Talking race in America

IS THE AVERAGE American a racist who acts on his or her bigotry?

It can't be denied racism lives in America's closet. But is it sitting in a BarcaLounger in America's living room?

I think it's the former because I have seen mammoth changes in America's laws and customs in the past 50 years.

From the mandated (if incomplete) desegregation of schools, to passage of landmark voting and public-accommodation laws, those who were held down have a means of fighting back, with the federal government at their back.

The stain of slavery is America's original birthmark. No sane person denies that. Nor does any sane person deny there were Jim Crow laws in the South and segregation and economic apartheid in the North. While those roots have been pulled from the ground, some branches of racism have not yet withered and died.

For most Americans, of all colors, race is not the first thing they think about in the morning or the last thing they think about at night. They all have their lives to live.

As we have conversations about having conversations about race, what we don't need is an attempt by some in academia to muzzle free speech in the name of protecting minorities from possible offense.

A case in point is the University of California, which is urging faculty to purge their vocabulary of potentially offensive words. Deans and department chairs were "invited" to seminars that listed potentially offensive phrases, adapted from Dr. Derald Sue's Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation.

Offensive phrases such as "America is the land of opportunity," "There is only one race, the human race," and "The most qualified person should get the job."

These demonstrate "implicit bias" in the hashtag-instead-of-reason concept called microaggressions manufactured by the grievance industry.

Online, I found several pages of examples of Sue's microaggressions. Some are cliche, passe or patronizing - "I have several black friends," or "You are a credit to your race." (Ugh.)

In "America is the land of opportunity," the nasty surprise translation is "People of color are lazy and/or incompetent and need to work harder."

Really? "God bless America" would really freak them out.

"There is only one race, the human race" - once bedrock belief for liberals - could be taken as "denying the significance of a person of color's racial/ethnic experience and history."

"The most qualified person should get the job" really means, "People of color are given extra unfair benefits because of their race."

I never knew that. I still don't.

There are internal contradictions within some examples given. If you ask someone, "Where are you from or where were you born," that becomes, "You are not a true American."

At a show Sunday night my girlfriend and I sat next to one woman from Indonesia and another from Trinidad. Earlier that day we talked to a woman from Eritrea who manages a parking garage. I'm afraid we diminished them by asking about their countries. They didn't seem offended. Maybe they didn't know they were supposed to be.

I suspect some academics get bonus pay for dreaming up new ways for people to feel offended. Not actually harmed, just a perception. It is not helpful.

Ironically, 50 years ago the University of California was the birth place of the Free Speech Movement. Today? Shut up.

Instead of teaching minorities to be shackled by perceived - or even real - slights, I'd recommend Dr. Taylor Swift's philosophy: "Shake it off."

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On Twitter: @StuBykofsky

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