Unpacking Racism: Proximity Does Not Nullify Racism

The University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon racism incident, known as "SAE-OU racist chant incident" occurred on March 7, 2015, when members of the University of Oklahoma (OU) chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) were filmed performing a racially insensitive song that used the word [redacted], referenced lynching, and implied that black students shall be denied admission into the fraternity.

After a video of the incident was published, the SAE's OU chapter was closed and two of its members, Levi Pettit and Parker Rice(the latter of whom was the ‘leader’ of the chant in the video), expelled.   - Wikipedia

Image of Levi Pettit a white male in a dark suit and blue shirt and
red, white, and blue tie, ensuring he is in close proximity
 to Black community leaders in power, issuing a public apology
 for his part in the SAE racist chant incident.
Screenshot from Source KFOR

The SAE racist chant incident stands out for reasons not commonly discussed. One is deftly pointed out by Vox race, law, and politics reporter Jenée Desmond-Harris. She writes in her article about the incident that we Americans have managed to avoid confronting the urgent crisis of everyday racism by narrowing the definition of racism to a sliver of acts so blatant that they cannot be ignored, dismissed, or covered up. This incident fell into that narrow category.

But the aftermath of this incident should be discussed as well.

 Parker Rice issued a prompt and absolute apology. No excuses, taking full responsibility for his actions.

Then there was Levi Pettit. His apology matters because of the disturbing way it was handled. First, his parents spoke for him. Then he remained silent for days. And finally, as the outrage refused to die down, he appeared surrounded by Black leaders, the picture of white privilege, delivering a carefully written apology while refusing to answer direct questions on the history of the chant he led and how it was taught to him.

He began by making it clear that African American state senator Anastasia Pittman had close proximity to his family and was standing beside him, by saying that his parents had a long relationship with her. He then punctuated intervals of his entire speech by literally pointing a thumb at the African American clergy and community leaders his powerful white parents had amassed behind him, just to make certain we didn't miss them. "See," Pettit seemed to imply, "I am surrounded by Blacks. So I can't be called a racist anymore." He name-dropped Black groups he claimed he visited on his apology tour to justify why he had remained silent for so long after this event when Parker Rice had apologized immediately.

When the prepared speech was over, a reporter asked exactly what Pettit meant when he said that going forward he would combat racism. Pettit responded sheepishly that he meant that if he saw racism in the course of his daily life he would call it out. An African American clergyman referred to Pettit, a legal adult, as a child who made a mistake. The whole debacle ended with Black leaders urging Pettit's parents to consider becoming members of the NAACP, a nonsensical request since Pettit's parents weren't leading a racist chant about lynching African Americans on a bus.  I watched it all shaking my head. This was not an apology. This was an attempt to use proximity to erase a vicious act of racism.

Proximity does not nullify racism.

Proximity is a tactic some who find themselves outed by their own heinous actions use to try and escape the scarlet 'R' of racism.  Deploying any Black humans that white power and privilege can gather to surround them whenever a racist incident is public and indefensible is a counter-attack in the playbook of bigotry. Offenders use Black bodies to prove that their proximity to African Americans nullifies any accusations they are racists.

It isn't supposed to matter the public has a video, audio, or written proof that shows otherwise.

 The proximity defense tactic was even made one of the topics of an episode of Seinfeld called The Diplomats Club in which George makes a racial gaffe, then tries to prove to his African American boss, Morgan that he is not racist by trying to hire any Black man willing to pose as his friend.

People will rush to point out proximity to Black people, in particular, using the physical presence of their Black colleagues, friends, significant others, or Black community members as scenery, a backdrop to prove they can't possibly make racial gaffes or be labeled racists.

 Understand, no matter how close one believes they are to people of color, proximity does not nullify everyday implicit or structural bias. It does not nullify microaggression. It doesn't grant a right to use racial slurs.

Strom Thurmond, seen in this image an elderly white male
in a dark suit white shirt and tie, reached the level of President
pro tempore of the US Senate despite being a lifelong segregationist
. Image Public Domain.
. 

Here is another example of proximity in relation to racism. Strom Thurmond's proximity to a Black woman, Carrie Butler resulted in him fathering his oldest child, Esse Mae Washington Williams. He remained an outspoken and staunch segregationist his entire legislative career.  Thurmond conducted the longest filibuster by a US Senator in history against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Thurmond's proximity to a Black woman and his own biracial daughter did not stop a career of harm to African Americans.

There is a hope that proximity will somehow by osmosis, make witnessing everyday racism intolerable for white people, but if they refuse to acknowledge more than a narrow strip of the reality of racial abuse then this is not possible.

Image of Leslie Odom Jr, an African American actor in costume
from the musical Hamilton, on his right Senator Hillary Clinton,
a white female in a gold tunic and dark slacks, and to her right
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, a white male in a gray suit,
 white shirt and red striped tie performing a skit on stage that
ended in an insulting racial reference.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio made a monumental gaffe during a skit at the public announcement of his belated endorsement of Hillary Clinton, where it was arranged that he would say he was late in endorsing her because he was on CP (Colored People) time. Senator Clinton's campaign and de Blasio assumed that proximity would allow this skit to explain away the Mayor's reluctance with humor. Hamilton star actor Leslie Odom Jr. was not consulted but was made to be in close proximity to Clinton during this skit. Mayor de Blasio is married to an African American woman and is the father of two biracial children. Odom Jr., taken aback by the slur, let both  Senator Clinton and Mayor de Blasio know in no uncertain terms that what was uttered was a racial microaggression and not acceptable. It was one of many cringe-worthy moments in a political campaign where the candidate's team was expected to know better but chose to disregard the interests of their African American base.

Proximity is one of the ways the Black body, in particular, is deployed as a physical umbrella for racists to sit under. Making inroads into ending this idea that proximity equals absolution from racist gaffes, remarks, and outright racism begins with all of us.

It's 2018.  No person of color should allow themselves to be tokenized, objectified as a body to fill a quota or used as scenery to thwart accusations of racial bias or bigotry. No friendship, love, donation, or power makes this okay.

Any white person who says or does anything manifesting implicit racial bias, perpetuating structural racial bias, or threatening harm to others based upon race should be made to make amends without using Black people as a backdrop to such an apology. We are people, not bodies to be used to whitewash the sins of others.

I am writing this in the hope that activists, groups, academic institutions, and organizations work to understand, root out, and end this practice wherever it lurks. It is also meant to try yet again to explain the difference between the racism that arises from the combined harm of structural and implicit bias and compounds over time to beat down the human spirit and single acts of overt racism so heinous everyone must accept those who perpetrate them are racists.

Everyday racism kills over years of the stress it inflicts on its victims. Don't minimize mistakes and erase them away in denial. Apologize and learn from them.

There will be no progress towards healing the racial divides in our nation unless people who are clearly racists are no longer enabled in racism denial by acceptance of the use of Black bodies as shields to whitewash their sins away

There will be no progress towards healing the racial divides in our nation until people who claim to be allies against racism cease deploying Black bodies as umbrellas to shield them from the justified anger of Black activists rightfully pointing out racial gaffes that require a proper apology and sincere actions to make things right.