Was President Obama's comment Monday calling black rapper Kanye West "a
jackass" prejudiced?
Obama was referring to West's actions during the MTV Video Music Awards
Sunday when he jumped on stage, interrupted country singer Taylor Swift's
acceptance speech and proclaimed that Beyonce had the best video. West
apologized publicly on Jay Leno the next day and directly to Swift on
Tuesday.
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Hold on -- there has been no speculation that Obama's comment was due to
racism or possible dislike of rap music. But the inflammatory question
provides us the opportunity to have a frank conversation about racism and
prejudice.
Prejudice is a preconceived judgment or opinion. Racism occurs when the
prejudgment is due to a person's race.
People are constantly trying to explain the world around them in a cause-
and-effect manner. It provides a prescription for dealing with activity and
outcome and allows for predictable living. What made it happen? Was there an
underlying reason?
Everyone has prejudices, or preconceived opinions.
Race and sex are traits that are often used in prejudging. Other prejudices
can be based on country of origin, religion, college attended or work
experience. The list goes on and on.
Most of us have experienced some form of prejudice. Some of my experiences
include prejudice regarding my rural upbringing, work experience, sex and
age.
Race is different. We all carry around the mark of our ancestors in terms of
the color of our skin. As Mary Norwood, the lone white candidate for Atlanta
mayor, noted in response to a question regarding her race, "This is the
package I got." We have no choice in our race.
After his "You Lie" outburst during Obama's health care speech last
Wednesday, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., called the White House and apologized
for his "inappropriate and regrettable comments." Not appeased, his
colleagues publicly reprimanded him Tuesday.
Speculation abounds not only that Wilson's comment was caused by racial
prejudice but that racial prejudice is behind the general opposition to
Obama.
Saturday night at the U.S. Open, Serena Williams exploded after a Japanese
line judge called her for a foot fault while the tennis star was trailing
near the end of the second set. "If I could, I would take this ... ball and
shove it down your ... throat," Williams screamed at the woman. This tirade
resulted in a penalty point leading to Williams' loss of the U.S. Open
title.
She publicly apologized the next day.
I have heard no speculation that the cause of her outburst was the race or
gender of the line judge.
Nor have I heard any speculation that West's outburst was due to his
possible deep-seated dislike of country music or blonde women.
Why pull together these episodes of September savagery where decorous
speeches, matches and awards ceremonies have given way to spectacles of
outbursts, lost tempers and uncivil behavior?
There is a difference between coincidence, when A and B occur together but
one does not cause the other, and cause and effect, when A causes B. To the
casual observer, coincidence is often mistaken for cause and effect.
Early in my career I moved from finance to marketing. Several marketing
employees were convinced that the move of a finance person into marketing
would ruin the marketing department.
Soon after the move, there was pushback regarding my approach to negotiating
with vendors. Was this due to prejudice against finance people, or a serious
question regarding policy implementation? Assuming the latter, we worked
together to create a consistent policy. Was prejudice against finance people
moving into marketing still evident? Certainly. But by addressing the
substantive questions regarding policy, the prejudice dissipated.
To answer my own question, I do not believe that Obama's comment regarding
West was prejudiced. But it provided us the opportunity to rethink
prejudice. While we cannot condone prejudice, we cannot afford to believe
that prejudice is lurking behind every comment, prejudging that it will
surface. Instead, we must focus our energy and efforts on substantive policy
issues.
Might some portion of the pushback regarding Obama's performance be due to
underlying racial prejudices? Certainly.
Would an approach to solve substantive questions regarding policy without
regard to outlying prejudged beliefs go a long way toward dissipating any
remaining prejudices? Probably.
Is it fair to label all opposition to Obama as racist? Certainly not -- and
possibly prejudiced.