Racial Baggage, Part 2

Big thanks to J. at Silver Rights for taking the time to read my blog and respond to my post about "Racial Baggage" with this post.

J. isn't too thrilled about my ideas. Her/his first point is that white people would be irrational to fear black men, since most white murder victims are killed by other whites. Sounds logical, right?
But there's a difference between being afraid that someone's going to kill you and being afraid that if you met someone they would kill you. My bet is that white people's fear of black men is the latter type.
The fact is that America is a self-segregated country - whites don't associate much with blacks, and vice versa. That's partially a result of white people's fear of black men - the famous "white flight" effect. And that self-segregation may help to explain why most whites are killed by other whites - you can't be killed by someone you never meet.
So, white people's fear of black men might be "rational," in a statistical if not an individual sense.

J. goes on to write:

Researchers have discovered that it is easier for a
white felon to find a job than it is for a black man with no criminal record to
do so. Noah has provided insight into why that might be true. He believes black
people's crimes count, but white people's crimes don't.

Wrong again. I mentioned workplace discrimination in my post, and offered a reason for it - white people's fear of black men. And I gave two possible reasons for that fear: racial stereotypes and violence in black communities.

Note that nowhere in my post did I say that black people's crimes count more than whites' (which of course they don't). The fact that J. makes a nonsense claim like this just goes to demonstrate my point - that it's difficult to have a real racial dialogue in America today because people tend to get overemotional when the issue of white fear of black men is brought up.

Finally, J. notes that:

I am offended when white people or men or the privileged
begin their dialogues with the nonwhite, women or poor by ordering them to
behave in a certain way.

Telling groups of people to behave differently is certainly offensive - but more importantly, it never works. Good thing I didn't tell anyone to behave differently. What I want people of all races to do is think differently (about this issue) - when they talk about race, I want people to calm down and look at the issue rationally.
Bottom line: The biggest problem with race in our country is that too many black people are poor. Our goal, whatever race we belong to, should be to help lift black people out of poverty. And if we're going to do that, we must figure out some way to get rid of white people's fear of black men. If we don't eliminate that fear, I believe that the problem of black poverty will remain. So anyone who is serious about improving black people's situation in this country should face this issue head-on.

P.S. - final note. This is an amazingly insightful column.