Race Issues
- Secret's Secret Revealed
- The Secrets of Racial Exclusion:
- Retelling Race History
- Racism in Academia
- Is Classism Better than Racism?
- Racism and Voting
Posted by
Gabriella Beckles
As the black professionals try to get into 'Secrets' night club, find out what happens...
We tried to separate ourselves into smaller groups so we would look less threatening. My companion and I were the first two – we got past the ID check, hooray! However, the next group up wasn’t so fortunate. The security had been eyeballing us the whole time and they found their opening. A picture ID showing your date of birth was required. One of our party’s Maryland driver’s license had expired two days before. So although it showed her date of birth and picture the security said it wasn’t valid for entry. She then produced her license from her home country Trinidad which again showed here picture and date of birth. However, according to ‘Secrets’ regulations, official ID from another country isn’t valid.
I found this incredible particularly given that Ocean City is one of the largest tourist location in Maryland. Although, Maryland has a more than colorful history of mistreating blacks, surely in a tourist community in the twenty-first century the residents and workers are more accustomed to interacting with people of different races and ethnicities.
A number of us tried to reason with the doorman, but he was rude, belligerent and unwilling to compromise. When we asked what other alternative ID she could use that they would accept, he simply said “if she hasn’t got a valid drivers license she’s not coming in.” Infuriated, incensed, and disappointed we all eventually walked away. We returned to the hotel, the uplifting and inspiring tone of the retreat washed away by a secret we are all too familiar with. No matter how sophisticated, educated, professional, or well dressed you are a black skin can get you rejected from anywhere and by anyone. Secrets’ secret is that it is a club making money playing black music, while it excludes black people.
I found this incredible particularly given that Ocean City is one of the largest tourist location in Maryland. Although, Maryland has a more than colorful history of mistreating blacks, surely in a tourist community in the twenty-first century the residents and workers are more accustomed to interacting with people of different races and ethnicities.
A number of us tried to reason with the doorman, but he was rude, belligerent and unwilling to compromise. When we asked what other alternative ID she could use that they would accept, he simply said “if she hasn’t got a valid drivers license she’s not coming in.” Infuriated, incensed, and disappointed we all eventually walked away. We returned to the hotel, the uplifting and inspiring tone of the retreat washed away by a secret we are all too familiar with. No matter how sophisticated, educated, professional, or well dressed you are a black skin can get you rejected from anywhere and by anyone. Secrets’ secret is that it is a club making money playing black music, while it excludes black people.
The Secrets of Racial Exclusion:
Posted by
Gabriella Beckles
Black culture is one of the hottest commodities in America, so why can't black people get the same type of appreciation?
While working for a Historically Black University on the east coast in 2005, our boss decided to take the upper level staff on an annual retreat to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
After a long day in the conference room we all decided to go out for the evening. It was our last night there so we would really have a chance to wind down and have some fun. Familiar with the area we decided to ride further down the coast to the tourist spot Ocean City, Maryland. The only club that consistently plays black music is a spot called Secrets.
So we all got dressed and set off. Our party included eight young black professionals, all with degrees, four of us at the advanced level. As we waited in line we were in good spirits. Some of us hadn’t been out in ages, bogged down with work the reggae blasting out of the club was a welcomed lift to our spirits. A few of us were of Caribbean extraction so a touch of home was an exciting prospect. However, it became increasingly apparent that this was not going to be our night.
While waiting in line a number of white patrons had simply walked passed us in line and walked freely into the club. All the blacks waited patiently in line, none receiving such privileges. The one black person ahead of us was refused entry because his shorts we the wrong length! I was astonished, he was dressed very preppie, everything close fitting and tucked in, not hat, no braids, no timberland boots; none of the usual points of dress discrimination that are used as grounds to exclude blacks, particularly young black men, form any number of activities and establishments. Moreover, a white man with the same shorts walked right past all of us and got in without a glitch.
Our turn to get into the club came…tune in tomorrow to find out Secrets’ secret!
After a long day in the conference room we all decided to go out for the evening. It was our last night there so we would really have a chance to wind down and have some fun. Familiar with the area we decided to ride further down the coast to the tourist spot Ocean City, Maryland. The only club that consistently plays black music is a spot called Secrets.
So we all got dressed and set off. Our party included eight young black professionals, all with degrees, four of us at the advanced level. As we waited in line we were in good spirits. Some of us hadn’t been out in ages, bogged down with work the reggae blasting out of the club was a welcomed lift to our spirits. A few of us were of Caribbean extraction so a touch of home was an exciting prospect. However, it became increasingly apparent that this was not going to be our night.
While waiting in line a number of white patrons had simply walked passed us in line and walked freely into the club. All the blacks waited patiently in line, none receiving such privileges. The one black person ahead of us was refused entry because his shorts we the wrong length! I was astonished, he was dressed very preppie, everything close fitting and tucked in, not hat, no braids, no timberland boots; none of the usual points of dress discrimination that are used as grounds to exclude blacks, particularly young black men, form any number of activities and establishments. Moreover, a white man with the same shorts walked right past all of us and got in without a glitch.
Our turn to get into the club came…tune in tomorrow to find out Secrets’ secret!
Posted by
Gabriella Beckles
Our history books are full of what I call heroes and villain history. They are the stars that allow us to understand the events of our past. Or are they?
Heroes and villains are set up on pedestals for us to admire or despise. The problem with true heroes and villains is that they're nothing like us. We can only look at them from afar. And in doing so we fail to see ourselves as historical agents of change. Moreover, by suggesting that these larger than life figures are the catalyst and impetus for the historical landmarks we come to know so well, we fail to understand the slow and subtle changes in thinking, culture, politics etc, that are the prerequisites for the main events we are taught.
History doesn't emerge in a vacuum. Hitler was a product of his time, environment and the ideological framework of Germany, Europe and America. Eugenics was not his invention, nor could he have propounded such a philosophy if the climate, historical or otherwise, didn't already exist.
Likewise, Martin Luther King was not the first pioneer of the Civil Rights movement, nor was Rosa Parks. She wasn't some little old lady who was tired of Jim Crow and finally decided to take a stand. She had long since been a political activist and part of a much larger, church based women's movement for civil rights. Likewise, Martin Luther King was part of a larger picture of religious based community groups who had been fighting for change for years.
In a talk Ralph Abernathy's (head of the team of lawyers who fought for the Civil Rights Bill) daughter did at Morgan State University a few years ago, she urged the audience of students to understand that her dad and Martin were just regular people like them. They just decided to do something about the things they saw and experienced.
By telling hero and villain history, we negate our ability to be active agents of social change. We wait the coming of the next messiah. We wonder who is going to be the next amazing person who will lead us to the Promised Land. Hence the endless rhetoric in the black community that questions who the next great leader is going to be.
My answer is YOU. You, whoever you are that is dissatisfied with the current social conditions of blacks or any other group. We, regular people who, if we choose, can take time out of our day to challenge and change any act of injustice that we see or know about, no matter how small, subtle or seemingly inconsequential it may be. We the people, who without our silent complicity racism can not continue.
Now, I understand the call for black leaders, I just hope that in presenting the task ahead, we are not limiting the number of people who believe they are qualified to step forth for the job. Because Martin nor Malcolm, nor Rosa Parks stood alone. The platform they stood on was made up of thousands of people just like them, just like you and me, who are ordinary people, with the potential to do extraordinary things.
History doesn't emerge in a vacuum. Hitler was a product of his time, environment and the ideological framework of Germany, Europe and America. Eugenics was not his invention, nor could he have propounded such a philosophy if the climate, historical or otherwise, didn't already exist.
Likewise, Martin Luther King was not the first pioneer of the Civil Rights movement, nor was Rosa Parks. She wasn't some little old lady who was tired of Jim Crow and finally decided to take a stand. She had long since been a political activist and part of a much larger, church based women's movement for civil rights. Likewise, Martin Luther King was part of a larger picture of religious based community groups who had been fighting for change for years.
In a talk Ralph Abernathy's (head of the team of lawyers who fought for the Civil Rights Bill) daughter did at Morgan State University a few years ago, she urged the audience of students to understand that her dad and Martin were just regular people like them. They just decided to do something about the things they saw and experienced.
By telling hero and villain history, we negate our ability to be active agents of social change. We wait the coming of the next messiah. We wonder who is going to be the next amazing person who will lead us to the Promised Land. Hence the endless rhetoric in the black community that questions who the next great leader is going to be.
My answer is YOU. You, whoever you are that is dissatisfied with the current social conditions of blacks or any other group. We, regular people who, if we choose, can take time out of our day to challenge and change any act of injustice that we see or know about, no matter how small, subtle or seemingly inconsequential it may be. We the people, who without our silent complicity racism can not continue.
Now, I understand the call for black leaders, I just hope that in presenting the task ahead, we are not limiting the number of people who believe they are qualified to step forth for the job. Because Martin nor Malcolm, nor Rosa Parks stood alone. The platform they stood on was made up of thousands of people just like them, just like you and me, who are ordinary people, with the potential to do extraordinary things.
Posted by
Gabriella Beckles
Failing to tell the truth can be as damaging as telling a lie. Academia systematically remains silent on issues concerning race.
But I must clarify. I do not mean a debate about racism on a personal and social level, which are typically the way such arguments are framed, for obvious reasons. I am talking about academia’s contribution to upholding racist ideologies precisely because it refuses to discuss its own interest in race and how that has contributed to the racist systems we are currently trying to understand.
As I have now come to realize, every intellectual figure from the 18th-19th centuries that academia considers important, has written on race. Indeed, a great number of academic disciplines were developed during this period specifically to explore questions pertaining to race: ethnology, anthropology, sociology, natural history, paleontology, archeology, etc. People such as Darwin, Kant, Spencer, Voltaire, Nietzsche the list goes on, had much to say on the topic. Thus, the failure to include the racial part of their discourse is misleading and distorts our perception of these issues overall.
There is an unspoken assumption that White people do not think about race at all, and that if they do it is because some oppressed group has lobbied long and hard enough for them to listen. That classes about race will be attended or even included only to satisfy some minority demand or quota. That it’s the parents of minorities who must harass their school board, on behalf of their children, to include a more diverse and inclusive agenda. Many a black professor has lost their job, or been otherwise redirected, when they tried to address race from academia’s lofty platform; Cornel West and Derrick Bell to name a few.
Who would know that race was the central concern of intellectuals of all disciplines in the modern era. It was of paramount importance because the key questions of the time were:
It is the attempts to answer these questions that has laid the foundation for our current perspectives on race, the history of each race, and their contributions to this planet. We would all benefit it academia lifted the veil of secrecy on its long and colorful history of race.
As I have now come to realize, every intellectual figure from the 18th-19th centuries that academia considers important, has written on race. Indeed, a great number of academic disciplines were developed during this period specifically to explore questions pertaining to race: ethnology, anthropology, sociology, natural history, paleontology, archeology, etc. People such as Darwin, Kant, Spencer, Voltaire, Nietzsche the list goes on, had much to say on the topic. Thus, the failure to include the racial part of their discourse is misleading and distorts our perception of these issues overall.
There is an unspoken assumption that White people do not think about race at all, and that if they do it is because some oppressed group has lobbied long and hard enough for them to listen. That classes about race will be attended or even included only to satisfy some minority demand or quota. That it’s the parents of minorities who must harass their school board, on behalf of their children, to include a more diverse and inclusive agenda. Many a black professor has lost their job, or been otherwise redirected, when they tried to address race from academia’s lofty platform; Cornel West and Derrick Bell to name a few.
Who would know that race was the central concern of intellectuals of all disciplines in the modern era. It was of paramount importance because the key questions of the time were:
- How can we account for the chronology of the Bible story without it conflicting with newly discovered information about the history of man?
- How do we explain the rise and fall of civilizations?
- What is the natural history of the human race and how do we explain for the differences in it.
- How can we classify humans and all other animate life on Earth?
It is the attempts to answer these questions that has laid the foundation for our current perspectives on race, the history of each race, and their contributions to this planet. We would all benefit it academia lifted the veil of secrecy on its long and colorful history of race.
Is Classism Better than Racism?
Posted by
Gabriella Beckles
As a response to the horrors of hurricane Katrina, Bon Jovi teamed up with Oprah to build a new neighborhood in Houma, Louisiana.
A few weeks ago I was watching an episode of Oprah. The show was following up on a project with Oprah’s Angel Network and rock band Bon Jovi. In the heartwarming show, the audience saw the joy of families, who had been displaced, homeless, and uprooted by the tragedy, move into beautiful new homes. Jon Bon Jovi was on hand to personally deliver door keys to the anxiously waiting new residents of Bon Jovi Boulevard. The collective spirit of the bands generosity (a donation of $1 million) and the appreciation and euphoria of the Katrina victims was touching and moving to all that watched. A true testament to the humanity we can all draw on in times of great need.
However, back in the studio, Jon Bon Jovi made some remarks that have perplexed and concerned me ever since. In describing the significance of the project, Jon Bon Jovi said that it showed that Katrina was not an issue of race but an issue of class. The hurricane itself caused indescribable destruction and devastation to thousands of people. However, we cannot predict natural disasters, and natural disasters do not select their victims with any particular demographics in mind. The same unfortunately cannot be said of the government’s response to the tragedy.
I will not belabor the catalogue of racially motivated injustices that further victimized the residents struck by Katrina. However, I do want to question Bon Jovi’s analysis. Why would he explicitly make such remarks in the context of an uplifting, non-political, feel-good Oprah show? Interestingly, his comments are not recorded on the show's link on Oprah's website.
But if we agree with his surmising, what does it really mean? Do we have a hierarchy of isms? Is it acceptable to discriminate across class lines but not racial ones? Can we go on mistreating people because they are poor but not if they’re black? Are we, in 2006, still unaware of the inextricable connection between class discrimination and racism? And just so we know, where do sexism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination lie on this ranking scale of prejudice? And if racism is, as Bon Jovi suggests, the prejudice that is so unacceptable as to be a national taboo, why is so little being done about it? Are they going to build a center for race or class relations on Bon Jovi Boulevard?
Time will tell. But in the meantime, tell me what your thoughts are.
However, back in the studio, Jon Bon Jovi made some remarks that have perplexed and concerned me ever since. In describing the significance of the project, Jon Bon Jovi said that it showed that Katrina was not an issue of race but an issue of class. The hurricane itself caused indescribable destruction and devastation to thousands of people. However, we cannot predict natural disasters, and natural disasters do not select their victims with any particular demographics in mind. The same unfortunately cannot be said of the government’s response to the tragedy.
I will not belabor the catalogue of racially motivated injustices that further victimized the residents struck by Katrina. However, I do want to question Bon Jovi’s analysis. Why would he explicitly make such remarks in the context of an uplifting, non-political, feel-good Oprah show? Interestingly, his comments are not recorded on the show's link on Oprah's website.
But if we agree with his surmising, what does it really mean? Do we have a hierarchy of isms? Is it acceptable to discriminate across class lines but not racial ones? Can we go on mistreating people because they are poor but not if they’re black? Are we, in 2006, still unaware of the inextricable connection between class discrimination and racism? And just so we know, where do sexism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination lie on this ranking scale of prejudice? And if racism is, as Bon Jovi suggests, the prejudice that is so unacceptable as to be a national taboo, why is so little being done about it? Are they going to build a center for race or class relations on Bon Jovi Boulevard?
Time will tell. But in the meantime, tell me what your thoughts are.
Posted by
Gabriella Beckles
Do you have faith in the political process? Has your representative represented your views? Social problems are all our problems and racism is still on our door step.
Voting is a right but it hasn’t always been for everyone. Women, the poor and ethnic minorities have a long history of exclusion and marginalization in this important political process.
But how important is your vote? Despite Puff Daddy’s highly publicized “Vote or Die” campaign during the last national elections, voter turnout was still very low, suggesting a real lack of trust in the nation’s democratic machinery.
It’s not surprising that public confidence is at an all time low. Once your vote has been cast there is very little opportunity to truly affect state, let alone national policy on key issues. Once the candidates have campaigned at your door and made their reassuring promises and commitments, they pretty much do what they want once they’re in office. Minority issues haven’t had airtime since Jesse Jackson. Sadly, it took the horrific tragedy of Katrina to get racism a fleeting mention.
Yet, most of us care deeply about what is happening in our schools. Most of us are hugely concerned about equitable access to healthcare; two issues which, coincidently, negatively impact minorities in hugely disproportionate ways. Crime sometimes gets mentioned, but only when it serves the purpose of scaremongering and reinforcing negative stereotypes that exacerbates the situation rather than providing viable solutions. And yet war and abortion continue to serve as important but in many ways, scapegoat issues to detract us from our real concerns.
Ironically, if we all took a stand for the social issues that are most important to us, we would go a long way towards addressing many of the social iniquities that are often labeled as minority problems.
But how important is your vote? Despite Puff Daddy’s highly publicized “Vote or Die” campaign during the last national elections, voter turnout was still very low, suggesting a real lack of trust in the nation’s democratic machinery.
It’s not surprising that public confidence is at an all time low. Once your vote has been cast there is very little opportunity to truly affect state, let alone national policy on key issues. Once the candidates have campaigned at your door and made their reassuring promises and commitments, they pretty much do what they want once they’re in office. Minority issues haven’t had airtime since Jesse Jackson. Sadly, it took the horrific tragedy of Katrina to get racism a fleeting mention.
Yet, most of us care deeply about what is happening in our schools. Most of us are hugely concerned about equitable access to healthcare; two issues which, coincidently, negatively impact minorities in hugely disproportionate ways. Crime sometimes gets mentioned, but only when it serves the purpose of scaremongering and reinforcing negative stereotypes that exacerbates the situation rather than providing viable solutions. And yet war and abortion continue to serve as important but in many ways, scapegoat issues to detract us from our real concerns.
Ironically, if we all took a stand for the social issues that are most important to us, we would go a long way towards addressing many of the social iniquities that are often labeled as minority problems.