By Boyce Watkins, PhD
After I did a CNN appearance last night on the “negro dialect” remarks made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, some of my “gazillion” friends on Facebook were asking me if I thought that Reid was a racist. To their surprise, my answer was “I’m not sure and probably not.” While it’s easy to call Harry Reid a racist after stating that he also thought Obama could win the election due to his “light skin,” the truth is that there is more to the story if we think about it:
1) Harry Reid’s words are no different from what Hillary Clinton or most other white liberals might say. During the 2008 presidential election, Hillary used Obama’s race against him in a multitude of contexts, like trying to associate him with “bad black people” like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Minister Louis Farrakhan. We also remember when Hillary’s husband Bill went to South Carolina and compared Obama’s chances of winning to Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Presidential campaign- effectively arguing that America is not ready for a black president. What this effectively says is that being “too black” is not acceptable in American politics. So, to call Harry Reid a racist for his remarks about Obama means that we are calling half of Capitol Hill racist as well. What is most unfortunate is that this statement might have some truth to it, since we live in a racist society.
2) America still sticks with “acceptable forms of blackness”: People sometimes forget what diversity actually means. In many predominantly white organizations, diversity means having black faces pursuing the same agenda as everyone else. That’s not real diversity. The diversity of ideas and perspectives is the kind of heterogeneity that really makes America its best. I would not call Harry Reid a racist for saying that America wouldn’t vote for a dark black man who speaks “negro dialect.” Rather, I would call Harry Reid a racist for not helping our nation to find avenues for the broader acceptance of those with diverse backgrounds. For every Harvard Professor I meet who speaks proper English, I meet an even more intelligent brother from “the hood” who communicates in an entirely different way. Harry Reid and others should learn to understand that intelligence doesn’t just come in the form of “caucasian dialect.”
3) Rather than simply calling Harry Reid a racist, our nation needs to talk about it: When I spoke to a representative in the Obama Administration about having a national conversation on race, the man ran away like a broke baby daddy receiving child support papers. The truth is that during black history month, we have an obligation to our nation to have that difficult conversation on race that is going to lead us to understand our biases, fears, and potential as a nation. America will only be great when we truly learn to love one another. Harry Reid should not be the focal point of this conversation.
