues. Duh. And if I’m playing in a game with all white guys and one black guy, or conversely if I’m the only white guy playing with 9 black guys, things run smoothly. The times I’ve witnessed obvious racial tension, or conflict that seems to have a racial element while playing pickup basketball is when there is a 3/7, 4/6, or 5/5 black/white, or white/black race ratio.
Why this has been my experience, I can’t say; moreover, I assume there have been many pickup ballers throughout the land whose experiences are nothing like mine. But, while I’d never want to generalize that all games with an equal or near equal racial mix have been fraught with arguing and tension, or that all games I’ve played with racial homogeneity were devoid of any violence, let alone tension, I can’t help but wonder if a risk assessment hypothesis makes sense here. One white or black guy represents a low threat level to the other nine. However, once there are three or more of the “others” there seems to be a new threat level to the opposite group.
The America that I was born into was, metaphorically, a nine white guys/1 black guy basketball game. White people made up 84% of the population in the 1960 census, the year I was born. Most of the remaining 16% were black, with a smaller minority of Hispanic people, and only 1% were Asian. In 1960, only 4% of Americans were first generation immigrants. Today, 15% of Americans immigrated here. As most of us are well aware, the USA is rapidly approaching a white minority/majority scenario, in which less than 50% of the USA is white. If you don’t think this is preoccupying a large bloc of the fast fading white majority, you’re not paying attention. Furthermore, if you don’t think people of color don’t have at least some part of them that relishes this scenario, you’re being obtuse on that score as well. And finally, if you’re white and you’re certain the white minority/majority scenario isn’t freaking you out, you may simply be selective in how you are processing the information.
The “Great American pick up game” is now almost a 6 white guy/4 people of color ratio, soon to be 5/5, and soon after that 4/6, and if my admittedly rudimentary pickup basketball perceived risk hypothesis (devoid of meaningful social science, utterly misogynistic, and limited to my black and white people experience) holds any truth, then our country has evolved from a low/no threat racial and cultural dynamic to a high risk perception scenario – and it explains a lot, while underscoring one essential question as Election 2020 beckons: are you cool with America becoming less white or not?
We can assume that most, if not all people of color are not only ok with this shift, but welcome it. Why wouldn’t they? What can we assume about white people?
Our major political parties represent the two tribal choices on this question, and are engaged in a standoff. The Democrats are branding themselves as the party that “celebrates diversity” and the shifting demographic tides. This is best reflected in the unprecedented make up of their congressional caucus, which “looks like America” according to the messaging. Furthermore, it appears that all the white male democratic presidential candidates are running in spite of being white males, now a liability reflected in the apologist tone they have adopted on the debate stage when addressing their diverse array of opponents.
Meanwhile, the Republican caucus (omitting the resigning Will Hurd of Texas) is now 196 caucasions, of which only 13 are women; it’s a full whiteout on the right side of the House chamber! Complimenting the vanilla-for-all ice cream stand of Congress, there are 54 Republican senators, all of whom are white save for one black man, South Carolina’s Tim Scott. In other words, if Republicans in Congress were the senior leadership of any corporation they’d be sanctioned by the government, boycotted by other companies and the people alike, and generally shamed into hasty overnight demographic change. But this is today’s GOP, like the last vestige of an old southern mint julep drinking white’s only country club, they’re in no hurry…and yet they make up one half of our country’s legislative power. This is Trump’s caucus and the message is unmistakable…. “keep it white.”
In 2012, the Republican National Committee engaged in a post-election “autopsy” after losing to President Barack Obama. Their findings: the Republican party must embrace the changing demographic of America. Through policies more favorable to minorities and minority recruitment into positions of leadership, the Republican party could emerge more competitive and appeal to a more diverse population. Flash forward to 2019, and it’s abundantly clear Mitch McConnell et al have chosen a very different direction.
While they haven’t just come out and said it, the Republican party’s mission statement can be summed up as follows: “America was founded by white men. America was led to itspinnacle as the world’s only superpower by white men. America can only remain the greatest nation on Earth if it is run by white men. If American power and leadership is ceded by white men to immigrants and people of color, all will be lost.” The unpublished text of the Republican brochure’s talking points may read “call us racist all you want, but if you think America could be great through a non-white male power structure, PROVE IT! Where else in the world is there a country that is kicking ass that isn’t run by white men?”
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One of the things to love most about science is that every staggering scientific discovery has had one thing in common: while dropping a whole new paradigm on us, the discovery has also kicked the crap out of mankind’s arrogant pre-disposition. It’s as if every new revelation says “humanity, you think you’re at the center of it all, but you’re just a gnat on a dogs butt in the grand scheme of things.”
Mankind: Everyone knows the sun, the planets, and the heavens revolves around us.
Copernicus: Umm…no…sorry. We revolve around the sun. We’re just part of it all, not at the center of it all.
Mankind: Everyone knows we were created in God’s image and that the animals, plants, and all things are meant for our pleasure.
Darwin: Umm…no…sorry. We’re just another kind of Chimpanzee. We’re just part of it all, not at the center of it all.
Mankind: Everyone knows the laws of physics, and that the universe exists in three dimensions. We all know about the universe and our place in it.
Einstein: Umm…no…sorry. There’s a fourth dimension: the space/time continuum—you just weren’t smart enough to see it. The more we learn the more we realize how ignorant we are, or as Einstein brilliantly put it, “whatever your troubles with math, I assure you mine are greater still.”
In recent years the psychology field has had its greatesthumbling contribution:
Mankind: Everyone knows that if you use your brain, set aside your emotions, and judge things dispassionately, you can understand what is true, what is untrue, and as a result you can judge things accurately and fairly.
Psychology: Umm…no…sorry. The human brain is shrouded in prejudices and biases that we’re entirely ignorant of, and we ignore them because they’re inconvenient. We tell ourselves we can always see the truth, but the truth is that we can never see the truth, just our favorite version of it.
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I attended black/white “integrated” schools (indeed, by high school the black kids and the white kids sat on opposite sides of the cafeteria as they do now, from what I hear) but the neighborhoods of my hometown, Evanston, Illinois were almost completely segregated. Post Jim Crow and the Civil rights/Voting rights acts, the notion of integration has been a well-intentioned myth that has never come to fruition. The business of integration, through busing and other governmentally mandated half measures, has been foisted upon schoolchildren and in some instances, workplaces. The government has yet to take full measures espousing the merits of racial and cultural integration through mandated integrated housing. The message so far is “kids can deal with mixed races and ethnicities in schools, and some of us adults will have to deal with it at work, but mixed neighborhoods are a bridge too far.
There has been one constant on the integration/segregation continuum: The most segregated race in America is, and always has been, white people. Not only are white people most likely to live in vast majority white communities, but the single greatest cause of “white flight” from neighborhoods is a substantial increase in racial minorities moving into their neighborhood. Nothing pushes a white person from their home faster than a racially different person moving nearby, forget progress or even mother nature, darker skin produces exodus. This is true from North to South, East to West, rural to urban, rich to poor, and…wait for it…Republican to Democrat.
Therefore, if indeed there are two kinds of white people: those who insist they’re cool with the shift from white majority to white minority/majority (aka. white democrats), and those who aren’t (aka. white republicans) it’s yet to be substantially reflected in neighborhood maps nationwide, whether it’s flyover country or either coast. Diversity does not characterize our living arrangements anywhere!
I was raised a liberal white, Jewish male in a WASP neighborhood in Evanston, Illinois. When I was four years old, our Jewishness wasn’t appreciated. The neighborhood kids “declared war” against my family. They marched outside our house, carrying picket signs saying “Schwartz’s go home.” True Story! And it taught me early on the extreme discomfort of being “the other.” Furthermore, having grown up with black friends and raising 2 black sons, I like to think I check all the boxes of white Democrat righteousness: I “love the others” and I’ve “been the others too!”
Like every other decent US-loving Democrat, I have been raining holy hell down on the Trumpist GOP, rightfully calling them out for their shocking enthusiasm to return America to the bad old days of sanctioned bigotry. But do I really walk the walk? Why have I never lived in a racially integrated neighborhood? Why have I made my home renting/buying decisions on the basis of code words like “quality schools,” “clean water and air,” and “friendly people” which funneled into high majority white neighborhoods? Am I subject to the same confirmation biases that determine how white Alabamans look to set their affairs in order? A tough and painful question, one we may all have to confront if a colorless America is really as important to us as we claim it is. How about we put it to the test right now with a hypothetical?
Suppose we pretend that sometime in the next 10 years the current cultural civil war in America will be resolved by a two state solution: A US Republican state in the south, from Georgia to Arizona, and up through Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, and a US Democratic state in the Northeast, Midwest, and west coast states.
In this scenario, the USR state is unabashedly pro white in policy and action. The USR is very tough on immigration, preferring white Russians and Euro’s to Muslims, Hispanics, and Africans. While they didn’t claim to be racist and claimed to welcome anyone willing to play by their rules, they evolved into a 96% white state. Meanwhile, let’s say the USD state welcomed the continued immigration of darker skinned people. They broadened the safety net, passed reparations, created Medicare for all, greatly curbed gun rights…and became a 32% white state.
Now imagine that all Americans had a choice of where to live, either in the USR or the USD. What would you choose? If you’re anything like me, you’re thinking “USD—definitely.” But, like me, if you’re white and you’ve never sought residence in a highly integrated neighborhood, The answer is not as simple as it sounds; if it were we’d already be a more integrated US. It may very well be the crux of the issue, and determine where the nation heads when we soon reach our crossroads. Right now a lot of us are patting ourselves on the back for this convenient version of “the truth” about ourselves, but I encourage us to pump the breaks on our self-righteousness. Maybe, despite our best intentions, like those we condemn, we can’t handle the truth either. JS