A student of mine was wondering aloud one afternoon.  She wondered about the different rules and standards to which black and white folks had to live up to.  She says, for instance, that it is fine for black folks to say “I’m proud to be black” but when white folks say “I’m proud to be white” people get uncomfortable.  She says that whites seem racist when they proclaim pride in their heritage but when blacks do the same, they are considered regal and confident.  It seems that as we have crossed over to the new millennium, racial equality sometimes plays out in a rather imbalanced way.

All the talk of reverse-racism in the US means that we are always checking ourselves to see if we ourselves, so often the victims of racism, are free from that same sin.  For instance, often when I write, I have to be careful with using the word “black” to refer to people of African descent.  I always want to capitalize the “B”.  But whenever I use the word “white” I am never tempted to capitalize the “W”.  What does this say about me?  And when I remind myself that it seems unfair to say “Black” and “white”, another part of me says there is so much historical power in “Black” that we have earned the right to capitalize the B.  I remain uncomfortable though.  So, to solve the dilemma I usually just use lower case for both words.  Keep them equal, I tell myself.  But they are never equal. 

Recently, Republican congressman Geoff Davis had to apologize to Barack Obama for saying, “That boy’s finger does not need to be on the [nuclear] button.”  Of course the worst part of this statement is not “the button” but “the boy.”  What is more offensive is not the reference to Obama’s foreign policy abilities but the painful historical memories of referring to a black man as a boy.  Appalling.  Congressman Davis apologized profusely.  But here’s the flip side:  Last night I was watching HBO boxing with my husband.  In typical fashion, the weeks leading up to the fight were filled with trash talk from both fighters, which HBO gleefully aired.  Bernard Hopkins, a black man, said he would never let this “white boy” (Joe Calzaghe) beat him.  If Calzaghe had called Hopkins a “black boy” HBO would have had to edit that out, for sure.  They did not think twice when it was the other way round.  

So back to my student’s concern.  How healthy, really, are race relations when one group has earned the right to “Say it Loud, I’m Black and Proud” while the other group seems uncomfortable in their own acclamations of ethnic pride.  If all is well, and race has been erased, and we can stomp proudly into a free and equal American dream, why do we still tiptoe?

The fact that most Haitians live well below the poverty level should baffle us all. It should make us sit up and wonder how it is that such a proud nation, with such a revolutionary history, that started off as such a leader in the African Diaspora has fallen to this level. An article I read last week reminded me that today, there are many Haitians that are so poor and hungry that they make cookies out of dirt, salt, and a little oil.

This is tragic. My focus is not really on how Haiti has reached this stage. Of course, there are all sorts of theories about how US foreign policy and old French powers have interfered with the democracy that has limped along in Haiti. There are other theories about corrupt leadership. There are elements of truth in all of these ideas. My real focus is the present. How is it that the most powerful countries in the world have allowed this to happen? If the powers can spend billions of dollars removing a tyrant in the middle east, surely these billions of dollars could have been employed to help get rid of the tyrant of poverty in a small country like Haiti. I’m not talking about the World Bank or IMF. The debilitating effects of their “help” on the people of a country in need is legendary.

So now, more and more, I am coming to the realization that we cannot keep looking to the outside for salvation. Those we think should help have other priorities. So the real solution for countries like Haiti must come from within. Last week hungry Haitians, finally frustrated and fed up, stormed the palace and rioted. Today, the senate voted to dismiss the prime minister. I’m anxious to see what happens next. I’m eager to see if Haitians will finally succeed in pulling themselves up, regardless of what their wealthy neighbors do (or do not do) for them.