John McWhorter Calls California Legislature Out for Choosing Symbolism Over Substance in Fighting Racism

Bravely, the state government of California is

on the verge of banning the sale of Confederate flags… by the
state government of California. Both houses of the California
legislature voted in favor of the bill by a large margin and Gov.
Jerry Brown (D) is expected to sign it. The bill’s sponsor claimed
the legislation was meant to fight “the ugly hatred of racism.”

Political commentator John McWhoreter, who has described himself
as a “cranky,
liberal Democrat,” provides the right context to see the bill
for what it is, a largely symbolic effort that’s not actually
“making a real difference in black lives (and deaths).” An excerpt,

via The Daily Beast:

If we are really OK with ourselves, we do not require that our
environment be perfectly free of any visual evidence historically
connectable to ills of the past. Beyond a certain point—and I say
we’re beyond it—it’s time to live in the present and look
forward.

And no, not forward in the sense of pretending racism doesn’t
exist. I mean forward in working on racism-related issues that are
susceptible to constructive address—which flag-banning is not—and
making a real difference in black lives (and deaths).

When we talk about “fending off” racism, we need to fend off the
kind of thing that happened to people like Michael Brown, John
Crawford, Eric Garner, and Ezell Ford all within the past month’s
time. 

The whole column is worth a read here.

I would add only that the state’s move to ban Confederate flags
from being sold by the state government doesn’t go far enough.
Given California’s serious fiscal problems, the state shouldn’t be
in the business of running gift shops at museums in the first
place. It’s a function that could easily be relegated to the
private sector. Renting out museum gift shops would probably create
more revenue for the state, and a stable source since it won’t be
based on the government’s ability to run a profitable gift
shop.

Also of note to stress the hypocrisy of the California
legislature for deciding that in the month police brutality and
racism have become a national issue they would tackle the sale of
Confederate flags at government stores: In addition to Brown,
Crawford, Garner, and Ford, who was killed in Los Angeles, there
were at least two other questionable deaths at the hands of police
in California in just the few weeks
after the Brown shooting: 19-year-old Diana Showman was shot by
a cop in San Jose who said he mistook a power drill in her hand for
an Uzi, and 36-year old Dante Parker, an employed, married, father
of two died in police custody after being Tased.

There’s also the
beating of a woman by an officer of the California Highway
Patrol earlier this summer. He is not on patrol duty but continues
to collect a paycheck after being caught on tape wailing on a
woman. And last week a sheriff’s deputy in Kern County, California,

received probation and 480 hours of community service for
killing two pedestrians while driving his patrol car in excess of
85 miles an hour and striking and killing two pedestrians. His
negligence will cost taxpayers more than $8 million but
California’s civil service laws make it almost impossible to fire
him for the action. The inability of police departments to
appropriately discipline and dismiss problem cops makes it
virtually impossible to effectively combat police racism. Given the
power armed government agents have to use violence against
residents, which they tend to use disproportionately against black
ones, California’s legislators need to focus on civil service
reforms that will make it possible to “fend off the ugly hatred of
racism” where it’s at its most lethal, in police forces around
California and the country.