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May 22, 2006

Drew loves white people.

While reading the paper after work a few days ago, I saw a great article in the Times.

Stephin Merritt, of the Magnetic Fields (whom I love a great deal), has apparently been branded a racist because all his favorite music is by white people.

At first blush, to claim that someone is a racist because he doesn't listen to music by black artists is absurd, but upon closer inspection, I think it's not so clear. Nothing is ever simple.

There was recently an excerpt in the Post (I think) from Covering, a book from a professor at Yale Law. He talks about discrimination based not on first degree characteristics (race, gender, sexual orientation) but on second degree characteristics (no cornrows, don't cry at work, don't make people uncomforable by talking about your partner too much.)

I'm not a person who loves to declare every bit of judgement discrimination, mostly because blacks, women and gays can be just as incompetent as whites, men, and straights. Some people just need to be fired! (Ed. - but not me!) But just today I heard someone on the metro say that he'd never hire someone who says "axe" instead of "ask". He wasn't wearing a white hood, or anything but it's sure a lot easier for me to pass that criterion than for my former students. Sure, pronouncing the word as written makes you sound "more professional" (a point I made to my kids more than once) but who judges professionalism anyway? And on what basis?

There are a lot of codes of behavior we expect people to follow in order to fit into the professional class and, not shockingly, a lot of those are tied to race. I can get hired anywhere I want with a Boston accent without a second thought, but a black accent and, boom, unprofessionalism enters the picture.

Which brings me to Stephin Merritt's music collection and my own. I have a lot of music by white people. A lot. And aside from the jazz, I have very little from black people. (That's not counting the imaginary black drummer from Gorillaz.) Does this mean I think whites are better musicians? Does this make me a racist? Don't I hate black people? Heeellllllllll, no. I'd rather listen to the Shins than Outkast because I like them better, not because I think Andre 3000 is stealing my white women. But I do think that taste speaks to more than just coincidence.

Everyone wants to be color blind, and most of us work really hard to acheive that. But in the cracks and crevices of daily life, it's more than "color blind" that matters. Apparently, we should all be color deaf and color, um, whatever not tasting is called, as well.

Racism is not only an ugly word, it's a pretty useless one as well. Race relations in America are far more confusing than a single word (or a tragically overrated movie) can explain. And as readily as I people can agree to that statement, not a lot of people are thrilled to admit that "race relations in America" is the same as "race relations among Americans" and, um, that means us.

Posted by Drew at May 22, 2006 07:17 PM

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