The Incident

Michael B. Willis
from Charlie K. Complex Awakens from a Long Nap…

Humiliated, that’s the word that best defines how I felt sitting there covered with raw eggs on my face, in my hair and all over my work clothes, with their single word echoing in my head like it was some sort of mantra: “nigger!” How can one single six-letter word wield so much power, contempt and cause so much pain? Words can create dichotomies. Express enigmas. So it is our words that condemn us, revealing our true nature. I was sixteen years of age, trying to earn a living working at Church’s Chicken in Cicero, Illinois. Monday through Friday, I rode three buses for two hours to work and home. I had made the choice of working instead of attending school so that I could avoid living in foster homes.

After being beaten while tied to a steel beam in the basement numerous times, having my head scalded with boiling hot water, and escaping molestation on several occasions, I was unwilling to endure any further parental supervision. I did what I felt was necessary for my well being. I sold marijuana, valiums (Roche twos, fives, and tens) and I paid a fine looking woman named Nature to pay my rent. I’d give her $50.00 every month and smoke weed with her and she’d be content. I worked hard every day, so much so, that one night I dreamt that it was raining drumsticks.

On this particular night as I sat awaiting my bus’ arrival (it wasn’t due for another twenty-one minutes) I noticed the beige and white station wagon as it began to decelerate the closer it got to my bus stop. The windows on both sides were rolled down and four bodies balanced themselves like acrobats out of them as I was greeted with their loathing and a barrage of eggs. It seemed that none of them managed to miss me. I sat there dumbfounded, awaiting my bus’s arrival. (I still find that I am unable to fathom why they felt that I warranted this treatment.)

So, what was the origin of their feelings of hatred towards me? I didn’t know them, nor did they know me. I have given this a considerable amount of thought. Believe me. Should I hate them? Seek revenge? No. Why should I assassinate my character and integrity at someone else’s expense?

Then another thought came to me. Maybe they didn’t truly understand why they hated me either. Possibly they were the unfortunate victims of their parents’ indoctrination—scary thought.

Finally, the bus arrived. As I got on the bus everyone grew silent, all eyes were upon me. My legs were rooted and I was numb. Adorned in my new wardrobe of eggshells and egg-yolks, for the record, I was not trying to make a fashion statement. At this moment, I realized that the only two blacks on this bus were myself and the bus driver. I averted my eyes and discovered that the long seat in the rear of the bus was vacant. As I headed towards my seat, I could feel their eyes upon me, and hear the buzz of their whispers. Once there, I seated myself and stared blackly out the window into the night. Since this time, I have become consciously aware of the sad reality that our world has become more populated by its biases than its empathy.

Gregory Lynn Sanders

The Problem of the 20th Century Is the Color Line: Why I Agree

In The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. Dubois, the author relates a story about children who were giving visiting cards to each other. He told of everything going fine until one of the children refused a card. Dubois awoke to the fact that he was different, and “shut out from their world by a vast veil,” separating the two worlds. He goes on to say that all the opportunities to join their world were lost upon the “sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation,” and of being locked in a prison whose walls were straight, tall, and unscaleable, similar to an imaginary line in a prison yard that prisoners do not cross. Scaling the wall or crossing the line resulted in severe, quick, and unbelievably brutal punishment. Dubois said that this was the problem of the Twentieth Century, the problem of the color line, a line that stopped black and other non-white skinned people from getting an even break from the social, political, and economic powers, controlled by whites. Like the “Manifest Destiny” theory used in the 1840’s during the rush to expand into the western section of America, the Americans believed, even as they had from the first settlements of America, in the superiority of the white culture, giving racial arrogance a continued foothold on non-Anglo Saxons, and furthering the ever present, ongoing, demeaning treatment of persons of the color line.

But this still doesn’t get to the root of the problem of the color line, which was even recognized by other authors in their articles, not just by Dubois. Gunar Myrdal noted that even as late as the time of his writings, “The Negro in America has not yet been given the elemental civil and political rights of formal democracy, including a fair opportunity to earn his living” (An American Dilemma). Myrdal also said, “The disparity of national origin… and culture, has been closely correlated with income differences.” Dubois also has a friend in Howard Zinn, who noted in his book that the problem of the color line is still with us. Zinn states that slavery is what led to the racial feelings of hatred, contempt, pity, and patronization that combined to cause the status the black man has been relegated to. These familiar feelings were recognized by SNCC when they stated that blacks were looked at as evil and savage, and are descended from savages, while whites are portrayed as good (Takin’ It to the Streets).

But racism is by far the most damning, as noted by Dubois. He implied that race-prejudice (and slavery) were the main causes of the black dilemma, the color line that he refers to. Throughout the history of the United States, and still harbored within the society predominantly, are feelings of racism. Different African American leaders of their times tried many ways to fight racism for the chance at equality and prosperity. Booker T. Washington urged caution and restraint by whites when during an era of reform, African Americans were facing disenfranchisement by poll taxes and literacy tests. This cost a lot of poor white voters their votes, so the “Grandfather Clause,” a legal device that allowed blacks to vote only if their grandparents had voted, was implemented. This gave the vote back to the whites, excluding all the blacks. Others fought throughout the Twentieth Century to break the color line. In 1909, the NAACP was formed to provide avenues for legally fighting for social and political rights for African Americans. Marcus Garvey formed the UNIA in 1917 to help African Americans gain economic and political independence outside of white society, and along these lines, as late as 1966, the Black Panthers wanted a black society “free from white influence or interference” (Takin’ It to the Streets).

But where did racism and the color line begin, and how did it manage to proliferate into the concern that Dubois spoke of? The first record of blacks arriving in US history was in Virginia in 1619. To the colonists, black skin connoted words like “soiled, dirty… horrible, wicked,” while white skin connoted “purity, beauty, and goodness.” But it was about 1860 that racism reared its ugly head when white settlers started referring to themselves as white. As time progressed, harsh, brutal treatment of the Negro, the African American, the Black, was based on the dehumanizing of this person, and asserting white supremacy.

American White Anglo-Saxon society just could not swallow the idea that a black man could be their equal, and took steps to make sure that equality just didn’t happen. As early as 1740 laws were passed that punished, by death, any act of rebellion Negro slaves committed or any act against a white person that resulted in grievous wounds, bruises, or maiming, without benefit of trial. After Emancipation, Jim Crow laws reminded the blacks of their second-class citizenship everywhere. Blacks had no problem finding where to go, they just had to follow the signs. “Whites only,” or “Colored” was reinforced by an 1896 court case Plessy vs. Ferguson, which was the linchpin. While further asserting white supremacy, it was this ruling that led to the legalized racism in education, parks, libraries, restaurants, and bathrooms. But the Jim Crow laws also fueled further racism by sensationalizing black crime, leading to lynching and anti-black riots. Derogatory humiliation, economics, and segregated education led blacks to migrate to where they thought they would be able to get an even break, but racism and discriminatory laws soon followed.

But help had been assisting the black begin his climb to social, civil, and economic equality for some time. The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, which provided for the abolishment of slavery, due process, equal protection, equal rights, and allowing black men to vote, were a start. The Atlantic Exposition in 1895 showcased a New South that emphasized more harmonious black and white relations. But for every gain, there was racism turning back what was gained. The Grandfather Clause of 1895-1910 disenfranchised the blacks, offsetting many gains. I.Q. tests given to inductees of the Armed Forces in 1917 showed then that a vast majority of blacks were illiterate due to failures (or more plainly, refusals) to provide funds for black education. Restrictive Housing Covenants in 1918 restricted blacks from renting and buying in non-segregated neighborhoods. Individuals such as Marion Anderson were shunted aside because of racism. But blacks prevailed by refusing to give into it.

When Dubois said there was a problem with the color line, he probably didn’t realize that others recognized it too, and that it would galvanize many to action against racism. Myrdal’s very honest observation that blacks didn’t enjoy the same rights as whites because whites were normally lagging in accepting blacks; or SNCC’s non-violent actions to publicly show the moral lag, and whites’ true reactions via their violence towards blacks; or even Marcus Garvey’s back to Africa movement because of lack of trust, rely only on “ourselves” type thinking; all of this is what would help continue the attempts to defeat the color line.

Racism is slowly dying out, but still rears its ugly head now and then. In 2003, 100 years after Dubois’ observant statement, four white men, one a deputy sheriff, attacked a mentally disturbed black. He had been invited to a party, not realizing he was going to be the entertainment. After being forced to dance a jig to a song, and called funny names, he was beaten unconscious, taken out and then thrown into a ditch. The sad thing about this was that the Mayor of the town the incident happened in said to the reporters that “The black boy was somewhere he shouldn’t have been.” Even sadder, the longest of the four sentences was 60 days in jail for actions against a man that resulted in his being damaged and needing a nursing home for the rest of his life, only because he was black. In 1998, another black man in Texas had been chained to the back of a pickup by three white men and dragged to death. Earlier this month, Don Imus called the Rutger girls basketball team members “nappy headed hoes.” So what does it all mean? In 387 years, we still have a problem with the color line. Yes, I certainly do agree with Dubois’ statement of a problem with the color line in the Twentieth Century. But I would also say that by looking at the early history of the United States, on through and past the Twentieth Century, and from observing white society’s treatment of black Americans during this period, I would bet that Dubois would write that the color line is also a problem in the Twenty-First Century.