Respectful Dialogue Is the Best Tool for Eliminating Racial Inequities

Posted November 3, 2017

The great pioneers of racial justice succeeded, not by seeking to build walls, but by reaching across racial barriers.

In 1993 a racist white South African, bent on undoing an emerging consensus for ending apartheid, assassinated Chris Hani, an African National Congress leader. Then South African President De Klerk asked Nelson Mandela to address a nation on the brink of chaos. Mandela, who had been imprisoned for more than three decades, rose to the occasion:

“Tonight, I am reaching out to every single South African, black and white, from the very depths of my being. A white man, full of prejudice and hate, committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster. A white woman, of Afrikaner origin, risked her life so that we may know and bring to justice this assassin. The cold-blooded murder of Chris Hani has sent shockwaves throughout the country and the world. Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who from any quarter wish to destroy what Chris gave his life for — the freedom of all of us.”

This was an act of extraordinary grace. And it worked. Some of today’s advocates for needed change may want to reflect on whether Mandela’s example represents a better way.

  1. Consider this story from last Saturday’s Globe and Mail, reporting on a leg of the arctic voyage that is supposed to encourage reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

    One was PEI-born two-time Olympic gold medalist Heather Moyse. She said: “I have been very, very lucky to represent Canada — and that means representing you — in two Olympic Games… I just want you to know you can come from a very small place and do very big things.”

    Several people found Moyse’s statement to be evidence of white privilege, which led Ms. Moyse to say she was being accused of racism.

    The government had shipped up a gift of hockey sticks. One of the participants commented: “Yeah, but what’s the intention? Like the colonialists giving them blankets, which gave them smallpox?”

    By the next afternoon on the ship, Moyse had reportedly been in tears; several other Southerners had taken an unofficial vow of listening silence.

  2. On October 19th a performer at the Halifax Pop Explosion asked people who were white near the front of the stage to give up their places in favour of people of colour. Some were reluctant to comply; one of them, who was an event volunteer, refused to do so. She was eventually removed from her place.

    The organizers apologized, to the singer, saying: “We are sorry that one of our volunteers interrupted your art, your show, and your audience by being aggressive and racist.”

    The performer’s action can perhaps be excused as a political choice. The one-sided apology by the organizers is hard to understand.

  3. At Dalhousie, student union vice-president Masuma Khan issued a profanity-laced posting that targeted white people. “White fragility can kiss my ass” is not the most vulgar example.

    The university initially concluded that her post should be referred to the Senate as a possible violation of the student code of conduct which says, in part, “No student shall engage in unwelcome or persistent conduct that the student knows, or ought to reasonably know, would cause another person to feel demeaned, intimidated or harassed.”

    It then became argued that the policy unreasonably limited freedom of speech, so the charge was dropped.

    In other words, the policy is being changed to accommodate the behavior as opposed to the other way around. Perhaps that is appropriate, but one might reasonably wonder whether the outcome would have been the same had the words been the same but the skin colours reversed.

What these stories have in common is the implication that anyone who is white owns personal responsibility for disadvantages experienced today by Indigenous and African-Canadian citizens.

In these narratives all whites today are to be viewed as the same, be they descendants of early settlers, recent economic immigrants, or refugees.

It is useful to talk honestly about persisting inequities, and how to make for a better future. It is neither accurate nor helpful to start a discussion with an accusation of guilt for the past by today’s white participants. None of them is likely to have been the source of historic grievances such as residential schools or the flattening of Africville. Many of them actively support progressive initiatives.

Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham City Jail made a powerful case for change. Addressed to a group of white clergy, it contained no vulgarities or words of personal condemnation. Rather it sought, in exquisitely polite terms, to identify common values around which justice could be achieved. It was a turning point in the struggle to eliminate segregation.

King and Mandela asked people of all races to unite behind worthy values—freedom, justice, respect.

Neither South Africa, nor Alabama, nor Canada is a perfect model today. But they are better than they were.

King called for a nation where people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. He was arguing then for justice for African-Americans.

The same sentiment should inform both sides participating in today’s dialogues about improving the future for Indigenous and African-Canadian citizens. Doesn’t that represent the best prospect for positive change?

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  • Harold, it is OK to vigorously disagree with Masuma or anyone else says. But there is no need to be personally abusive. Doing so undermines the very point you are trying to make.

    Bill B

    Bill | November 6, 2017

  • Your son Andrew suggested I email you after I commented on your column via Twitter. In response, I referenced, as you did, Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, in which King expressed his disappointment with White moderates. I would draw your attention particularly to this paragraph:

    “I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
    I am curious if you consulted with any people of colour who are engaged in anti-racism work, or what you have read by writers of colour on anti-racism in preparing your column. What work have you done to have a deeper understanding of the racialized experience of people of colour and how White folks can best participate in allyship?
    Response from Bill Black:
    I am very familiar with the entire letter.
    The clergy to whom he was writing had been, as your quote says, arguing for “order.” In other words, stop creating a fuss.
    King’s real audience in his very public reply was to earn the active support of a broad spectrum of whites by explaining to them the real injustices, and the unsuccessful efforts to right them through the courts. It worked, in great measure because of King’s tone.
    I am not arguing for order instead of justice. I am recommending to racialized activists that they will have greater success by emulating King and Mandela. I particularly feel that it is unwise for activists to shut down white people who want to help.
    Yes I did consult people of colour in writing this article.

    Drew’s response:-
    Thanks for the response, Bill.
    I wonder then who you are speaking for, and who you are speaking to. Have your recommendations as to how to engage in anti-racist work been solicited by activists who belong to racialized groups? Regarding the case of Masuma Khan, in particular, in what way do you feel she has “shut down white people who want to help”?

    Bill’s second response:–
    Masuma’s tone and use of vulgarities do not invite a thoughtful interaction.

    As with any article I am speaking for myself only.

    I am speaking to those activists who want to be effective in achieving positive change. Secondarily I am trying to have non-racialized observers consider that the cause for which some people have been needlessly offensive may nevertheless be a just one.

    No, my recommendations were not solicited. I have probably written over 400 columns. No more than a handful of them were solicited by anyone. That is what it means to be an opinion columnist.

    Drew M | November 5, 2017

  • Mr. Black, it is always a pleasure to read your columns because of their construction and clarity. I am not, however, always persuaded by your positions – which is not surprising given the range of topics to which you’ve given some thought.

    Your November 4 column I found both amusing in its positioning and a bit offensive. I have just sent the column to a colleague whose parents fled South Africa because of their support for ending apartheid for her thoughts. Her parents are white South Africans.

    I grew up in Kentville. As a graduate student in US I was on the Madison, Wisconsin campus during the Vietnam student demonstrations – and the bombing of a building where research funded for military purposes was being done. I’ve been privileged to be a supporter of the recent women’s marches in several countries. My work in health care has provided ample opportunities to observe and be a recipient of the sometimes appalling power games sometimes gender related, sometimes race related, sometimes related to position/job differences. I have been part of many ‎situations in which we have worked to bring about or to support social change.

    The amusing part of – the column you might see yourself if you look at page E4 with a white guy, former CEO of Maritime Life in the heading (and a young non-white Canadian woman ‎in the photo) making the comment “…one might reasonably wonder whether the outcome would have been the same had the words been the same but the skin colours reversed.” Do you really think that most white people living in NS during your lifetime and mine deserve respectful dialogue from people of colour? I certainly felt awful when a woman who cared for me as a child and who later became active in the Black movement and Chicago riots refused to speak to me any longer. I also understood why when I stopped to think.

    What I found a bit offensive was a person – whom I see as likely having a reasonable ‎amount of opportunity to become successful and influential without the often silent barriers of race and gender – who failed to be polite enough to acknowledge that he has no idea of what it’s like to walk in their shoes.
    Response from Bill Black:–
    Joy thanks for this. I doubt that any of my readers agree with all of my columns.

    I should say first that the choice to include the photo was the Herald’s not mine. I would not have recommended it, in part because of the juxtaposition you mention.

    Secondly, yes, I fully deserve an accusation of being privileged in the opportunities I have had. That said, I did more with them than many similarly placed people.

    Perhaps it would have been better to acknowledge that difference. But I have no quarrel with what most of the activists are seeking, at least when they are not trying to just shut down the conversation.

    I am recommending to radicalized activists that they will have greater success by emulating King and Mandela. It is not a question of white people “deserving” that. It is a question of what will achieve the activists’ goals.

    Joy Calkin | November 5, 2017

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