Intent versus Impact

Last week, during his post-State-of-the-Union commentary, a very excited Chris Matthews exclaimed that he forgot President Barack Obama was black for an hour and declared him to be post racial.

While Matthews makes some interesting points about how far we've come as a society in even just a generation, he also unwittingly highlights a key component of White privilege: forgetting race. As White people in a society that accepts, as a default, White as normal and everything else as "other," we can move through our lives without ever thinking about what it means to be White, or how being White affects our immediate sociopolitical environment, or even the effect it has on our day-to-day interactions, how we move through the world.

I used to proudly declare myself "colorblind," wearing it as a badge of honor. As if my forgetting other people's color was some sort of transcendence above racism, dismissing altogether (albeit unknowingly) that racism is systemic, cultural, and institutionalized.

Most of the reactions I've seen to Matthews' comment that night - including his own - are uncritical and supportive. We understood what he meant. Despite his intent, however, his comments reinforced the societal, cultural, institutional notion that white is normal and anything else is other. Even if Matthews meant it as the highest form of compliment to Obama, the Congress, and the nation, the impact of reinforcing institutional racism remains.

As for Obama being post racial, I'm not really sure what Matthews meant by that. But I am pretty sure that Obama, absent of being a public figure, would have a pretty hard time catching a cab on K Street after dark.

Alicia's favorite MLK quote

"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection." -MLK, Jr.