Racism in Berkeley Versus Texas

Daisy Hernandez

Racism in Berkeley Versus Texas

Scanning the reactions this week to Eric Holder’s speech reminded me of a skit from comedian Kamau Bell’s show “The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About An Hour” (which plays lives in Los Angeles on Feb. 24).

Bell says Americans are familiar with two kinds of racism. One is where you tie the guy up to a pickup truck and drag him to his death. That would be called…Texas racism. The other kind of racism is where you have two guys at the water cooler and one says, “What’s the name of that guy in the mail room? The Puerto Rican?” and the other person says, “Puerto Rican? Why you have to make it about race?” That would be called… Berkeley racism.

I might be off on the details of Kamau’s joke (I caught his show a few weeks ago), but the point stands: We get racism as either a hate crime or a personal thing.

All the hoopla from media outlets about Holder's phrase "nation of cowards" leads me to believe we just have a case of Americans who hear a speech about race and immediately jump to their primary understanding of racism, which is: "It's personal. I'm being called a racist. I can't believe it. I voted for Obama. Don't you know that when a white man votes for Obama it means he's not a racist?"

I'm having one of those irritating "it's not about you personally white boy" moments. But to be fair, it's both: it's not about you personally but we need each other personally to make conversations on race happen.

All of which reminds me why comedy like Kamau Bell's is so needed.

His show is on Tuesday, February 24, 2009
8:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Comedy Central Stage at the Hudson
6539 Santa Monica Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA

Posted at 8:36 AM, Feb 20, 2009 in Permalink | View Comments

Comments

I would like to take part in a constructive discussion about race in my own community. I admit to being a "coward" about it. I don't want to make a fool of myself or to inadvertently offend someone because of my ignorance. But that's the point, isn't it--or at least one of the points--to dispel ignorance?

I am aware that there's a lot of pain experienced by people of color due to racism. As a woman (white) I know what it's like to be "paranoid"--that is, sometimes unsure of what's real and what's an imagined slight--and always on guard to some degree.

I think women may be more willing to engage in this type of discussion than (white?) men because our experiences with sexism give us at least some insight.

Surely, there are people with experience in guiding such discussions. Can you lead me to a website or an organization who can help me get started?

Thank you.