“White America” ignorance ignites Missouri race issues
October 23, 2014
I would like to preface this column by saying that I am a 23-year-old white male who writes sports, and while I grew up in inner-city Chicago and Seattle, I in no way can ever fully understand the perception of police overreach and white privilege within the African-American community. I would prefer not to publish my opinions on an issue that I cannot fully understand, but when a young, white coworker published an opinion about the recent unrest in Missouri, I felt I must respond.
Unfortunately, the article was just another example of why racial issues are so misunderstood in this society; white America just doesn’t get it.
The writer’s use of language was blatantly ignorant, clearly uninformed and lacking factual information which would have at least attempted to support his flawed arguments. In fact, multiple claims were made which lacked any attribution and I’ve found to be easily discredited.
The opinion of the writer was that store owners were suffering and that this issue shouldn’t have been made about race, yet he revealed his unattributed assumption that businesses were also mainly white owned.
“Local businesses mainly owned by white Americans do not deserve to be burned out and their property destroyed because the African-American community feels they are being wronged.”
In fact, 21 percent of businesses in St. Louis area are African-American owned, according to a 2007 U.S. Census Bureau survey.
Affirmative action also reared its head when it was stated that African-American people have been treated very well “or even better in most cases” during the last 20 years.
This isn’t the first — and won’t be the last — time I have heard this assertion from people in my own racial designation. As sad as it is, I have heard members of my own family state the very same.
Every time I wonder, “Where on earth do they get these perceptions and how can you rationally assume that 400 years of oppression goes away in the span of 50 years?”
Never before has anyone making that assertion stated one fact that proves systematic oppression is over with or being reversed onto white people. That’s because, at this point, you can’t.
I found fundamental flaws with most of the points made, but ultimately it was depressing. To have the audacity to publish his personal opinions when they were clearly uneducated and blatantly ignorant is appalling.
The fact that the article was published without being forced to revise the statements of fact, which were truly just ignorant opinions, is horrendous. Every person has the right to an opinion and as members of the staff at The Easterner, we have the right to disseminate those opinions to campus in this form. However, when zero effort is made to support your assumptions of an entire race of people with actual data, you no longer should have the right to share in this format which represents the entire campus.
Shakira Fernandez • Oct 24, 2014 at 11:21 am
Kudos to you young man. I admire the fact that you could stand in your conviction and educate someone who clearly has no idea of the real world or how to write actually. I appreciate your rebuttal on this matters. I am a parent of a child that attends Eastern and I was very outraged about the ignorance of that article. I to believe he wrote out of opinion and there was nothing factual about anything he wrote. He title had nothing to do with the actual article. Thank you for attempting to educate that young man.
Whitney Mitchell • Oct 23, 2014 at 10:08 pm
I am so please to see that other members of the Easterner do not agree with the article. The article was disgusting and very offensive to the African American community,and the fact that the Easterner thought it was a good idea to run the article was even worse. I’m not saying that people aren’t entitled to their own opinion (given this was an opinion piece) but this was done in very bad taste. If I can recall, Tanners only source/quote was from Al Sharpton, is that a joke. When you have such big assumptions and allegations about an entire race of people, you better have more than Al Sharpton to back you up. The same would go for any race, not just the African American community, at anytime you address a broad audience, YOU NEED FACTS, not feelings, we get enough of those from reality television. I completely agree with this rebuttal and I’m proud that decent people in general found the first article disgusting, and not just the black community. Thank you Samuel Deal, we appreciate you!