Race To The Bottom

Recently, I experienced a situation that I found very unsettling. Not because it was unique but just because it wasn’t and I was surprised I was still so bothered by it. Generally speaking, the scariest “monsters” aren’t the big, scary, hairy ones. It’s the monsters that are more subtle. They look normal. They sound normal. But they have an evil agenda. I can’t think of a scarier monster than racism.

You can wrap it up in a package of comedy and most viewers won’t even be able to recognize it. I’ve heard it from the mouth of my friends as we watched the same program.

“What was wrong with that? It was just a joke. It was funny.”

I spent nearly my entire life enjoying the Little Rascals/Our Gang. Wherever I moved in the U.S., I tried to locate on my cable or satellite channel. Recently, I found a free streaming service that broadcasted it every morning so you could imagine my excitement. The episode was “Big Ears” (1931). One of the characters, Wheezer, was complaining of a really bad stomach ache and he enlisted his friends to help him by finding him some medicine. (Note: Wheezer was only pretending to be sick so that his parents would stop fighting, send him to an orphanage and get a divorce). He laid in bed howling while his friends, most notably Stymie, searched the medicine cabinet for some medicine. Wheezer would never actually take any of the medicine Stymie would find. (Note: Don’t go to Wikipedia to fact check this. They have it totally wrong.) Somehow Stymie did find turpentine (in the medicine cabinet?) but unlike all the other medicines he found, Wheezer thought it would be a good idea for Stymie to try that one.

“It won’t hurt you. You’ll be alright.” he says, as Stymie shrugged his shoulders and ingested a teaspoon full.

Please remember that Wheezer is not really sick so……never mind.

I Corinthians 9:26 “So I run with purpose..”

Children drinking unidentified liquids from the medicine cabinet is a really bad message, even for 1931 but after all the years of watching this and episodes like it, I was bothered by the content. After nearly 50 years of living, this bothered me that day in that moment. What was the message being sent that Stymie, out of all the medicines in the cabinet, should drink the most poisonous one of them all with a spoonful of turpentine? There is historical context from the Civil War regarding turpentine and slavery but I’ll let you dig into that one yourself.

That’s just one example of something I experienced that bothered me that may not even move the needle for you and that’s fine. It made me look even deeper though and I can recollect a lot of episodes of that favorite show that had some seriously offensive overtones. They have message boards and forums that are still talking about these episodes almost 100 years later. That speaks volumes.

The experience I was telling you about earlier was a culmination of a lot of things. Distressing news about local racist activities, threats and intimidation against minority owned businesses, and the tame reactions of people who simply don’t want to discuss this anymore and want us to get over it. My primary reaction is “Are we still doing this?”

I engaged one of my sisters, who was close to one of these situations and we had a long conversation about some of the finer points of the racial climate where we live. I learned something important from having dialogue with her. (Imagine that. If we have dialogue, we learn something about each other.) Until she told me, I had no idea the fears and frustration she had been silently working through. Just like my watching episodes like “Big Ears”, we had been looking at these events playing out in front of us and suppressing our feelings, perhaps for fear that we would offend people we know and like if we openly discussed issues regarding race. Particularly because our friends didn’t look like us so we might assume they didn’t care about what we cared about. That was specifically her fear and if relationships are important to you, that is a real issue. I didn’t share that fear but I certainly shared that frustration.

I’m letting myself off the hook starting today. I should be bothered by it, whether it’s wrapped up in a blanket of comedy, politics, sports, etc. It’s an attack on who I am as a person, my family, my children and grandchildren. My father who served in the military faithfully and his father before him. Racism is an ugly monster. It gets bigger when we feed it. It doesn’t go away just because we ignore it and we don’t “see color.” It doesn’t define the essence of who we are but it greatly affects the world that we live in, at least, temporarily. But I’m refusing to make a permanent decision based on a temporary situation.

I’m going to write. It’s my passion in life and despite what some may want me to say or not say, I have a voice. Doesn’t matter how many people are hearing it, it matters. I don’t post, tweet, or share with the intent to be incendiary. I do, however, hope that my friends and family think competently, dialogue compassionately, and listen actively.

[Editorial note: To my beloved brothers and sisters, no matter what the issue is that you stand up for, I sincerely hope that when you see content that you may not agree with, that you lovingly and compassionately ask why and how, rather than leveling attacks against those you say you care for. Most people may accept criticism and correction better from those that have shown themselves to be consistently kind, compassionate, and open. Kind of like you are more likely to have friends if you are friendly. Know what I mean?]

You said it yourself, “We’re in this thing together!” Right?