News Cut Category Archive: Race

A look at the foreign-born

Posted at 12:18 PM on December 2, 2011 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Race

This is an interesting map the Census Bureau provided today showing the foreign-born population as a percentage of each state's population in 1970.

This is the same report in the 2010 Census:

Minnesota went from about 2.6% to over 7%.

Demographers Elizabeth Grieco and Rob Margetta were on C-SPAN today, with Grieco bringing up an interesting point: The percentage of the population that is foreign-born is lower than during the period of "the great migration."

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The other 'N' word

Posted at 12:14 PM on November 8, 2011 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Race

nig·gard·ly, adj.
1. reluctant to give or spend; stingy; miserly.
2. meanly or ungenerously small or scanty: a niggardly tip to a waiter.

Tip? Here's a tip: Don't use this word; it'll get you fired even though there's nothing racist about the word, it just sounds too close to the "N-word" and the nation's reading scores aren't quite high enough to expect anything other than confusion when it's used.

Just ask two drug counselors in Broward County, Florida, one of whom has been fired and the other suspended for using the word that isn't the word that should automatically get them disciplined, according to SunSentinel.com.

"It's Kafkaesque," said Sam Fields, Suskind-Assidon's attorney. "How is she supposed to report something that isn't an offense?"

Tworetzky disputes the county report, but declined further comment.

Suskind-Assidon and Fields said that at an appeals hearing last week, county official Tom Hutka said "niggardly" was a word that could be misconstrued and he "wouldn't use it."

As a writer, I'd never use it either. Given its similarity to the combustible N-word, it could only lead to confusion and problems. But making it a firing offense seems over the top.

Suskind-Assidon said she called Tworetzky into the meeting with the substance-abuse client after she sensed the client was "holding back" in his recovery efforts.

According to Suskind-Assidon, Tworetzky told the client he was being "niggardly" about opening up. The client took offense. She said Tworetzky explained it and they later looked it up in the dictionary.

A few days later, the client filed a complaint. His identity was withheld by the county because of medical confidentiality laws.

The current situation in Florida sounds remarkably like the controversy that erupted in Washington DC in 1999 when an aide to the mayor was forced to resign after using it to describe budget funding. He was rehired after city officials acknowledged their lack knowledge of etymology, which -- for the record -- is not the same as entomology.

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Baseball and the racist umpire examined

Posted at 1:15 PM on September 30, 2011 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Race

Baseball purists tend to lament the over-reliance on statistics that have moved the enjoyment of the game from a sporting endeavor to a mathematical equation. While the baseball researchers have - correctly -- educated us about the weakness of judging a player by his batting average, they have also continued to introduce new statistical measurements that push the envelope of absurdity.

Can math prove racism? A study by researchers at Southern Methodist University is sure to ignite a debate over whether the race of players influences those statistics.

Researchers there have issued a paper that says white umpires call more strikes for white pitchers than non-whites.

Johan Sulaeman, a financial economist, at Southern Methodist University, analyzed 3.5 million pitches from 2004 to 2008 and found -- claimed -- that "minority pitchers scale back their performance to overcome racial/ethnic favoritism toward whites by MLB home plate umpires."

In other words: Because they weren't getting their pitches called strikes by the white umpires, minority pitchers had little choice but to throw more pitches "down the middle," giving them a distinct disadvantage when measured against white pitchers.

Among the researchers' findings, according to an SMU news release:

-- From the starting pitcher's perspective, a racial match with the umpire helped his statistics by yielding fewer earned runs, fewer hits and fewer home runs.

-- Because the majority of umpires are white, teams with minority pitchers have a distinct disadvantage in non-monitored parks.

-- There is no evidence that visiting managers adjusted their pitching lineups to minimize exposure of their minority pitchers to the subjective bias of a white umpire.

-- In parks where baseball hasn't installed cameras to monitor an umpire's ability, pitchers of the same race threw pitches that allowed umpires the most discretion, apparently to maximize their advantage stemming from the umpires' favoritism.

-- A batter who swings is less likely to get a hit when the umpire and pitcher match.

The researchers claimed that because their performance was undermined by white umpires, minority pitchers earn between $50,000 and $400,000 a year less than white pitchers.

It's comforting that the study found major league managers haven't adjusted their pitching rotations to favor white pitchers. But it's also possible that the reason they haven't is because they don't know about the study.

The next logical step in research to further prove an allegation of racism by umpires, is to examine the ball/strike calls based on the race of the batter.

In the meantime, it's important to remember there's a fair number of conclusions in the study that are based on assumptions.

(h/t: Chris Dall)

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The Polish, Italians, Swedes, Norwegians and Latinos

Posted at 12:38 PM on September 19, 2011 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Race

No doubt it's only coincidence, but a day after the Pioneer Press wrote a first-rate article on how the Hispanic culture has revitalized Worthington, MN., Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon today announced an initiative to help his hometown -- in this case, Hazelton, PA. -- better accept Hispanics.

Maddon said he had the idea when he was home for Christmas last year and went to a community supper at a daycare center and saw adults sitting at the kids' table and the kids running around...

"And I thought to myself, 'That's what my family looked like back in the day,'" Maddon said. "That's what I remember of Sunday back in the '50s and '60s, my earliest memories, and it really struck me that we are missing the point. If we don't utilize this group of Hispanic people who want to be in our community, if we don't utilize them and their abilities to the fullest, our town is going to eventually die and go away.

"These people want to be there. They're wonderful people, and they're just exactly like we were back in the day -- down to the point that they don't speak very good English yet, some of them. Neither did my grandpa and grandma on both sides -- Polish and Italian."

"We are a country of different cultures that have grown into one," Maddon said. "What is the difference between now and when our forefathers came to this country centuries ago? "

Change Polish and Italian to Swedes and Norwegians, and Maddon could be talking about Worthington.

"It's just like when the Swedes and the Norwegians hit the shore here...." Sgt. Kevin Flynn, of the Worthington Police Department, told the Pioneer Press. 'You have to have some generational growth before people were actually on the same page. And you're actually seeing that now."

The article said Hispanics in Worthington -- at least the ones the PiPress talked to -- feel "welcomed," but it also quoted a business owner who plans to retire and move out. "In the future here, I know the city of Worthington's going to have a lot of problems. I don't want to be here for it. We're fooling ourselves if we think we're going to be OK," he said.

And it's clear in the comments section -- where else? -- that Worthington isn't a success story yet, at least to the outside world.

"People don't want to go downtown because you there's hardly a single sign in ENGLISH!" one wrote.

It's going to take a little more time and at least a few more baseball managers.

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Clara Luper stood up by sitting down

Posted at 3:06 PM on June 9, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Icons, Race

Clara Luper never attained the widespread fame of Rosa Parks in the civil rights movement. She never became the household word that Parks deservedly did.

But someone had to lead the first sit-in to protest the exclusion of blacks in public places. That someone was Clara Luper. In 1958, she and about a dozen others ordered cold drinks at a lunch counter in Oklahoma City.

Clara Luper has died.

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Who are you?

Posted at 6:09 PM on February 1, 2011 by Molly Bloom (1 Comments)
Filed under: Race

Today's Question is riffing on this article from the New York Times that looks at the increasing number of multiracial or multiethnic Americans.

We posed the question to sources in our Public Insight Network, on Facebook and online: Who are you?

The responses we received offer a fascinating glimpse into how we define ourselves even as the definitions themselves change:

Who I am is as old as America. Mixed race: while it is being acknowledged in ways that are slightly different, it is nothing new. Why only now are we talking about the mixed composition of people's complexion and ethnicity when it has been the reality for most Americans, especially African Americans for the past 400 years? I am--my son is America. We come from the African and European Diasporas as well as the indigenous peoples of this continent. People will call my son and I African American. It seems that we should not have to talk about this, but in America, we do. The discussion continues.
-Clarence White, St. Paul (he blogs here)

I was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. I moved with my family in 1997 when I was 16 and I have lived in Rochester and now in Burnsville. I'm married to a girl from Mexico as well and we have four children we are a very traditional family with very strong Spanish background. We have adopted the American culture as our own and we are teaching our children to understand and to care for both cultures, the Spanish and the American, so they can benefit from this changing environment and take advantage of the opportunities of being multicultural as I have. We also own a small business so we teach our children to work hard and reach their goals and do their part to live the American dream. -Luis Magallon, Rochester

I am a Lebanese Christian American woman married to a Berber Muslim Algerian American man. In other words, an Arab Christian married to a Non-Arab Muslim. Every day of my life I am mindful of my race and ethnicity. I am extremely proud to be an Arab. Very proud of my loving, generous and hardworking immigrant husband. And very aware of the perceptions the outside world has of "people like us."
-Lorie Haddad, Minneapolis

I'm an Irish-Catholic, fourth-generation St. Paulite. Have lived in only two zip codes in my life, and they are contiguous. My Irish-Catholic ethnicity is very much tied to place--St. Paul. My parents, grandparents and nearly all my friends are from St. Paul. My baptism & first communion, my sister's wedding, and both of my parent's funerals were held in the same church (Nativity). I could never live anywhere else. -Paul Bard, St. Paul

I am a white Minnesotan of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Kentuckian descent whose Scandinavian relatives have farmed in this area for over five generations (there is even a family cemetery in southern Minnesota) and whose rapscallion relatives have roamed the Iowan countryside teaching and inciting subtle feminism. I am a linguist and returned Peace Corps volunteer. I am a teacher of English to immigrants and refugees. I am an atheist and secular humanist. I am the mother of a nine-month-old baby whose father is half Mexican, half French Creole but considers himself simply American.
-Sarah Hernandez, Plymouth

I am a student and sometimes teacher. I don't feel overwhelmingly attached to any of my ethnic backgrounds, of which there are at least four. I am American, female, raised middle class with college-educated parents. I'm the youngest of three, creative and moody, I like spicy food and I'm picky about movies. That description could fit many of my peers from many cities, no matter their convoluted combination of ethnicities. -Leah Hunczak, St. Cloud

When one is raised tri-culturally as we are (an ethnic minority growing up in a transracial household in the upper midwest), the question of identification can be a loaded question. The answer I give depends on who YOU are and how you ask me. But for the purpose of this poll, I am Rupa: an East Indian adoptee.
-Rupa Ryan

I am a 31 year-old mother of two and wife to a great guy. We are both of German descent and feel that keeping that alive in our children is important. But we are Americans first. -Melissa Timm, Hampton

I'm black and in a inter-racial marriage. My kids are bi-racial. We celebrate Loving Day every year. Our relatives and friends are in similar relationships. We chose a faith community that is multi-culturally inclusive. It's our generational new norm however, being the one blessed with the most melanin in our family, I'm patently aware of clueless, insensitive jerks.

With the passing of my mother in 2009, I inherited her copious family files. The prize, a family bible with live births going back to the 1860s. I've also learned from a land deed out of Baton Rouge, LA that my great grandmother and her brother purchased plots of land after the war. They were creole. Freed. And I seized on their identity. In today's lexicon, my kin are seen as being separate from both black and white races. And we, my present-day family has an outward racial identity that seems to give people social cues that don't work with us. Because they no longer apply.
-Rachel Dykoski, Minneapolis

I'm a first generation Hmong French American immigrant woman who is married to a white American man of Polish descent. I am conscious of my cultural heritage and the impact of my outward characteristics (skin color, accent, racial group, etc.). I make a point to be a good ambassador for my community by debunking myths/stereotypes with my choices and lifestyles and aspirations while celebrating the richness of my culture without mystifying it. -Kao Yongvang, Minneapolis

I'm a white, disabled male. ATV rider. Pool player. Wood worker. Outdoor guy.
-Jeff Anderson, Duluth

We also spoke with a few people who responded for tonight's All Things Considered. Give a listen:

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So, who are you? Tell us here.

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Racial cartography of the Twin Cities

Posted at 2:22 PM on September 22, 2010 by Drew Geraets (0 Comments)
Filed under: Race

Inspired by a map of Chicago's racial divides, Flickr user Eric Fischer created maps of more than 90 U.S. cities, including Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The maps are based on data from the 2000 census and each dot represents 25 people.

Key
Red=White | Blue=Black | Green=Asian | Orange=Hispanic | Gray=Other

Twin Cities

New York City

Los Angeles

Chicago

Detroit

View the entire set.

(h/t Robert Niles)

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Studying Fargo

Posted at 2:01 PM on July 8, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Race

Jen Erickson, a University of Oregon anthropology doctoral student, didn't need to return to Bosnia to find the perfect place to study the culture. She only had to go to Fargo.

The Luverne, Minnesota native spent the 2006-2007 academic year studying Bosnians and Sudanese, who have fled their homeland and settled in a white, Christian community.

She's been putting her dissertation together, which considers what we think makes for a worthy citizen and why some cultures meet our standard better than others.

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Q: Why Fargo?

A: It started in Bosnia. I lived in bosnia for two years and I learned to speak the Bosnian language. When I came back, I was wondering what I was going to do with my life and I found a job working for Lutheran Social Services in Sioux Falls; I worked as a case manager there for about a year and a half before I went to graduate school. And when I went to graduate school, through various classes and critiquing the discipline of anthropology and having to go elsewhere, I had gone elsewhere, I enjoyed it, it was a wonderful experience, but after working with refugees in the U.S., I decided I should do my doctoral dissertation in my own backyard.

Then I came upon Fargo because the work I did in Bosnia, I worked with a lot of Roma -- or gypsies -- and over half of the Bosnia refugees in Fargo are actually Roma. But they're only about 10 percent of the population in Bosnia, so it made a nice comparison to some of my previous work.

Q: Were there things you learned as a case manager here, working with Bosnian refugees, that you didn't know in Bosnia?

A: Yes, definitely. The connection, the challenges that refugees face in the United States is very different from what Bosnians face in post-war Bosnia, as they were trying to acclimate and adjust to a very consumer-driven society. And the one and only goal of refugee resettlement agencies in the U.S. is pushed toward economic self-sufficiency. And by that they mean economic self-sufficiency from the state; not relying on any welfare, or government handouts, if you will.

I think that was very different for Bosnians, coming from a former Communist country. And then a lot of the Bosnians who had some of the biggest difficulties were those who had been of a middle- or upper-class-level status. Like so many other people coming to the United States, that class status is not acknowledged here. They were kind of all grouped in to this group of refugees.

Q: What was your experience with the Sudanese prior to Fargo?

A: I actually knew almost nothing about Sudan until I started working as a case manager and started working with a lot of Sudanese as clients, and so were a lot of my co-workers at LSS. When I heard about the atrocities that have been happening in Sudan since, basically, the 1950s and how little I knew about it, I was embarrassed for my lack of knowledge, first of all, but then really compelled to continue working with them and really supporting them in various projects that they wanted to do.

As a case worker, I saw that the case workers have a pretty difficult job in that they take clients to schools, medical clinics, welfare agencies, job sites. They're dealing with family disputes and going to picnics and weddings. And you might be working with half a dozen different cultures or more.

As anthropologists, we really try to get into the deeper aspects of the culture, and so it was a challenge for me to try to do both and show that people in their everyday lives, they're constantly coming across people from other cultures, whether it's at work or in schools or at the doctors office or whatever, and I wanted to get at some of those interesting cross-cultural experiences.

Q: You're not only researching these new cultures, you're also researching the dominant culture, which in this case is a white, Christian culture. What surprised you the most?

A: I was working with the dominant culture, the Sudanese and Bosnians. I expected to find a lot of racism, and I did. And a lot of xenophobia, kind of fear of these groups coming into Fargo, and I found that. And I documented it.

What was surprising was the really important role of culture -- in addition to race -- in separating those ideas out. Sudanese faced a great deal of racism for sure. But some of their cultural values were more in line with the dominant culture than the Bosnians.

For example, Sudanese are very Christian and they really strongly believe in the Christian values because of their contact with missionaries in Sudan during the war and in refugee camps in Sudan. And they also have an extremely high value of education. And a lot of them, especially the leaders in the community, are talking about the value of hard work, of education, and Christian values, and that goes well with the dominant culture. And so they're getting involved in churches, they're meeting people that way.

Bosnians tend to keep to themselves. They also believe in the value of hard work but they really weren't touting the benefits of education and civic duty and speaking out about their culture the way the Sudanese were.

And so in some ways, the Bosnian Roma were considered some of the least worthy citizens in Fargo because of this; because of race, but also because of culture, because of everyday aspects of culture ... like ideas about the role of education, the role of community and government and so on.

Q: Does the fact they were more of an insular people create the perception that they're not as worthy a citizen, or were they actually interested in the education of their children and all of these other values?

A: The Muslim Bosnians, who were white Bosnian, they believe in education. They send their children to school. The children sometimes finish high school. Some of them might go on to college. But because they weren't out there in the community, they blended in a little bit more than other refugees, again, because of their race.

But they didn't have any sort of community organization, and when they tried to start community organizations, they often failed because of lack of internal cohesion and because Bosniaks -- Bosnian Muslims -- and Bosnian Roma don't get along. And there's a lot of racism against Bosnians by other Bosnians.

Roma, on the other hand, tend to drop out of school at younger ages -- before the age of 16 -- and a lot of Roma and Bosnians in Fargo are marrying their children, which is a cultural practice, at very young ages. And so child protection, and schools, and police officers, and a lot of different state institutions are getting involved.

And so the Roma are upset because they want to continue a lot of these cultural practices -- and they do have a lot of pride in their culture, but it's not something they want to talk about in public. And so my job, I see kind of over the long term, is to explain both to Roma and these different state institutions, that there's different ideas about what it means to be a good citizen or a worthy citizen, and especially between the Roma and the dominant culture, they just don't gel right now because of differences surrounding marriage, children, education, and things like that.

Q: I can't imagine Fargo changing its definition of a "worthy" citizen. What do you see happening?

A: I think there's a couple of different things that need to happen and, first of all, I give a lot of kudos to the state institutions and the private institutions, namely Lutheran social services, Cass County social services, the schools, they were really open to letting me come in as a researcher and a lot of them are asking for advice; they want to do something to be more inclusive. The wider society is not going to change, but there's a lot of advocates for refugees there who are doing their best to help a little bit there.

I think it's good that someone like me can work with Roma that they don't need to change everything about their culture; I hope that doesn't happen. In order to continue to practice their culture, they're going to have to make some adjustments. If the kids can stay in school at least until they're 16, they can read and write, that will make rural businesses better. A lot of Roma are practicing the scrap metal business. This can help the business, it also can help maintain cultural values, and things like that. It has to come from both actors. State and private institutions have to adjust a little bit and also Roma have to adjust a little bit as well.

Q: Do you think the dynamic you found would be the same if you went to Pelican Rapids, or the south or west or California, or is this a unique situation for the Red River Valley?

A: It's both. Fargo and Pelican Rapids would be the same. And I think the Upper Midwest would all be similar. Sioux Falls and Fargo are similar. Minneapolis is a little bit different because it's a bigger city, it has a little more diversity.

But the thing I found in the Upper Midwest is this thing about niceness. There is a cultural aspect that might be similar to the South, but it's certainly not the same as the East and West Coasts in terms of modesty -- a very Norwegian American concept of modesty -- forced modesty, almost. And a politeness. It's known as Minnesota Nice.

Bosnians -- both Romas and Bosniaks -- had a problem with this because they'd say things like, 'I don't understand why people... they smile all the time and they're always so nice but we know you're not really nice. It's fake nice and they're actually cold." And some of the Bosnians said that they thought that some of the people in Fargo are some of the coldest people they'd ever met. And I remember telling this woman, "You know, we're actually known for being really nice." And she was, like, "I really don't see this at all. I see this as only fake nice. I know they don't like me. I know they hear my accent. I heard this from refugees a lot."

Q: I know people who moved here from other parts of the country who say the same thing.

A: One of the things I talk about in this dissertation is the people of Fargo -- and I think it could be expanded to the wider Midwest, I don't know about the rest of the country -- is that we the people of the Midwest -- the white people -- don't have a culture or a race. It just goes without saying, it's just us. But the refugees have a culture and a race. This is the biggest problem that I saw. So my goal was to say that, no, there is a culture. And it's a culture that's shaped very strongly by Christian values, even more specifically, Lutheran values. This idea of niceness, of modesty, of civic duty, of self sufficiency. These are American values, but I think they play out slightly differently in other parts of the country.

So I want to put a name on it and say "we have a culture. We have a race. White is a race" and that needs to be interrogated. Just to make people aware of their own cultural values and system. Maybe that could help a little bit.

Q: This "nice" thing. Where does it rank in the list of values that people use to determine who is a worthy citizen?

A: I think it ranks quite highly on the everyday level and that's where anthropologists work. I would find in welfare offices, for example, some of the welfare workers that I spoke with say enjoyed working with Sudanese because Sudanese were more "grateful." They were overtly grateful and nice people to talk to.

If I'm a social worker and I have someone come into my office and say, "thank you so much. I appreciate the time you're putting into this, if you could do that for me, that would be great..." this is the Midwest way of speaking. That social worker is more likely to give out more benefits... you could provide outside resources more. He or she might be more helpful.

If you're someone like a Bosnian Roma who comes in and, at times -- and I would say this is a cultural strategy -- some Romani men have been overtly sexual. Or Roma in general can be very belligerent and say, 'Listen, this is your job, give me these kind of benefits..." , the social worker is probably not going to respond very well. On this everyday level niceness is very important. That wouldn't be the same on the East Coast.

Q: When you explain this to them, what is their reaction?

A: I want to be careful that the stereotype doesn't get out there that the Roma are overly sexual because that's not true. I do think it's a strategy, but it's a cultural strategy like niceness that's developed over a long period of time. So I don't think that people... the families that I work with who are Roma don't necessarily go in and say, "Now we're going to do this."

I didn't actually sit down with them yet. This is a long-term project. I only just recently put this all together. But I would say it's not an overtly cultural survival mechanism. But with like teachers or doctors, they could say "if you could be more polite to me, you might have more success in getting what you want."

Q: By going back to your home turf, did you have a sense of ownership toward members of the community that you might not have had if you'd gone to Bosnia or Sudan or anywhere else?

A: Definitely. I was what some people might call an insider. I'm from the region. People know where Luverne is and I was seen as one of them. In other ways, a researcher is always going to be an outsider. But I tried to give back to the community as much as possible. I hadn't actually lived in Fargo before, so there was plenty about Fargo that I didn't know. But I grew up in a Norwegian Lutheran American family and I wanted to get at that culture

(For more information about Jen Erickson's work, see this article in the University of Oregon magazine)

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Can Obama afford to be angry?

Posted at 3:27 PM on June 8, 2010 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Race

African American commentators today paused when President Obama flashed some anger over the BP oil spill.

Continue reading "Can Obama afford to be angry?"

Racism in the anti-tax crowd

Posted at 7:43 AM on May 9, 2010 by Bob Collins (17 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Race

Two firebrands of the anti-tax movement in Minnesota -- Michele Bachmann and Tom Emmer -- headlined a rally at the Capitol in St. Paul on Saturday, the Star Tribune reported.

But a photograph in the Star Tribune revealed an obviously racist message that muted the message protesters wanted to deliver.

The rally at the Capitol was organized by Jason Lewis of KTLK. To be clear: Most of the signs were merely political in nature. But, at some point, doesn't someone have to say, "Hey, buddy, ditch the sign; you're killing our cause, here"?

Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the Tea Party movement, in particular, is battling a perception of racism:

Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, said that at the heart of the effort to counter racism accusations is dissociating from protesters who cross the line. Around the time of the health-care vote, FreedomWorks and Tea Party Nation worked to form a federation of tea party groups to coordinate strategy and do a better job sticking to a similar message, organizers said.

At a protest in Nashville, Phillips said, there were "a couple of signs -- which I'm not convinced weren't plants from the other side -- that were really tasteless and inappropriate." The people who carried them "were told to put their signs down and leave. . . . They were literally thrown out of the event," he said.

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How we talk about race

Posted at 10:59 AM on May 7, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Race

MPR's Michael Caputo is holding a forum on how we talk about racial issues. It's part of a continuing Friday series on the issue. Join in.

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Race and the tea party movement

Posted at 12:03 PM on April 14, 2010 by Bob Collins (15 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Race

Sarah Palin held a rally on Boston Common today on behalf of the tea party. Here's a picture of the crowd. Click on the images to see the larger versions.

More shots of the crowd can be found at Boston.com.

The last time Boston had a big rally, the dastardly Red Sox won a World Series. Compare the face of Boston.

According to the census bureau, only 56% of Boston is white.

Today's crowd was -- as it was at the Palin rally in Minneapolis -- exclusively white. That doesn't make the tea party racist -- an accusation that precludes a scholarly discussion -- but it does indicate that the tea party doesn't resonate with non-whites (and/or that it's not as popular in Boston as the Red Sox).

What does this mean for the movement? Why doesn't it resonate across race? And can it be a national party without creating -- or at least, illuminating -- a racial divide?

By the way, this sign at the rally should get some attention:

For more on the tea party, listen to today's MPR Midday, which featured an analysis of the tea party movement.

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Edith Morgan's history lesson

Posted at 1:44 PM on March 31, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Race, War

Edith Lichtenstein Morgan picked a good time to return to Minnesota. The Massachusetts woman is in the state this week to talk about her experience escaping from the Nazis and emigrating to the United States, drawing parallels with today's immigrants. She's on her way to St. Cloud this afternoon, a city that -- for whatever reason -- is gaining a reputation for intolerance.

"I get concerned when there's talk about rounding up people and when there's talk about any kind of war... but I think a lot of the American public is concerned when the subject is immigration. We almost didn't get in because the country had very strict quotas, and the Jewish quota was filled when we tried to get," she told me today. "The public goes hysterical whenever anything happens and looks for some group to blame, and I think we're approaching another one of those hysterical periods."

Which group will it be? "It looks like it's going to be Muslims or Middle Eastern groups, Syrians and Egyptians and Pakistanis. Most Americans, I don't think, can tell the difference," she said.

The recent problems in St. Cloud are not limited to that city or Minnesota, she points out. "In Massachusetts we've had several recent cases of desecration of synagogues and I'm not always sure whether it's just a bunch of (kids) looking for attention or whether it's skinheads or something worse, although it doesn't get much worse than them," she said. "I'm concerned about the militias and what appears to be a growing violence that has been sort of generalized but is probably going to focus in the near future unless we can do something to stop it."

Mrs. Morgan's "something" is telling her story, to draw a parallel between history and current events.

"My father was a federal judge and Jewish, which was a double-whammy because he was also progressive," she said. "They fought the Nazis every way they could but by January 1933, they put my father under house arrest and when he wouldn't stay home, they imprisoned him. When my brother was born, they allowed him out for just a few days, but we took a train to the Black Forest, but got off on the Swiss border. But we couldn't stay there. We were resettled in Paris, lived there for three years before the Germans followed us there. We got mixed in with the retreating French army. Finally, the armistice was declared and a small slice of France was left free, but it was only a matter of time before they got us so we had to leave there. They got my grandmother, and they got my mother's sister; my grandmother died in a cattle car."

Her family eventually made it to the U.S., thanks to a Swiss family "who gave us their life savings," and American Quakers, who sent the Lichtensteins to the Scattergood Hostel near Iowa City. Her father found work at Macalester College in St. Paul.

Only recently has Edith Lichtenstein Morgan started telling her story. "I'm not sure why," she said. "I married a Midwest American and it didn't come up that much. I probably wasn't ready to deal with a lot of that stuff so I didn't talk about it that much."

Her tour through Minnesota this week is sponsored by the TRACES Center for History and Culture, which "gathers, preserves and presents stories of Midwesterners' encounters with Germans or Austrians between 1933 and 1948. Out of that legacy, it documents the effects of hatred and war, and explores alternatives to intolerance and armed conflict. Above all, it offers educational outreach."

Edith Lichtenstein Morgan will be a guest on MPR's Morning Edition on Friday.

More:

· The reason for her visit. (Listen)

· Her path from Nazi Germany (Listen)

· Why she's telling her story. (Listen)

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The state of black America

Posted at 12:01 PM on January 12, 2010 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Race

There's been a big upswing in how black America sees their prospects. A Pew Research survey of blacks finds only 39 percent of those surveyed think the "situation" of black people is better than it was five years ago. But that's almost twice what it was in 2007. It's an interesting response given that the black unemployment rate in America is 16.2 percent.

More than half, however, think the future will be better.

A majority of blacks (54%) also report that Obama's barrier-breaking election has improved race relations in America; just 7% say it has made race relations worse. Whites, too, see progress on this front, though by much smaller margins. A plurality of whites (45%) say Obama's election has made no difference to race relations, while about a third (32%) say it has made things better and 15% say it has made race relations worse.

The rest of the survey shows the deep racial divide in the country when it comes to evaluating life in America. For example, 43% of blacks say there's a lot of discrimination against blacks. That's about the same as the response in 2001, the survey says. Among whites surveyed, however, only 13% believe there's a lot of discrimination against blacks, a significant drop since 2001.

Eighty percent of blacks say the country needs to make changes to ensure equal rights. But only a third of whites agree.

One significant shift in responses from blacks is worth noting, however. More than half of those surveyed say blacks who cannot get ahead in this country are mainly responsible for their own situation. Fifteen years ago, most surveyed said if blacks can't get ahead, it's because of discrimination.

Here's the full report.

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An affirmative action deception?

Posted at 9:24 AM on January 9, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Race, Sports

The Seattle Seahawks are going to hire Pete Carroll -- a white guy -- to be their new coach, ESPN is reporting this morning, but the real story might well be how a rule to increase the number of African Americans in the NFL coaching ranks has trivialized some of them in the process.

The rule -- known as the Rooney Rule -- has resulted in more African American coaches by requiring teams to interview African Americans when a coaching vacancy occurs. True, the rule has resulted in more black coaches, but how'd you like to be put in the position Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Lesley Frazier is in? In the rush to hire Carroll, the Seahawks have pressured Frazier to be the required black interviewee.

What's wrong with that? Here's the "money paragraph" in the ESPN story that says Carrol and the Seahawks have agreed to a deal:

The hangup could be locating a candidate to interview that would put the Seahawks in compliance with the rule, which requires teams to interview a minority candidate for head-coaching hires.

That's not the way the rule is supposed to work. Teams aren't supposed to go looking for a black coaching candidate just to say they looked for one, they're actually supposed to consider their qualifications for the job.

That's not happening in this case. ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting today that Frazier, an African American, is being wooed by the Seahawks, to be the show horse in the scheme.

Schefter says Frazier has agreed to the interview this morning.

"I hope when they bring in a minority candidate they legitimately are looking at that candidate as a potential head coach as opposed to satisfying the Rooney Rule," Frazier told the Pioneer Press' Bob Sansevere this week. "I'm hoping that's the case, that they are legitimately believing that this guy has a chance. "

If Schefter's report is correct, Frazier doesn't.

"Thank God for the Rooney Rule," ESPN's Bill Simmons tweeted this morning. "Otherwise Leslie Frazier never woulda had a chance to not have a chance at the Seahawks job."

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When does race matter?

Posted at 1:50 PM on December 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Race

The symbolism of the most powerful TV personality in America -- an African American -- interviewing the First Family -- African Americans -- was not lost on The Nation's Melissa Harris-Lacewell, who suggests it's time for a black Santa:

Black Santa will not cure the fundamental inequalities that shape the lives of black children and poor children of all races. He does not bring justice in his sleigh. Still, racism's assault on black life is not just substantive and economic; it is also symbolic and psychological. Navigating the symbols of whiteness during Christmas always make the holidays a little harder for many of us.

As I watched Oprah Winfrey chat with the Obamas in the beautifully decorated White House, I felt like this holiday season was a little brighter in a darker hue.

In Tallahassee over the weekend, Soul Santa gave kids in the community someone they can relate to, according to organizers.

"We wanted to make sure the kids in this community could identify with a Santa," said LeVerne Payne, one of the founders and original organizer of the event. "Some of these kids don't get the chance to go the mall and see Santa."

When does racial symbolism matter?

While reading Harris-Lacewell's essay, I was watching White House spokesman Robert Gibbs' daily briefing and was struck by the hue of the White House press corps.

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Wangster Day exposes some racial divisions in Red Wing

Posted at 12:06 PM on October 20, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Race, Schools

Every now and again -- too often, actually -- we get an entry for the "what were they thinking?" file.

Students at Red Wing High School provided a recent entry when they held an unsanctioned activity during homecoming week -- Wangster Day. "Students dressed as gansters and rappers in a way that some students felt mocked black students and emphasized racial stereotypes," the Rochester Post Bulletin reports.

Two weeks ago, African American parents asked the school board to send messages home to parents noting the district's policy against events such as "Wangster Day."

Last night the board declined to take that action. "We have faith in our young people," Red Wing Superintendent Stan Slessor said.

Some students have formed a group called Togetherness and Awareness Makes Greatness or TAG, which will tackle racial issues at the school. The school's senior class president says a diversity club at the school failed in its job before falling apart a few years ago.

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A descendant of slavery, in a House it helped build

Posted at 10:11 AM on October 8, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (0 Comments)
Filed under: Race

Perhaps because it wasn't much of a shock, or because Michelle Obama herself hadn't made any public effort to shed light on her distant past, but the revelation that Mrs. Obama is descendant of African-American slaves comes as a simple underscore to the history of a nation that has struggled to deal with race issues.

If there was a surprise after genealogist Megan Smolenyak and The New York Times examined the records and determined Mrs. Obama's ancestry, it was that Obama's great-great-great-grandfather was white; he fathered a child with enslaved and illiterate Melvinia Shields.

In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs was a 6-year-old slave girl valued soon afterward at $475.

In his will, she is described simply as the "negro girl Melvinia." After his death, she was torn away from the people and places she knew and shipped to Georgia. While she was still a teenager, a white man would father her first-born son under circumstances lost in the passage of time.

As complex a path as Michelle Obama's to the White House may be, the story resonates with a little bit of that "yea, well..." feeling. That feeling where you're not quite sure what something means, and you're already late for your 10:30 meeting.

That Michelle Obama now lives in the White House — a house that slaves helped build — is surely a sign of progress in American society. That, before her husband became president, eight presidents owned slaves while in office leaves a sour tinge on the praise we casually heap on the country's forefathers.

While President Obama's biracial background has drawn considerable attention, his wife's pedigree, which includes American Indian strands, highlights the complicated history of racial intermingling, sometimes born of violence or coercion, that lingers in the bloodlines of many African-Americans.

Admittedly, my background as a young, white male from Minnesota limits my ability to put this in proper context. Does this mean anything to you, dear readers? Is this one more step towards a realized, post-racial society, or just fodder for presidential trivia?

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Senate to slave descendants: 'Sorry'

Posted at 11:29 AM on June 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Race

The U.S. Senate today passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and racial segregation. It now goes to the House.

Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin first introduced the measure years ago. Today he suggested, however, that it passed in light-year speed, by Senate time-keeping standards. "Let's face it, it's more meaningful to those who fought discrimination for years, many of them still alive today," Harkin said. "I mean we didn't really end segregation in this country until 1964, the Civil Rights Act."

Republican Sam Brownback of Kansas co-sponsored the resolution but it took more than a year of negotiations to agree on the language.

A film released last year suggests the reckoning should involve more than just the Senate...

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Live-blogging: The future of affirmative action

Posted at 8:51 AM on March 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Race

MPR's Midmorning is debating whether there's still a need for affirmative action. Guests in the 9 a.m. hour are Mary Frances Berry of the University of Pennsylvania and former chairperson of the Commission on Civil Rights; and John McWhorter, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and author of "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America."

Live-blogging:

Kerri says the show stems from an appearance on the show by Gwen Ifill. She says the phones lit up when the subject of affirmative action came up so her staff knew they had to do an entire show on it.

9:09 a.m. - Berry says people have always referred to affirmative action as a quota to hire unqualified people and that's incorrect. She says it's clearly needed now. She says until the country comes up with something better, "we have to keep trying."

9:12 a.m. - McWhorter says a "very white person" has had it hard too. He says he witnessed a transition from race-based factors in universities where people would "automatically get affirmative action. You get it whether you want it or not." Basing it on skin color -- as opposed to, say, socio economic inequity -- in appropriate. (His article on the subject)

9:15 a.m. - "Nothing you've said is anything I think," Berry said. She says universities only "affirm." She says she's had many white people who don't do well on standardized tests who she's recommended. "It's about our country and our demography and who we include and what we think will be the future of our country." She says she looks at the "whole person."

9:20 a.m. - McWhorter: "People with brown skin are admitted with lower test scores".
Berry: "I don't know anywhere where that happens."

9:21 a.m. - Caller: Many people benefit who are white. She's a college instructor who says her class benefits. McWhorter says he sees "just as much diversity from the white Catholic who's 7 feet tall, from Chinese...."

9:22 a.m. - Online commenter says admission policies should be "class based." McWhorter agrees. Berry says most universities do admit people based on trying to get the working class and poor "a free ride." She does not think people who are poor should be admitted if the school isn't looking at "the whole person."

9:26 a.m. -- Kerri references the link I'd already provided above. McWhorter says he never met someone who scored well on an SAT 'who wasn't a great student.' Berry says she had one who flunked out in the first year.

9:28 a.m. - Berry explains her comment above. What she meant was that people are not admitted simply because they were black or Latino. McWhorter says he's seen that happen. "Outrageous," said Berry. First time today they've agreed on something.

Tangent time: California's ban on affirmative action under court scrutiny.

9:32 a.m. - A student at William Mitchell School of law calls to tell Berry about two cases before the Supreme Court (aside: Students, you might want to just bring up these cases for clarification, instead of trying to 'school' lawyers who live these things and probably have more intimate knowledge of the cases.).

9:36 a.m. - Pressed on whether policies of 'race only" is the consideration, McWhorter concedes "not only." But "they're trying to make 'race neutral' policies tip toward race," he said.

"In none of those California or Georgia cases did people say all they wanted to do is look at race, that's just academically irresponsible," Berry says. "You're making it sound like they're saying, 'oh, black people, let's put them in this pile.'"

"Nobody's saying that," McWhorter replied.

9:39 a.m. - "In the age of Obama, his being elected to the presidency does not resolve these issues," says Berry. "We still have all these propositions around the country... trying to get rid of affirmative action.

Tangent time: Life after affirmative action, Nebraska is trying to figure it out.

9:42 a.m. - If you're listening live, you're hearing references to Richard Sanders. Here's what they're talking about

9:43 a.m. - "Cosby" cited as an example of African American middle class. An attorney married to a doctor. That's usually not middle class in any race.

Debate over whether there should be more people of color on TV news. Berry says, "John, do you think that there are more people of color who are well educated who can read the news?" McWhorter says "yes."

This is an area where there is a lot of concern in journalism circles, that as the industry continues to die, it's taking out gains made by affirmative action first.

9:48 a.m. - Does MnDOT stiff minority-owned contractors? A caller says so and Berry says that's been the case in the construction industry for quite awhile.

"If there's evidence of discrimination in the contracting in Minnesota, then, yeah, you have to have some kind of program," McWhorter says.

9:50 a.m. - Mark from Woodbury calls to relay personal story. When he was an ungrad in Boston, he applied to several grad schools. He got a phone call from professor at U of Washington who said he could apply for many grants, and realized they were "Hispanic grants." Looking at his file later, he said he realized he was only accepted at the school because they thought he was Hispanic. He says he believes in affirmative action "when it's done right."

Berry says affirmative action is illegal in the state of Washington by referendum.

9:54 a.m. - McWhorter and Berry both say Obama probably won't make any statements above affirmative action. "He's a politician, he wants to be popular, and he wants to get re-elected," Berry says.

She says the images of he and his family has moved the discussion into an undesirable area of people thinking "we're done and we don't have to do any more."

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