Henri Reynard Speaks Out

Vaccinate The Prejudiced Against Racism

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Wouldn't it be a better world if we could just inoculate the folks who display the symptoms of the more subtle form of prejudice allowed in the public arena today. I am not talking about the folks with the word "nigger" as an active word in their vocabulary. They may be only capable of change through the process of living until nature recycles their spirit into some new form, perhaps a different variety of virus. I am speaking of the people who have carefully purged such inflammatory words from their vocabulary. People who demonstrate their racist views only with the appropriate winks and nods so easily understood by others who are less bound by public exposure to the subtle forms of racist expression.

There are always two messages in every communication, the content and the context, the words and the meta-message, which we wrap around them. The key to interpreting any subtle communication is to pay attention to the facial expression and tone of voice among other indicators of the added meaning the communicator intends to convey. Even a dog can interpret some meta-messages that are significantly different from the expressed words used. Kicks and slaps are one message; the words used with them sometimes convey another message entirely. Even Aunt Tessie's annoying little lap yapper can tell when you are saying, "nice puppy", and kicking it out of your path at the same time that the words are not the real message.

So it is with the politics of racial separation and of racism generally. You do not have to use harsh words to convey to an audience in our society the message that you are in concert with those in the audience who feel superior to the members of other races than that of the majority. You can even mouth words that would appear to convey your sympathy for certain portions of their lives while using phrases, gestures and tones of voice that convey another message entirely to your racist peers. All of us use meta-message tools to refine our communication with people who understand the same things in the same way. Meta-messages can even work across language barriers and sometimes are the only way we have of communicating with people who do not share a common language with us.

Today's racist of the year is Trent Lott. There will be another one tomorrow, but not likely soon will we hear as much sound and fury about an innocent racist remark as his endorsement of Strom Thurmond for President in 1948. Now that election was over a long time ago, but the ringing endorsement of a one-issue campaign actually carried a potent meta-message. The message that the racist policies of that campaign are yearned after in the south today is clear and obvious. So how did Lott, a subtle man by most measures, miscalculate so badly? Because most of the time that kind of statement is glossed over with a veneer of words designed to confuse those of us for whom the message is not intended. Of course it was necessary for Lott to repudiate publicly any racist policies of the past. Both he and Strom Thurmond did that long ago, in the days when it was clear that insincerity ruled the issue of racism in the south.

Innocent? Of course the racism of today is innocent compared to the traditional cross-burning necktie party variety. It merely wounds the spirit without doing overt harm to the bodies of its victims. Our leaders in the House and Senate need to be above reproach in order to defuse some of the potency of that poison in our body politic. It poisons the spirits of those who try to use it to oppress those of different racial heritage more than those it is aimed at directly. But it does immense harm in our civil society today. The truth is very important in our country. Only through use of the truth do we derive the policies that lead us into an enlightened government and an enlightened citizenship. Truth is the real fountain of freedom, but like the fountain of youth it is an elusive source of nourishment. In a world of covert racism truth is easily lost.

Inoculation against "innocuous" racism would bring greater results than any effort to purge the more raucous forms that prevail in some places even today. Unfortunately there is no real way to immunize people against an idea that they want to embrace. Trent Lott is a mere blot on the history of racial harmony that we are striving to build in this nation. This too will pass, as long as we remember to eat our daily helping of the vitamins that protect us against the disease of racism. Respect, for those different from us, acceptance of ideas different from ours as the right of those who hold them, civility, manners, and concern for all of our fellow humans go a long way toward preventing the disease. It is a great proposition that all of us were created free and equal in rights. It takes a great helping of honesty to make it come true. Trent Lott fails the test of leadership based in honesty. Let us replace him with someone who at least tries to truly represent all races equally in word and deed.