Went to see Cornell West last night. I wanted to tweet about it as it happened, but remembered that I deleted the twitter application from my phone a few weeks ago. Bummer.
He's an impressive speaker -- very charismatic and engaging. And very firmly rooted in the activist perspective on race and racism. He likened slavery, Jim Crow laws, discrimination, and prejudice (of all stripes, or "slices" as he liked to say) to terrorism. I hadn't ever really thought of it in that way, but I did last night. I think it's a valid comparison. Terrorism scares people into either submission or repression. It's hard to control or eliminate. It has multiple causes. That sounds a lot like racism to me.
Last night Anelga sent me a message about a hate crime perpetrated on campus, and when I read her message this morning I thought about Brother Dr. West's comparison of racism to terrorism. It made me think about the correlation between using terror to control local populations, governments, political and social and religious processes all over the world, and using terror to intimidate and thereby control a person in your own community whose primary identity in the eyes of the hater is not their shared association (with SLU in this case) but their difference. That perpetrator felt something that made him or her decide to strike out at someone for being different from them.
Did the perpetrator feel threatened by the victim or by something the victim represented?
Was the perpetrator a racist?
Is there a correlation between a hate crime and terrorism? If so, what is it?
In what was are terrorism and racism NOT alike?
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I also attended the event last night and thought that Dr. West made some very insightful comments about race. I never thought of racism as a form of terrorism before until he mentioned it last night. Clearly, there are some very shocking similarities between the two, but I don't think racism (the present form of racisim) is as physically violent as terrorism. However, it has a deeper impact on society than terrorism ever could have. The way I see it, terrorism has more to do with action, while racism has more to do with perspectives. Terrorists want to out right harm people, racists often do not even realized that they are racists. We often view terrorism as coming from the outside, while racism is embedded within our own society.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are certainly differences between the two, I think Dr. West was very clever to have draw a connection between these two terms. It makes us think critically and emphasizes the urgent need to deal to racism in our society.
I don't know the whole story of this specific race issue on campus, but I think I know what you are referring to and I hope I have someone of a gist of it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the perpetrator felt threatened by the victim at all. Granted, I can't get inside his head and know what he is thinking. But honestly, I think it's 100% pure, drunken, stupid, ridiculous immaturity. What the student did is irresponsible and unforgivable, but sadly I'm sure it happens to a lot of people. Even BY people who aren't necessarily racist (they don't mind other black people, and even may have friends) - but in this instance ARE being racist. Does that make sense & is it possible? Can one act racist in a specified, bounded instance and not be classified generally "racist"? That being said, I still don't know who this guy is, his motives, intentions, or if he just did something incredibly stupid. People DO say really stupid, bad, hurtful things and just realize it was a bad judgment call later on. Immature and stupid. I don't know.. I'm wishy washy on it. It was unforgivable and it SHOUDLN'T happen & the act was racist, but who he is and what he believes would define him as a racist - wouldn't it?
I think you hit the nail on the head with the way racism and terrorism are alike - it's a control issue. A dominant, powerful group (or even a minor group who exercises instances of brute power) using certain scare-tactics to control others into what they want; it's forced. It's exactly what terrorism aims for, and it seems that what racism is after. Terrorism aims to force people into a position they disagree with: think about the protests in Iran in 2009. People disagreed with the outcome and when they voiced their opinion, they were scared into accepting the position through physical violence. Racism is the same way in that it seeks to lower people's status through categorizing people according to superficial qualities, creating a stigma that goes with it, and then institutionalizes it - like in the past with Jim Crow laws. While they may be two different FORMS of terrorism, I think they could be related, kind of like a branching tree with "Forms of Terrorism" at the top. You could draw a divergence, for example, in the way terrorists such as the Al-Qaida (and I'm sure the US have some, as well) use a means to an end and the way racism & skin color is used as a means to an end. One is more physically outright violent (bombs) and the other is more subtle and today, color-blind (in the US, it seems); though as we just saw, maybe not always color blind. Racism may not use nukes, but it hurts and separates just as much.
On a final note, I liked Dr. West a lot too. He was VERY charistmatic as you said, and talked about forms of power - even how "lesbian borthers and sisters" and put down a lot. He focused on all those oppressed and how a general racism can be institutionalized. He was witty, smart, and awed me with his intellect. I will also admit, I was out of it that day and didn't catch all of what he said. But what he did say really struck me as powerful.