Benign Neglect

Richard Nixon, after a few years of racial unrest, versus hundreds of years of slavery, brutality and even genocide, remarked that what American needed now was a few years of "benign neglect".

And this was after the civil rights "unrest" of 1960 to 1970.  

Ten years of unrest, versus almost three centuries of racism, segragation, discrimination and murder.

Yesterday, President Obama remarked that what we are seeing in the recent protests, most peaceful, is the product of years of indifference.

There is that term again, except this time the President was not calling for more of it, but calling for it to end.

I taught and led in lower socio-economic areas for over half of my educational career.  I saw everyday the product of "benign neglect" and "indifference" in the hopelessness of school children.

The memories are too numerous to recount.  It was a culture of very limited chances.  On the Grindstone Rancheria there was a culture of despair, with drugs and alcohol prevalent, sexual and physical abuse rampant and suicides common.

In Del Paso Heights, there was violence and a feeling of anger, repressed rage for the second class citizenship that people were doomed to from birth. 

In the 1970s in Del Paso Heights, a mostly minority school district was dominated by whites.  The sports teams were great, the test scores were not so great.  We had African American leadership, but little opportunity.  The district had police, and bands of teens roamed the halls, beating those who looked differently from them.  Teachers and aides were also fair game and you were schooled to not go alone across campus.  

I will never forget after a football awards ceremony, the star quarterback for Grant High School came up to me and asked me how to get into college, "Because if I don't get out of here I will be dead before I am 25".  

I gave him some advice, and he was dead, I found out later, by 22.

And what reaction was there from the "dominant culture"..indifference.

That is the incidious part, the indifference.  No longer do you see much blantant racism, it has gone underground via a "New Jim Crowe" that incarcerates African Americans and Latinos at high rates, wiping out whole generations of young colored generatioins.   

Native Americans now have casinos, but little else, as their suicide rate is climbing.

And we have a conservative plutocracy in the country, that threatens to run it...into the ground of denial and indifference.  Fox News puts up a wall of denial; the con is that racism is dead in America, discrimination is over, no need for any affirmative action, even though all the statistics show little progress for people of color since 1960.  The United States has not put a dent into racism in this country!

People of color know there will be no change, there has been so little so far after the sacrifices of Dr. King...so few. The white dominate culture is firmly in control, the rich get richer and poor, poorer.

The statistics don't lie either, if you are of color your chances for success in this country are way lower than if you are white.

We live in a country of lies and of radical right indifference, that often result violent denial.

So police profile, they kill people of color in higher percentages than whites, and they are never held accountable.

And the streets are mean where the Police work, and they get mean as a result, going from those who should protect and serve, to those who protect themselves and beat down the enemy, who is the community they are paid to protect.  

Until recently the white dominant culture neglected these realities.  

The neglect never has been benign!  The indifference is deadly!