Saturday, June 28, 1997

Real challenge of fostering racial harmony begins at home

By Joy Thompson / Knight-Ridder Newspapers

President Clinton has received much criticism lately about his initiative to fight racism. Some view the call to start a national dialogue on race as just another stop on Clinton's politically correct bandwagon. Others see Clinton as powerless to change anything in this country, not just the state of race relations. Others have resigned themselves to defeatism. As one person told me recently, "There has always been racism of some kind in this country, and there always will be."

That's a cynical and apathetic way to view things. Besides, attitudes have changed over the years. And although much change needs to happen, we need to focus on the possibilities instead of just throwing up our hands and accepting the worst in people.

According to a recent poll conducted for Knight-Ridder newspapers, attitudes toward immigrants have improved. In the early 1990s, the trendy thing was to scapegoat immigrants for most of this country's ills. In California, with its huge numbers of Latino and Asian immigrants, immigrant-bashing remains popular in some circles. The Latinos, Asians and Africans immigrating to the United States today are darker in skin color than the European immigrants of the 1920s. Their language and culture are not as familiar. But they are here for the same reasons as their European predecessors: They want a better life for themselves and their families. They were lured here by the same torch of Lady Liberty that drew the early immigrants from Europe. And once they get here, they are willing to work hard for that better life. According to this poll, more Americans are seeing this and becoming more accepting; they are becoming less bothered by the superficial differences.

Another recent poll taken by ABC News found that social interaction between blacks and whites has increased in the past few years. Two-thirds and higher of the respondents said they had friends of other races; most said they had been to the home of someone of the opposite race and half said that they had eaten dinner in the homes of a person of the other race. This is pretty remarkable considering that only 40 years ago in the South such social contact would have been considered illegal. And the results of this poll are particularly encouraging because social interaction is crucial to dispelling fears and challenging stereotypes.

But polls and surveys aside, the real challenge of fostering racial harmony begins at home, your home and mine. And that's where the dialogue tends to break down. It is our everyday experiences that shape our attitudes about race. That is why it is crucial to keep an open mind: One individual or group of individuals do not represent the whole.

The temptations to stereotype can be strong. Just the other day, a co-worker sent me a lengthy e-mail about a conversation she had just had with a reader. The reader had called to complain that our newspaper, the Press-Telegram, was running too many stories and photos about Latinos and blacks. She went on to make several disparaging remarks about ethnic groups in general.

The reporter, who happens to be black, was upset and hurt. From a young age, she had been taught to be accepting of all people. Her friends cross all cultural and ethnic lines. Her fiance is Latino. How could people could still harbor such hatred in this enlightened day in age? she asked. Some do, I told her. That's the way it is. This caller does represent a portion of our readership - a small portion, I hope.

Then, the reporter began to get depressed. How many other people feel this way, she wondered aloud. Will every white person she encounters be a closet racist? Whom could she trust? Here this reporter was allowing this one telephone conversation dim her view of the world at large. I tried to help her see that change is inevitable: Race relations are improving and will continue to improve mainly because of awesome people like her. But we can't give in to cynicism and despair because if we do we become part of the problem.

The other night I participated in a small Bible study at my friend's home. Of the four women participating, one was white, one was black and the other two were Filipinas. Occasionally, during the study and dinner afterward, the women who were born and reared in the Philippines would communicate with each other in their native tongue, Tagalog. It was just more comfortable for them. True, we were all different - one, blond and blue-eyed, hailing from the Midwest; another, African-American, with roots in the South; two, immigrants from Asia, who years ago stepped out on faith and built new lives in a strange country. But we were united by our love for God and love for one another as sisters in Christ.

Focus on the possibilities. We, as individuals, can bring this racial dialogue home, to our homes. There is hope for the present and the future.

(Joy Thompson is an editorial writer for the Long Beach Press-Telegram. You can write to her at 604 Pine Ave., Long Beach, Calif. 90844.)

(c) 1997, Press-Telegram (Long Beach, Calif.).

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