Race Is as Race Does

The quest for blackness in 21st Century America

The absurdity of the conversation about “race” has spilled over into the public domain, courtesy of Senator Barack Obama’s quest for the White House. We now witness the remarkable spectacle of an American of direct African descent being told that he doesn’t quite qualify as an “African-American.” Despite his strikingly handsome skin hue, he apparently doesn’t really count as “black.”

Ironically, those who make this claim have mistakenly outed one of the most tightly concealed social secrets of the last 50 years: race no longer has anything to do with, well, race.

Obviously, the story of blacks in America is unique among racial and ethnic groups. For most of our nation’s history blacks struggled mightily to succeed in spite of a heavy hammer of true racism that acted deliberately to pound them down. Until the mid-Twentieth Century, blacks were denied basic equality of civic participation for one and only one reason: They were of the Negroid race. The racist philosophy held that this fact on its own terms rendered them inferior as citizens. It didn’t matter if you were a refined, Harvard educated MD with a fondness for polka music and American cheese on white bread with mayonnaise. If you were of African descent that might buy you a better townhouse in Harlem, but it wouldn’t get you access to white neighborhoods or social circles of any class.

Given this forced segregation, it was reasonable to speak in terms of a “black culture” as a unique thing common to the descendents of African slaves. This culture in many ways thrived, and left many positive contributions to the larger American culture that persist to this day.

As the civil rights revolution progressed and the forced segregation of blacks began to ease, a sustained march to newly integrated neighborhoods and even suburbs began. The black middle class had already been growing, and now that growth expanded. Upper and middle class blacks began to appear to adopt “white” cultural motifs.

This internal social migration seriously damaged the coherent pre-existing “black culture.” Those who wished to move “up and in” had to abandon that culture to some degree. And as those who could left for greener pastures, those who stayed behind in the segregated areas came to reflect the poorer and most dysfunctional side of the black social experience. In a sense, they inherited black culture and modified it to fit their social reality.

The consequences of this history is that from the 70s and 80s ‘til today “blackness” has been increasingly defined in the public imagination as social adherence to the black underclass culture: hip-hop, “Ebonics,” gangster-cool and false machismo, promiscuity, the abolition of marriage, contempt for education, distrust of authority coupled with a dependence on the state. It’s not a monopoly yet. Black churches maintain a strong cultural presence, for example. And occasional strong voices like Bill Cosby voice objections. But the dynamics are taking it down that road.

Most successful black Americans don’t practice this contemporary “black culture” in daily life, yet they are certainly “black.” This it seems causes a cultural dissonance leading to issues with self-identification. At some level all ethnic groups go through this sort of dynamic. It is part and parcel of cultural assimilation.

The way to perhaps make the most sense of contemporary American Black experience is to view blacks as if they had immigrated to America in the 1940s and 50s. They are following the same path to assimilation as Irish, Italians, Jews and countless others before, and in very similar timeframes. But blacks are unique in that they also have a 200 year cultural shadow following them. Even though many do not feel bound to contemporary black culture, I think that shadow calls to them, beckons to them, tells them that who they are is inextricably linked to who they were. I am of Irish descent, but I feel in no way that my identity is defined by my “Irishness.” Well, except for an inordinate fondness for beer. (But I think that’s genetic.) And I am certainly not arguing that blacks ought not to feel that way. But it really helps to explain why many successful, highly educated middle and upper class blacks feel the urge to apply a cultural litmus test to Obama. He doesn’t have the cultural shadow. He is different.

This cultural shadow and the dysfunctional remnants of black culture have come to define “blackness” for both black and white Americans. The good news is that this is a huge leap forward from earlier biological racism. Racism in that sense is dead. And I am pretty sure the current state is transitional. Within one or two generations the shadow will be so faded as to be a negligible force. People like Tiger Woods and – yes – Barack Obama will hasten that transition. But until it does, it will be an ongoing source of frustration, identity confusion and occasional bitterness.

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