Is there a Race War on the Horizon?! (a discussion with Scottie Lowe)

Scottie Lowe

Scottie Lowe: Until conscientious, progressive white people start addressing this overwhelming racism that is spreading throughout the country, unless they start to deal with the xenophobia, bigotry, hatred, and fear that is growing and festering in white people, there will be a race war.

Push Nevahda:  The only race war I see happening is the one between the light-skinned blacks and the dark-skinned blacks.

Scottie Lowe: Push, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to illustrate for me why you think there is an imminent race war between light-skinned and dark-skinned blacks. While I concede that there continues to be colorism and preferential treatment for light-skinned blacks, I have seen no evidence that there is a simmering hotbed of potential danger on the horizon. Conversely, the town hall meetings, the Tea Party, Rush, Glenn, and Bill – white people – are seething and restless, full of hatred, and getting more and more aggressive and violent each and every day.

Push Nevahda: Well, I don’t necessarily think that there will be a race war, per se, but if by chance there will be it won’t be black on white. There is simply too much racial intermingling going on for there to be an actual race war. Blacks and whites won’t war against each other because of the economic interest at hand. Remember to always follow the money when dealing with these with these types of racial/historical matters. So, then, there is simply too much financial/economic interests at hand for blacks and whites to actually engage in a race war. Now, at the socio-economic level, one could theorize the possibility of poor blacks and poor whites warring against each other for resources, jobs, etc. We’ve already seen this throughout history but even then it won’t be about race as much as it would be about fairness and equality in the pursuit of resources and jobs. Around the turn of the century, when southern blacks flooded the northern industrial centers because of auto jobs, up to that point blacks and whites (in some areas) lived in relative racial harmony, worked together, kids schooled together, etc. Then when job competition increased, whites turned it into a racial matter and race riots followed. But, in the beginning it wasn’t about race.

However, this is not 1914, 1940 or 1960. The times are different, laws have changed, and the “simmering hotbed of potential danger on the horizon” has fizzled to a cool degree. This is not just a direct result of certain victories won on the part of black (and white) struggle, but also because blacks are no longer the unified front we were 50 years ago. That brings me to the anti-thesis of your point. Black America needs to be less concerned about racist whites and more concerned about the state of black affairs. We should be more concerned about our own intra-racial hate, animosity, and disunity rather than what racist tendencies and agendas whites presumably have against us. Marcus Garvey said the number one problem facing blacks in the 20th century is “disorganization”. That’s now a classic analysis.

Is racism still alive? Certainly! But not all whites hate blacks, and not all whites are

plotting against black Americans. At this age in my life I truly believe that we need to concentrate on own state of racial affairs. We are running cities, holding political/government offices, and have become fully integrated into the American fabric of society – or at least the potential for such integration exists for those of us who are willing to work hard, educate ourselves, and be accountable. And the more cash rules the more the color line is less meaningful. So the race war you speak of will only take place in certain isolated communities (mostly rural southern) where they’re still dispossessed, but also unable to locate the source of their economic grief and despairs. By the way, these will also be the people who don’t vote.

So, then, the only real race issue I see going on in America is the one within the black community. We see countless stories, articles, commentary, blogs, etc – written by black people – on the issue of everything from white women versus black women, straight hair versus nappy hair, educated blacks against ghetto blacks, etc. We still use the N word for Christ sake! So, for me, until we clean our own back yards, we cannot really be concerned about what our neighbors are thinking. We are the ones still hung up on color; we are the ones still concerned about interracial dating, we are the ones still straightening our hair, we are the ones still perpetuating the issue of color. The racist comments of Rush, Glenn and whomever else wouldn’t mean anything to us if it wasn’t such an issue among us.

Lastly, your language is even outdated, possibly because it is uncritical of the reality we live in. To suggest that there is a race war on the “horizon” means that you cannot think progressively beyond the 50s and the 60s. We got issues that we need to address and overcome before I will entertainment the matter of white racism. Only when black America becomes a solid unified front can we deal with white racism. Rush and Imus and crew know this. And Blacks are only concerned as far as how they can exploit racial matters for profit (i.e Dyson, West, Sharpton, etc.) I’m simply tired of the tired diatribes on racism when we are still (racially) hateful towards each other. And I’m even tired of the cliche blame of black self hatred.

Scottie Lowe: How incredibly deluded to think that crazed white people running around screaming “nigger” and threatening to kill Obama has the same weight as some deluded brotha thinking he’s dating up by fucking white women.

Push Nevahda: A brotha just threatened to kill Obama on Twitter, and Jesse Jackson called him a “nigga”. And it’s not about measuring the “weight” of these matters, Scottie, as much as it is important to note that we black folk got our own intra racial issues to work out. Whites screaming “nigger” today has not the same “weight” it did 30, 40, 50 years ago. Some brotha dating a white broad for status sake – a status sake that always undermines the humanity of black women, of course – is the point. We see this intra racial madness every day. Brothas who get a little status and go for white broads, rappers and actors included. Black women play into that dynamic by imitating Euro standards and notions of beauty. We see that every day. Even in the instance of what’s going on in the black literary community: if black folks patronized black authors then we (writers and authors) wouldn’t need to ever worry about if Random House, Harcourt, etc will give us book contracts. In other words, we are just as unconcerned with black intellect and black literature is we accuse whites of being. Matter of fact, the Harlem Renaissance was funded by whites. Zora Hurston and Langston Hughes both had white benefactors who believed in and supported their artistic vision. I could go on and on and show “evidence” of black intra racial issues which we need to fix before we give a fuck about what white folks are thinking about us. So the matter of brothas dating white women for status and/or a presumed notion that they are better than sistas is precisely the issue here.

Likewise, there has been and still exists the issue between light-skinned blacks versus dark-skinned blacks. The Detroit Urban League (during World War II) made it practiced policy to only hired mixed raced women for secretarial jobs for instance. That’s why when you look at some of the DUL images from that era all of the women employees in those photos are high yellow and white-like. Read Sunny Wilson’s memoir, Toast of The Town, and he goes in depth explaining the color racism within the Detroit black community. It’s always been there, and it hasn’t changed. So, I’m still on the same ticket: we need to first check ourselves. Only then will we be able to put forth a respected front against those “crazed white people running around screaming nigger.” They are taking their nigger-calling cues from us.

Scottie Lowe: I’m going to assume that your rather long, deluded, and contrived diatribe is because you are incapable of acknowledging that you were wrong and not because you seriously think that white people forming militias and the increase of hate groups and the purchase of assault rifles is insignificant to the plight of black women chemically straightening their hair. Obviously Black people have healing to do but it doesn’t even compare to the sociopaths roaming the streets threatening people and children because they perceive they are losing some unearned privilege.

Push Nevahda: But black folks are buying weapons too. My brother just bough two Glocks for himself and his wife, and my sister travels with her .38 because of black on black crime. That sniper killing random folk was a brother (a sociopath), and we see senseless black crime occurring every day. Sociologically, whites kill whites and blacks kill blacks. In Kunjufu’s book, Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Blacks Boys, he argues that blacks kill each other because of the historic social/psycho conditioning that black life is less valued than white life, i.e. law enforcement is more likely to provide greater resources and response to white crime victims thus a more rigorous concerted effort to solve white crimes than to black crimes. White militias focus mostly on the American government collectively more so than the black community. If they are “threatening people and children” then show me enough evidence to support it being a racial issue. Otherwise I’m more inclined to believe that sociopaths are white and black. So, the real threat to black people are other black people.

Timothy McVeigh – the white militia guy who blew up the federal building – specified his target as such. It was not a black building, and the people who died were from all colors and walks of life. That’s what militia terror is about. As for hate groups, they are too much a minority for their existence/activity to overshadow the more relevant and prevalent issues of black self hate, black on black crime, drug abuse, high incarceration rates, poor education rates (in school systems that are run by black folk), gang activity and the existential fear and low quality of life we experience in our own neighborhoods. We are not victims of racism anymore than we have become victims of our own selves, our own wretchedness and inhumanity towards each other. And there is no excuse for it anymore, and the race card is no longer a viable argument. Yet you continue to avoid it (“black people have healing to do but….”). That is precisely the problem, Scottie. We are not accountable anymore for ourselves. We are not the proud group we once were.

Scottie Lowe: Clearly, people are more concerned with validating their own beliefs rather than exploring and learning and evolving. I went to graduate school for African and African American Studies with a concentration in psychology. I studied for years about the impact of slavery on the collective African American consciousness. You want to know the most consistent thing people say to me when I intelligently discuss the impact of slavery on our current mentality? “Just because you studied it in college, doesn’t mean you know anything about it.” Who can argue with a logic like that? If you want to think that the issues between Blacks is more detrimental to us than those behaviors of these lunatic white people, then think it. You simply can’t argue with that sort of logic.

Push Nevahda: So your grad school credentials make you an irrefutable authority on this topic, Scottie? That’s pretty arrogant of you, young lady. And, for your information, I’ve read Na’im Akbar too. I know his psychological analysis of how slavery impacted black folk. Even implicit in that argument is the reality that we undermine our own progress. As another noted psychologist (Paulo Freire) suggested the problem with the oppressed is that they sooner or later become the oppressors. That’s why it is plausible that blacks are “more detrimental to us than those behaviors of these lunatic white people.” Because then the question is, How are they detrimental to us, especially at this point in American life, given our strides and achievements? Even Cornel West said that “we did more with little, but now we’re doing less with more.” So again I understand racism still exists, but it is not as crippling as it was during Jim Crow days.

Scottie Lowe: My grad school credentials make me more inform than you!

Scottie can be reached at AfroerotiK