Writing an article about being white in Philadelphia got liberal Robert Huber into trouble.
When your article inspires a big-city mayor to refer your case to a human-relations commission you know youve hit a nerve. And when that article is the recent Being White in Philly piece by liberal Robert Huber you know it doesnt take much truth to hit that nerve.
Thats the scary part. Hubers article contains mostly tepid examples of whites negative experiences with blacks and primarily black neighborhoods such as a Philadelphia resident whose grill was stolen from her backyard but blames herself for not fencing it in. Its tone is basically apologetic absolving a drug dealer of responsibility because he was just trying to get by and describing the US racial history as horrible and daunting. Yet this wasnt good enough for Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter and his comrades. They still want Huber silenced.
Oh they wont get what they want...at least not exactly and not yet. But nonetheless writes Philly.com In a scathing letter Mayor Nutter last week requested that the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission consider whether the magazine and Huber deserved to be rebuked for the article. Why is this significant? Well when we hear about Englishmen Canadians Australians Swedes or other Westerners being imprisoned or fined for criticizing Islam or homosexuality yes this does happen guess what the instruments of their oppression are.
Human-relations commissions.
Of course theyre usually called human-rights commissions and the entities that actually judge those charged with hate speech are called tribunals. And they have proliferated in the West. You can bet your state has one and your county may too. But no you wont be silenced by them at least not exactly and not yet. We have that pesky thing called the First Amendment (for now).
But Huber certainly was rebuked. In a Monday panel discussion moderated by the editor of his Philadelphia Magazine Tom McGrath he was criticized by what appear to be promising future human-rights-tribunal judges. Fellow journalist Solomon Jones scored the publication for having a history of racial insensitivity while Peoples Emergency Center president Farah Jimenez said that the magazine which has an all-white editorial staff was not the right messenger for a story encouraging racial dialogue writes Philly.com. I wonder does anyone ever say that the all-black NAACP or Congressional Black Caucus is the wrong agent of racial dialogue? Hubers goal was to bring white peoples feelings and beliefs on race to light and for this white people may be the ideal messengers.
Critics at the discussion even questioned whether the individuals cited only by first name (or pseudonym) in the article were real. I suppose they wanted full names addresses and telephone numbers which surely would have encouraged honesty in racial dialogue. But when whites are portrayed in history as slave owners and oppressors or when blacks charge discrimination today do the powers-that-be question whether the stories are true? Why there wasnt even the necessary skepticism in the Duke Lacrosse rape frame-up case. Of course though why even ask? White privilege ensures that whites never ever have bad experiences with black people.
Not surprisingly the magazine and its defenders responded to the lynch mob with deference. McGrath opened the discussion with an apology and journalist Christopher Norris said writes Philly.com that he understood the outrage over the article but simply viewed the piece as the work of an older white man writing about his experience. Yes and Nutters actions are simply the outrage of an older black man airing his complaints. Jimenez comments are simply a middle-aged Hispanic woman expressing her feelings. How did that sound? Should we try to discover truth or just dismiss messengers based on race?
Having said all this Huber gets no sympathy from me. He says in his piece that white people are stuck being dishonest by default on race and that we need to bridge the conversational divide so that there are no longer two private dialogues in Philadelphia white people talking to other whites and black people to blacks but a city in which it is okay to speak openly about race. Yet his expressed desire for open conversation rings hollow. When John Derbyshire was fired from National Review for speaking openly about race or Rush Limbaugh lost his position as an NFL commentator for saying far less did Huber defend them? Did he even defend their comments as part of that initiation of racial dialogue? I suspect that he was happy to see a political opponent twist in the wind. But if Huber now wants to have that conversation on race okay lets have it.
At the beginning of his piece Huber speaks of a young woman he calls Susan and writes:
She lost her BlackBerry in a biology lab at Villanova and Facebooked all the class members she could find wondering if you happened to pick it up or know who did. No one had it. There was one black student in the class whom Ill call Carol who responded: Why would I just happen to pick up a BlackBerry and if this is a personal message Im offended!
Huber explains that Carol assumed Susan targeted her because she was black and for a long time thereafter gave Susan the cold shoulder. Here is what Huber didnt have the guts to say: such paranoia is the result anti-white bigotry. Its just as when a person is irretrievably biased against someone in his personal life and then sees the individual through colored glasses. Every innocent misstep is then interpreted as a malicious act: Why thats just the kind of thing he would do! is the thinking. With whites theyre always racist because thats just the way they are.
And this has consequences. Its easy to justify hatred of and discrimination against people whom you believe are inherently biased against you and whites suffer as a result of this phenomenon all the time. Oh Huber wont talk about this and it is why if you want the truth forget his article. Read the comments under it. For while the anonymity of the Internet enables some ugly talk it also encourages expression of some ugly truths.
Just about a year ago I investigated a racially motivated fire attack on a 13-year-old Missouri boy named Allen Coon who was one of fewer than 20 white children attending East High school in Kansas City. During the course of extensive interviews with parents and students I learned that Coon and other white children had been subjected to severe racial harassment not just by classmates but also teachers. One teacher called the tow-headed Allen Casper and encouraged other students to participate in the teasing; other times students would initiate the harassment and the teachers would chime in. I also spoke with two sisters ex-Texans who were verbally attacked in front of their class by a teacher who said Everybody from Texas is ignorant rednecks and that all white people were responsible for a 1998 attack upon a black man in Jasper TX (the James Byrd killing) because their skin is white.
And similar ugly truths are revealed in Being White in Phillys comments section. Theres the white poster who said that in fifth grade in his primarily black school the teacher would purposely ask him questions too difficult for his grade level and then when he couldnt answer make him stand in front of the class wearing a sign reading White Dunce. And here are a few other examples (edited for punctuation and grammar) with respondents identified by screen name:
White kid in blackgradeschool
I was targeted daily throughout my childhood because of my race that was made explicitly clear (verbally). Even teachers in my school were unsympathetic and would look the other way. And the manner in which race was spoken about in an all black school really inflamed students to the point where everything done to me was completely justified in their minds because as a white person I was finally getting mine and some of the teachers I know felt that way too.
Under the bus
I couldnt open my mouth in class without half of the kids shouting Shut-up white boy or many similar things. ... The majority of my teachers just looked the other way and many though not all black teachers seemed to support it.
SaraEdward45
The demographics at my daughters school suddenly changed one year with black children becoming the majority and she became a target.
Xena
I attended a small elementary school in Georgia. ...I was bullied daily by black kids. Several loudly expressed that they hated white kids yet could not articulate WHY.
JenB
There was the black librarian who joined in with the black students bullying. I had never experienced a teacher who was openly hostile to the white students. ...I had to sit there surrounded by the librarians favorite black bullies while she bullied as well.
Of course well now be told that these testimonials are invalid because well you know these might not even be real people. Its always nice to have full names so that those who dare speak truth can be scorned ostracized condemned and fired from employment. As SaraEdward45 put it No one wants to air these problems out loud because you are automatically labeled as a racist and your experience is invalidated leaving you to feel bullied once more.
But hey its great that were having this conversation.