What exactly do black people want?

WHAT DO BLACK PEOPLE WANT? OPENING A DIALOGUE ON RACISM AND PRIVILEGE

One of the most frustrating aspects about discussions of race, racism and privilege, is that you are never quite sure when you are finished. The resolution is dissonant and it can be disheartening to trudge through so much emotion but emerge sans resolution. One party ? the White party ? is often left wondering what exactly it is that the other party ? the Black party ? wants from them.

White privilege is a set of unearned privileges that one benefits from because they are White. It is both a favored state of one race over another as well as a systematic conferred dominance of one race over another. Research scientist and anti-racist activist Peggy McIntosh has become the point person for the unpacking of Whiteness since her 1988 article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, listed twenty-six examples of how she benefits from her race. Among these benefits were:

I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven?t been singled out because of my race. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

These privileges benefit White people without them having to do anything in order to receive them. The fact that these privileges just are is in part what contributes to the uncertainty among White people when it comes to what to do about it.

Let me first tell you what Black people don?t want. We don?t want your guilt. White guilt does absolutely nothing for me or any other person of color. While your hours spent Googling poverty in America or examining the mass incarceration of Black males leaves you feeling as though you want that burden of privilege lifted, you leave us ? the Black folks ? rolling our eyes and annoyed that you have managed to turn a discussion about racism and Black oppression into one about you.

The problem with White guilt is that, in addition to being incredibly useless, it serves as a passive approach to shift responsibility away from yourself; as if feeling guilty about your privilege is your contribution to ending racism. That?s it. You wipe your hands of it.

Writer and filmmaker Molly Secours attended a diversity conference alongside African American diversity activist, Dr. Francis Cress Welsing, and told Welsing that because she understood White privilege and veered away from certain terminology she didn?t feel as though she was privileged. Secours had concluded that because she was aware of racism and privilege she wasn?t a part of the system that oppresses the Black community. To which Welsing responded, ?I beg to differ. We don?t need you to fix us. What Black and brown people want from White people is to fix yourselves.?

This encounter highlights a rather interesting aspect of privilege denying that often occurs when a White person is confronted with their privilege. In some instances a White person will become defensive, deny that their privilege exists, and point to the Black community as the source of their own oppression.

On the other end, and as Secours has done here, a White person will acknowledge their privilege, feel guilty about Black oppression, and then attempt to separate themselves from those White people who contribute to racism. Secours? guilt had seemingly alleviated her of any responsibility she had to address the problem of racism that continues to tug on our proverbial coat sleeves, daring us to look. Secours? acceptance of White privilege and acknowledgment of Black oppression seemed to her to be enough. And that is precisely it.

Issues of racism and privilege have always fallen on the shoulders of the Black community. The problems that plague us are perceived to be problems that we have brought upon ourselves by continuing to fall into the stereotypes of lazy, poor, unintelligent criminals, who refuse to pull ourselves up by our metaphorical bootstraps in order to escape the burden of Blackness that we have carried on our shoulders for so long. White people today feel no responsibility for the state of the Black community because slavery and the Jim Crow era were so long ago!

No, you may not have owned slaves. And maybe you have never personally contributed to the systematic oppression that has for hundreds of years led to substantially higher unemployment, poverty and incarceration rates among the Black community. But here we are. Acknowledging that you are a part of the problem, despite not intentionally contributing to the oppression/privilege dichotomy, as well as part of the solution is imperative to confronting the issue.

Now what do Black people want? Quite simply: We want you to get over yourselves. What is perhaps the hardest concept to grasp when discussing racism and privilege is that despite the White (mostly male) population being looked to as the authoritative voice on pretty much everything, this is quite possibly the one subject in which there is no doubt that people of color are, and always will be, the experts.

I ask that you listen to your Black counterparts when they attempt to explain these subjects to you. We have in almost every instance been thinking about these subjects and discussing their implications and significance for far longer than you have, as your privilege allows you to be oblivious to them everyday. Your privilege makes it possible for you to not see race, to buy in to the ideology of a ?post-racial America,? an ideology that is nearly laughable to people of color, to rid yourself of the burden of race and racism.

You must continue to be diligent in examining your privilege as people of color continue to examine their other-ness. Not a day goes by where I do not think about my Blackness. I am constantly aware that I am Black and often stepping into White spaces, either on the Internet via various social media, or in my everyday life ? when I get on the T, get post-work drinks with friends or take advantage of panels and discussions around Boston.

I am aware that I am almost always one of few people of color nearly everywhere I go and this is an awareness of which I, and many of my Black brothers and sisters, are incapable of escaping. What we want from you, White people, is an acknowledgment that these things exist and will continue to exist so long as we stray away from the sometimes painful and emotion-laden discourse that seeks to rush race and privilege to the forefront, no longer hiding behind the veil of this being someone else?s problem. We need to talk about it until it doesn?t hurt anymore.

Federal intervention to aid African American community development is necessary for the following reasons:

African Americans still reside mainly in separate and unequal communities. In 2010, in the 100 metropolitan areas with the largest African American populations, 62.5 percent of blacks would have had to move to achieve full black?white integration.

Unemployment rates for African Americans have been far higher than those of whites for the past 50 years, even in good times. In fact, since 1960 the black unemployment rate has been about twice the white rate. Had blacks had the same unemployment rate as whites in 2010, an additional 1.3 million blacks would have been employed.

Parental unemployment, and not simply low income, has negative effects on children?s educational outcomes. Blacks are twice as likely as whites to have had 10 or more spells of unemployment over their prime working years.

Joblessness, although by no means the only factor producing higher crime rates in African American communities, appears to play a significant role.

Neither educational advances nor suburbanization by blacks has translated into reductions in the black?white unemployment rate ratio.

If a bold new approach is not developed to address the racial unemployment disparity, it is likely that African Americans will be condemned to unemployment rates that are twice those of whites into the foreseeable future.

This report begins with brief discussions of residential segregation and the persistent job crisis facing African Americans. It then presents evidence that suggests why improving educational attainment and access to suburban labor markets are not likely to be enough to raise employment rates among African Americans. This discussion is followed by a proposal for reducing the high rate of joblessness in and rejuvenating African American communities.

A plan for creating jobs in high-unemployment areas
The depth and the persistence of the African American jobs crisis can probably be solved only with intervention by the federal government. In the past 50 years, the normal working of the U.S. economy and the modest amelioration efforts that have been tried have failed to provide sufficient jobs for African Americans.

Increases in educational achievement and suburbanization by blacks have also failed to spur change. If a bold new approach to the problem is not taken, it is likely that blacks will be condemned to unemployment rates that are twice those of whites into the foreseeable future.

On more than one occasion, the United States has responded to crises of joblessness with government intervention. The federal government intervened during the Great Depression, the recessions of the early 1970s, and the Great Recession. A sustained level of high unemployment for African Americans decade after decade should be recognized as a crisis as serious as periodic deep national recessions.

White Americans regularly experience unemployment rates below 6 percent?a rate that blacks have never experienced in the past 40 years. An unemployment rate of more than 10 percent is considered extremely high for whites?but African Americans have had to endure unemployment rates of more than 10 percent for most of the past 40 years, according to analysis based on Current Population Survey data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Given the intractability of high joblessness for African Americans, the federal government should support targeted job creation for communities experiencing persistently high unemployment. Job creation should be targeted to communities of 25,000 people or more in counties and metropolitan areas that have experienced unemployment of more than 6 percent every year in the previous 10 years.

Eligible individuals must have resided in an eligible community for a prolonged period and have been unemployed or out of the labor market for at least six months. The program could be phased out in communities over a five-year period after the annual unemployment rate fell below 6 percent.

The proposed program is at a scale large enough to produce a significant reduction in unemployment. It is likely to improve communities plagued by persistent high unemployment in other ways, as well.

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The U.S. economy should be one in which everyone who wants to work can find a job. This goal has been elusive for African Americans.

Given the persistence of high unemployment despite improvements in educational attainment and greater suburbanization by African Americans, a concerted national effort is needed to reduce racial disparities that leave blacks twice as likely as whites to be unemployed.

Under the proposed plan, the federal government would significantly increase the number of jobs available to African Americans by creating public sector jobs, training and helping place participants in jobs, and subsidizing wages. By substantially increasing employment rates, it would help diminish poverty, improve educational achievement, and reduce crime rates.