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Last Revised: Oct 1, 1995

GRANMA NUDGE

RACE, SEX, CLASS AND O.J.

by MARY MOORE

Are white people rioting? Perhaps not in the conventional way, but I think that is what we saw with Prop 187, what we're about to see with the attack on affirmative action and what we are seeing with much of the reaction to the O.J. verdict. White folks aren't going to burn the place down because they own it. We still riot "through the system"!!

We've heard the statistics over and over. Most white people were convinced from the start that O.J. was guilty and most black people thought he'd been set up. Ellen Goodman (P.D. 10/5/95) calls it an APARTHEID OF PERCEPTION--an insightful phrase. The image I couldn't get out of my head is the old parable of the blind people feeling the elephant--each describing it from their own truth depending on where they were feeling. And all were sincere.

So, do we get it yet? Except for the hopeless, pitiful bigots among us most of us would like to get on with overcoming both racism and sexism but the pain keeps getting in the way. So does the perceived lack of being heard. Based on our history and life experiences it's a given that the divisions and distrust exist so how do we collectively get to the overcoming?

As a white woman I need to address the white community and especially white women. Over a year ago as some in the feminist community were picketing O.J.'s hearing I thought of Emmit Till and other scapegoats from the past and hoped that my sisters had not forgotten that the BEAST consists of sex, race and class attitudes, all of which are in the mix together and need to be fought in a holistic manner, not dealt with as separate issues.

Of course we are outraged at seeing the bloody, battered pictures of Nicole which reminds us of every other woman, including ourselves, that has ever been the recipient of a man's verbal or physical abuse! But tell me honestly, do you experience the same level of outrage when the carnage is racially induced? If so I sure haven't seen it. It's been my experience that to most good white folks racism is simply invisible--like air--and not even thought about except when its so rudely shoved in your face via T.V. or newspapers.

For example: Why were white folks so surprised at the revelations on the Mark Fuhrman tapes? People of color have known about that stuff forever and Rodney King was just an everyday occurrence that got videotaped. Why did so many white folks assume that there would be rioting in the streets if the verdict went against O.J.? And why were there assumptions that a mostly black jury could not bring in a just verdict? Both those assumptions were wrong as well as insulting. All anyone has to do is read or reread the KERNER REPORT from 1968. It's all laid out in there for anyone with willing eyes to see. White racism is institutionalized in this country-always has been and always will be until white folks do something about it. The first step is understanding it. The next step is exposing it as loud as you can and the last step is resisting it and overcoming it. In Sonoma county it isn't the sheets and hoods kind of racism. It's just deadly indifference and lack of exposure to thoughts and feelings outside of ones own circle of other white folks.

We've all got a role in the solution in this racism/sexism/classism/homophobic bag we're in but when it comes to racism it's the whites who have to shake out their attitudes for a good examination. I'm hearing some pretty reactionary stuff coming out of some otherwise progressive mouths, especially in the womans community. The last thing we need is for the victims to be blaming each other!! Return to Granma Nudge Return to Columns Page Return to Sonoma CountyFree Press Home Page