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State & Local News Vol. 22, No. 3, Spring 1999
Racism Is Like a MountainBy John H. LogieAs you all know, when I am not performing my duties as mayor, I continue to enjoy the opportunity to practice law with my colleagues at Warner Norcross & Judd. Therefore, I want to begin today’s main topic by going back to a basic legal principle. Our Declaration of Independence refers to certain "inalienable rights," and our Bill of Rights evolved from the natural law principles that human beings ought to be able to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Similarly, the United Nations Charter in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights begins with this fundamental concept: Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world . . . . The issue that I feel compelled to address is racism-what my friend Bob Woodrick has characterized as the most significant, unnatural, living contradiction in our country today. In point of fact, I want to recognize Bob, together with my friends John Tully and Commissioner George Heartwell, whose writing and thoughts have added significantly to this address. I acknowledge and appreciate their contributions. Here is a sample of four of eight racist statements that were used in a public opinion poll sponsored by the Antidefamation League and given to white respondents: "Black people are a less intelligent than white people. They are less competent. Black people are more violent as a race than other races. They are more likely to prefer welfare to working hard." Seventy-six percent of the white respondents agreed with one or more of those eight statements; 55 percent with two or more; and a shocking 30 percent with more than half. Clearly, we continue to confront a problem of major proportions. But it is not only that kind of overt racism which is at the heart of the problem. Perhaps even closer to its center is the matter of denial. I grew up in a time when the only Negroes ever seen in the movies were all portrayed as stupid, lazy fools, a time when jokes involving watermelons and the "N" word were both tolerated and laughed at. Because educated and "enlightened" people today recognize the impropriety of these stereotypes and don’t use them, we all readily deny being racist. Too readily. In the New York Times Magazine of ten days ago, there was an article entitled "Colorblind" about the racial divisions between our neighbors in St. Jo and Benton Harbor. The author wrote about his being on the street, a white man, with two teenage black males. A white police officer approached and said to him, "Are you OK?" Later, when he was with just one of the young men, a middle-aged black man approached and asked the boy, "Son, are you OK?" The author said, "It’s all about perspective, which has to do with our experiences, and which are consistently controlled by our racism." We must begin to understand that the way we conduct ourselves is all too often a form a denial. Roger Wilkins, a Grand Rapids native, Creston High and University of Michigan graduate, and currently Professor of History and American Culture at George Mason University, spoke this past year at our NAACP chapter’s annual dinner. Not only did he address the need for more humanity and understanding among all Americans, but he focused on the energy at the local level and told all present that people in the local community must take the lead. I agree, and with your help, intend to do so. Prejudice is never an accidental element within the makeup of society. Hatred does not emerge in a social vacuum. Bigotry is not natural, nor is it inevitable in human beings. I am reminded of the song in South Pacific, written some fifty years ago by Rogers & Hammerstein, when young Lt. Cable falls in love with Liat. Both of them show their awareness of the race prejudice that will press down on them in the song, "You’ve Got to Be Taught." And we all have been taught to be racists. But I am here today to say that all white people, simply because they are born white, do not have to be racist. The same can be said about persons of color. Gene Proctor, in his acceptance speech for his Doctorate of Humane Letters conferred by Grand Valley this past year, told about raising his children and sending them to a Christian Reformed, nearly all-white elementary school. Throughout their early grades, white children played at their house, his children played in other families’ homes. But when they became teenagers, a line had been drawn between them. Someone had been teaching them. Racism is nothing less than a denial of basic justice. Efforts must be made at all levels. We need to deal with our own ethnocentricity. We must reject the idea that we here in America, we here in Michigan, we here in Grand Rapids, are uniquely in the center of everything that is correct. My friend John Tully, on becoming president of the Grand Rapids Bar Association, wrote a column describing what’s wrong with that view. He said if the world’s population could be compressed into a village of 100 people, the village would look like this:
Clearly, our view of the world is at some variance with reality, and it interferes with our being able to attack the issue of racism. For more than thirty years in this country, beginning at the federal level and increasingly led by state and even more effectively at the local levels of government, a commitment has been made to reduce, if not outlaw, institutional forms of racism. Yet today we see abroad in this land, voices stirring to undo the good that has been done. In December, a New York Times/CBS poll found that, as the headline put it, "Americans reject means, but not the ends of racial diversity," and went on to say that, "Americans today endorse the goal of racial diversity in schools and offices, but reject some of the main methods used so far to achieve it." The objectors say that Affirmative Action gives preferences to unqualified women and minorities while displacing qualified white men. However, the evidence does not sustain that broad assertion. Notwithstanding the high-sounding rhetoric, I believe we are still watching active racism all dressed up in a fancy new suit of words. The successes of Affirmative Action have been an emphasis on eliminating requirements unrelated to ability to perform work, and substituting more relevant requirements. Affirmative Action programs have brought thousands into the work force. That does not mean displacement because of reverse discrimination. It means that because of Affirmative Action, women and minorities compete for jobs they are qualified for, but were previously denied because of stereotypes. Nonetheless, a House committee in Congress, late last fall, tabled a measure that would end all federal Affirmative Action programs. This action came on the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld California’s ban on preferences; but it also followed Houston’s voters rejecting a similar proposal to dismantle its local Affirmative Action practices. Part of the problem is a too-narrow focus on only blacks and whites. White women, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans have also benefited significantly from Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is actually a philosophy, which declares that inclusion is a moral, economic, political, and demographic imperative, which in and of itself is too vital to our nation’s future to be left entirely to chance. Policies of exclusion cannot be an option for our diverse society. Incidentally, we ought to stop labeling social problems as being black, Hispanic, or white, and stop naming solutions as conservative, liberal, or moderate. There really is only one question: What policies will help people become self-sufficient and fully realize their God-given potential? Throughout history, every well-functioning community has derived its coherence and its stability from a network of influential, responsible, mutually acquainted individuals who shared a rough consensus concerning the community’s basic values, and who also came to the fore if those values were being threatened. I believe I am talking to the members of that community here today. However, those historic networks did not always reflect the diversity in our community, and certainly do not today. We need to work to overcome a legacy of exclusive and discriminatory approaches to community leadership, while continuing to recognize that this community-indeed every community-needs even more today than in the past, some kind of stabilizing network of responsible citizens. There can be no other path to social cohesion or to community stability. It will not be accomplished overnight, and it must be looked at as a long-term effort. The State of Michigan has been targeted as the next Affirmative Action battleground. As you all know, the University of Michigan has been sued by some white applicants who complained that they have been treated less favorably in considering their applications, on the ground of race. The university is vigorously contesting this lawsuit, and I believe it will prevail. Nonetheless, this is an attack on policies that, while not being dominated by race considerations have, in the words of U. of M. President Lee Bollinger, "made appropriate, moderate use of racial diversity as one of many factors." We have not overcome 300 years of prejudicial behavior through thirty years of limited effort. Particularly when people continue to actively seek to avoid even recognition of the problem. I want to paraphrase one of Nathan Rutstein’s comments. He said that we lack diversity, because we as individuals have been unable to overcome what makes us suspicious and fearful of each other. What spawns and perpetuates the suspicion, the fear, and a feeling of superiority-is racism. Racism has been called a spiritual disfigurement, a national disease which both wounds and infects. We all suffer it, no matter color. The goal must be to reawaken our respect for human dignity. As Bob Woodrick so effectively puts it: "Advancing diversity without acknowledging racism is like practicing religion without faith." Bob likes to tell people that he wants to take them outside their comfort zone. I most heartily agree. In my opinion, the answer lies in each person having a personal response to this issue, and if it doesn’t make you uncomfortable, you aren’t really making progress. Before social policies or legal and regulatory efforts can succeed, every person in this country must try to understand that racism is a moral contradiction which needs a moral response-one requiring complete honesty, self-examination, and thereafter constant vigilance. Arthur Ashe’s explanation of what it meant to be black in America has helped me see the problem. He said, "Every black person in American-no matter who he or she is, no matter what his or her wealth or position-wakes up every morning looks in the mirror and asks, ‘How will I deal with the racism I encounter toady?’" If we in the white community can begin to understand that phenomenon and that reality, we will have taken the first step down a road that must be traveled. And what about our business organizations? Every speaker and writer on the essentials of good management will talk to you about a corporate culture, which, in order to be successful, has to have respect for the individual and for human dignity. Prof. Ben Rudolph wrote in the current issue of West Michigan magazine that, "West Michigan’s business community has just discovered that racism is bad for business." Some have known that for a long time. Some are now finding out. I was listening to Studs Terkel being interviewed on National Public Radio recently. He told the story about a new Sheraton Hotel that was going to be built in Chicago. The contractor put out an ad for 1,000 workers. Five thousand people, mostly minorities, came and stood in the cold for hours, and of course only 1,000 were selected. Terkel asked, "What did the other 4,000 do?" Does anyone miss the point-that the crime that occurs in our streets and the high unemployment, mostly among young black males, is connected to this broad issue? We must create jobs, and equal opportunity for those jobs, as part of dealing with racism itself. Over 100 years ago, Frederick Douglass gave us a blueprint to resolve our national dilemma of bias and inhumanity. He said: Let the white people of the North and South conquer their prejudices. Let the northern press and pulpit proclaim the Gospel of truth and justice against the war now being made upon the negro. Let the American people cultivate kindness and humanity. Let the organic law of the land be honestly sustained and obeyed. I want to close by saying something to all of the citizens of Grand Rapids, for all the citizens of Grand Rapids: There have been many meetings to discuss racism, and they do and will continue to have value. But all too often they conclude with some well-intended phrase such as: "We have to change the way people think!" I have a strong belief that a meaningful step in the right direction is much more personal. Let each and every one of us challenge ourselves, commit ourselves, and motivate ourselves to make a personal response to the issue of racism. You must ask yourself: For me, individually, can I establish one new relationship, one new friendship or more, with persons or a different color? If I am a businessman, can I create one or more new relationships with a user, a supplier, an employee, who is a person not of my color? I know this simple approach will be easy to dismiss as trite, yet I also know from my own personal experience that when you establish a positive relationship with one individual, it is impossible thereafter to include him or her in some class that you stereotype. In fact it weakens the stereotype. My mother was diagnosed with cancer forty-eight years ago and died three years later. From the time I was ten years old, through the rest of high school, the woman who raised me, the woman to whom I came home from school, was a black lady named Helena Jones, who died just a year ago at the age of ninety. Growing up in an all-white, suburban community, it was tempting, even easy to stereotype all people of color. But I couldn’t do that, because I knew a black woman who cared for me, who loved me, and who helped me to grow up. Would I have been able, upon my return to Grand Rapids after being gone for eleven years, to make the decision to move into the heart of the inner city with my wife and three year old son, much less our two daughters that followed, if I had not had the experience of knowing Helena? I don’t think so. Which means I probably would not be here today as the mayor of Grand Rapids, talking to all of you. Knowing one individual of color made a significant difference in my life, and can in yours, and even more in the life of this city. So I say to all of you, and to all of the citizens of Grand Rapids, that racism is like a mountain. Though you personally may not be adding to it, if you are not actively taking away from it, you are part of the problem. But taking away from that mountain can begin with one shovelful, indeed even one spoonful of its dirt. Each of us is locked in our own prison of racism, but we hold the key in our own hand. One person with whom you connect yourself can make all the difference. My fellow citizens, it is time to begin. John H. Logie is mayor of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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