Re: denny's

[Katha Pollitt <kpollitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Woytek,

  So if racism doesn't exist, how do you explain the fact that blacks
are disproportionately poor? are steered away from housing in all-white
neighborhoods even if they can afford the payments?  Are treated
insultingly by many white workers in places of public accomodation, like
denny's? How come white people move away when blacks do move in? How
come interracial couples are attacked on street-- and interracial sex is
still a media taboo? How come white parents pull their kids out of
public schools when the schools become integrated? How come the South is
full of all-white "christian academies" that sprung up exactly when and
where schols integration took place?
  Do you think blacks choose this social position? Are genetically
destined for it? Deserve it?
   Economics just doesn't tell the whole story. Lots of blacks aren't
poor, but they are still discriminated against. There are NYC private
schools that are still basically all-white. They use their scholarship
money (since these schools cost say 10-15,000 a year you can have a
pretty good income but still need help with tuition) to help struggling
white people, not blacks. ACORN sent black and white testers to  get
applications to gifted and talented programs in Brooklyn and found that
white parents were warmly received and given all the info they needed
,and black parents got the run around. My daughter went to a G and T
program in manhattan -- the "hotter" it got (more popular and
celebrated) the fewer American blacks were accepted.  It went from
majority black to maybe 20 percent black in about ten years. And this
school was in a heavily black district. simple rule of thumb: the more
white people want something, the fewer black people get it.
    In a recent issue of Race and Poverty, there's was an article
discussing different treatment of white and black women on welfare. Even
under the new system,Caseworkers have some latitude.  Turns out, white
women were vastly disproportionately the beneficiaries of this
latitute.  for instance, they were more likely to be allowed to turn
down a job because it required night hours. and they often got, and
blacks never got, help with transportation.
  You say racism is "just" a psychological phenomenon, not a structural
one.  This is what a lot of white people think -- that racism is about
not "liking" black people as individuals or considering them inferior.
And partly it is. But it's a also about the way US society is
structured  -- and white people famously do not wish to see this.

  I guess another way to ask the question is, what kind of evidence
would persuade you that racism is an important factor in American life?

Katha