Does Race Matter?

[UPDATE:  I've posted Does Race Matter Part 2]

On September 28 the Anchorage Daily News reported:

The [Ted Stevens] jury is made up of nine black women, three black men, two white women and two white men -- a mix that reflects the population of Washington, which is more than 56 percent African American.

It's a far different jury than Stevens likely would have faced in Alaska, had he been successful in moving the trial to his home state. In Anchorage, U.S. Census figures show the population is about 72 percent white, 6.5 percent black and about 8 percent Alaska Native.

The D.C. jury also is reflective of the city's professional class, where 39 percent of the population has at least a four-year college degree. In Anchorage, that number is closer to 29 percent.

So, can Ted Stevens, an 84 year old white male, get a fair trial from a jury with a majority of black females? I'm sure, unless he is acquitted, some folks will insist he didn't get a fair trial .

Does race matter? The four attorneys for the prosecution who were active in the courtroom for the three previous trials resulting from this investigation were all white males. They convicted all three defendants in Anchorage. Two are based in Anchorage and two in DC.

Now that this trial is in Washington DC, suddenly there is a new lead attorney, plus those four white males. This new attorney is an African-American female. I'm in Anchorage, so I have no basis for evaluating Brenda Morris except what's on paper.

Here's the beginning of her bio at Georgetown Law School website where she is an adjunct professor. The rest of the bio can be found at that site.

Brenda Morris

Adjunct Professor of Law; Principal Deputy Chief, Public Integrity Section, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice
B.S., University of Southern California; J.D., Howard University

Biography

B.S., University of Southern California; J.D., Howard University. Brenda Morris joined the Public Integrity Section, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice in September 1991. After working for twelve years as a Trial Attorney with the Public Integrity Section, she was promoted in March 2004 to Deputy Chief for Litigation. In August 2006, Professor Morris was promoted to the position of Principal Deputy Chief. Her staff consists of 30 attorneys and 11 support staff. The Public Integrity Section is a distinctive unit within the Criminal Division which is responsible for the nationwide investigations and prosecutions of corrupt federal employees. As a Trial Attorney, Professor Morris investigated white-collar cases ranging from federal conflict of interest crimes to conspiracy to commit bribery of public officials...
the rest is here.

On paper there's good reason for her to take part in this case. But if the jury would have been predominantly white males, would she have been added? If she weren't African-American, would she have been put on the case? I have no idea. The defense also has an African-American attorney, Alex Romain.

So why do I bring this up?

Because we have an African-American candidate for President. When he or anyone brings up the issue of race and its effect on the political campaign, he's accused of 'playing the race card' (for example: "Obama Plays Race Card" "Is Obama Playing the Race Card?" "Media Play Race Card for Obama"). I use this phrase here in the sense that Wikipedia says Dei and Karmanchery use it

that the term itself is a "Rhetorical device" used in an effort to devalue and minimize claims of racism.

I'm sure some people who say 'Obama played the race card,' do so simply to win the election and have no concern about whether it is true or not. But others use the term because they believe that racism is no longer an issue in the United States.

Overt racism is often invisible for whites. And often the victims of racism can't be sure themselves. When their dinner reservations are lost when they arrive at the restaurant and there are no other openings for the evening. When the apartment that was available when they called 3o minutes ago has 'just been rented.' When Lakisha Washington's resume is eliminated and Emily Walsh gets the job, even though Lakisha has better educational achievements and work experience

The only time many white folk see racism is when a white person finds his fate in the hands of black folks. When someone like Ted Stevens is to be judged by mainly African American jurors. I can't imagine that Ted Stevens isn't aware that his jury is black. And that he hasn't, at the very least, toyed with the idea that they might simply see him as a old, white male. But African-Americans live in a mostly white world and so they feel that way - judged by their skin color - all the time. I'm not saying this makes someone bad, we all live in a culture that has taught us to do this. But it is important that we realize what is happening, that we don't deny that race still matters, that we don't act on our deep seated racial prejudices.

Race does still matter in the United States. African-Americans still bear the legacy of the slavery. Even if people could conceal their race the way they can conceal their religion or political party, African-Americans would still bear that legacy because

• White slave owners gained wealth from their slaves' labor, wealth that, in many cases, was increased through businesses, investments, and education and has been passed on to their heirs. Their slaves had little or no financial gain from their labors to invest and pass on.
  
• Many slave families were split up by owners who sold children away from their parents. Women who had to sexually service their white masters. And their husbands who could do nothing to stop it. These all leave terrible psychological scars that have affected African-American families to this day.
• Education both in the North and the South for African-Americans has, and in many cases still is, separate and unequal.
• People are alive today who lived in a world where, by law, blacks were not allowed to drink from white water fountains, sit in the front of the bus, or in the white section of theaters, or swim in white public swimming pools; where the law prohibited whites and blacks to marry. Many whites who grew up with this still harbor prejudices from this period. (And many also do not.) The psychological impacts on blacks vary too. It made some stronger and more determined, but probably for most it embedded a form of self loathing - manifested in products like skin-lightener and hair straighteners.
  

The fact that Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for president clearly demonstrates that the United States has come a very long way on the issue of race. But race is down there under the surface. Pundits have pointed to race as a factor that explains how

• an attractive, articulate, charismatic Democratic candidate
  
• appearing after eight years of Republican rule by
  
• a president with the lowest ratings in history,
  

can only be slightly ahead of the Republican candidate many in his party don't like.

Race seems like a pretty obvious factor for many. I've heard anecdotal stories such as one about the normally Democratic elderly customers of a manicurist in Buffalo, New York who "just don't trust Obama." Or about others who say they can't vote for a Muslim. [Just in case anyone reading this thinks I'm saying Obama is a Muslim, I'm not. He's not. But people keep saying that.]

There are a lot of people quietly mumbling my line of thinking - the shark of racial prejudice is swimming just below the surface of the presidential race . Most prominently was a Stanford survey. But people are getting at this point in various ways.

Here's a story from the Chicago Tribune

...Sociologists have found that racial bias pervades the subconscious of most Americans and that the elderly hold more such prejudices than those who are younger.

For example, 35 percent of Americans age 60 and older believe it's unacceptable for whites to date blacks, according to surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Yet just 16 percent of Baby Boomers disapprove of interracial dating—and among Americans age 30 and younger, the disapproval figure is only 6 percent...

And one in Slate on a CBS/New York Times poll:

In the poll, 26 percent of whites say they have been victims of discrimination. Twenty-seven percent say too much has been made of the problems facing black people. Twenty-four percent say the country isn't ready to elect a black president. Five percent of white voters acknowledge that they, personally, would not vote for a black candidate.

Or this June Washington Post article on another poll:

More than six in 10 African Americans now rate race relations as "not so good" or "poor," while 53 percent of whites hold more positive views. Opinions are also divided along racial lines, though less so, on whether blacks face discrimination. There is more similarity on feelings of personal racial prejudice: Thirty percent of whites and 34 percent of blacks admit such sentiments.

Maybe this low key, statistical analysis of poll data is the best way for us to discuss this. Just acknowledging how race impacts us is a big step. We can never be absolutely sure of other people's motives, but I'm sure that a statistically significant portion of the US population emotionally find it difficult to vote for a black man for president.

And I know there are people out there trying to exploit those racial prejudices. There's a local political blog in Anchorage with lists of links to white supremacist websites. I got an email the other day from an unfamiliar email address with a link to an anti-Obama video not so subtly called Race for the Truth - The State of Obama Part I.

It has a series of stark black screens with a white "Fact" on each and a voice that proclaims each time: "FACT!" Except the facts they list are totally bogus. "Fact" - Obama's campaign is about censorship. "Fact" - censorship was the basis of the Nazi Party's control of Germany. [The irony of linking a black candidate to Nazis seems lost on the authors of this hate mongering video.] I'm not even going to link to the video I don't want to encourage them, but it is clearly meant to appeal to those who want 'legitimate' reasons to vote against a black man.

But for white people to really feel in their gut that race is still an issue, I ask them to just think about Ted Stevens' trial and whether you believe that a majority black jury will treat Ted Stevens the same as a majority white jury. I'm not saying it will or it won't, I'm just asking readers to honestly assess what they believe, what they feel. And then tell me, honestly, that race is no longer an issue in the US.