The Plessy & Parks Scenario
A framework for evaluating what is due to victims of historical discrimination.
What if Homer Plessy was not a hero? What if Rosa Parks was not a hero? What if what they did in those very specific instances of defiance of the conventional wisdom of racial segregation was actually nothing special to them as black Americans?
So here is the thought experiment I would like to guide you through. I will setup a specific idea and concept and in doing so, my second-rate legal mind is focused on the nature of hate crimes in America. My understanding of a hate crime as the idea was put together here in the 1990s revolved around the centrality of this premise.
Racial animus is proximate cause for a crime.
So I'll explain proximate cause with regard to racial animus. It means that I do something for or against you primarily because of your race. Your race is not incidental to my reasoning and intent. You don't just 'happen to be' a member of a race, I am doing this specifically because of your membership in a race.
The Forsyth County House
Now we go to my personal experience as a black American moving to the South and looking for houses to buy in Georgia. The year is 1995 and the place is Forsyth County, GA. Now I won't make any presumptions about what you know, but for the sake of this thought experiment we will assume that it is well-known to all real-estate agents in Georgia that Forsyth County was the home of the KKK in the state.
Pretend further that I don't know that (but I did). Pretend that I never read Black Like Me, and I didn't know this place was chock full of white supremacists. Now here's the interesting part. Let's say I find a white real-estate agent and he tells me I shouldn't move there, because as a black person it wouldn't be good. Let's say I go to a black real-estate agent and he tells me I shouldn't move there, because as a black person it wouldn't be good. I get two denials of service and both of them tell me that it's because of my race.
Is only one of those denials of service done in my perceived best interest? Are both done in my perceived best interest?
As an average black person, what is perceived to be for my own good has a lot to do with a lot of things. One of them is that when it comes to racial discrimination I don't necessarily want to be a test case for civil rights activism. I happen to think this is a reasonable assumption. Why? Because I'm not Homer Plessy. I'm not looking for civil rights martyrdom. I'm not Rosa Parks. I don't have nerves of steel or aim to change the minds of the nation. I'm just looking for a home.
So let's be very specific. Given that I'm not a hero with a desire to be on the cutting edge of revolution, some racial discrimination could conceivably be done in my favor. I'm saying two things here.
1. Reparations are racial discriminations done in my perceived best interest.
2. The race of the of the denier of service is irrelevant if it can be said that they are doing it for the same presumption and intent.
Are you with me? There are lots of implications here. Most of which I think are logical, and some might even be legal. And oh by the way, in real life my real-estate agent was nominally white with a sweet Southern accent and she could't wait to sell me any number of houses in Forsyth County. This happened within a few weeks of moving to Atlanta from NYC and it impressed the hell out of me. Also my impression of the neighborhood of Stone Mountain, GA was even more mind-blowing. I had never seen or expected such a pristine, tree-lined, middle-class suburban neighborhood that was mostly black with kids riding their bikes through the fall leaves on the quiet streets of a town within shouting distance of the world's largest Confederate monument. I had in-laws living there at the time. They wanted us to move near them.
The Average Black Hero
If I was a black American hero, then none of this logic would matter. I'd be ready to take my case all the way - to the streets, to the press, to the Supreme Court. I'd want my heroic black status to resonate with everyone in power, such that they would use their power and fix things for the average, non-heroic black American. That would be the point, to sacrifice myself, selflessly, to prove once and for all that my simple example, established by the changed rule of law would be sufficient to change things for everyone. To remove race from reason where the law is concerned.
Aw man, here comes Affirmative Action. But let's try to keep this simple. If the American genius hero should do once in the ambit of the Rulers powers that be, then the rest of the geniuses will re-orient the machines of the state and of society so that the Peasants can walk freely where they once feared to tread. Then neither the white or the black real-estate agents have to issue their trigger warnings and denials where race is the proximate cause. This will be the decree of the Rulers.
The Rulers could foul things up and go half-assed. Well, they might say, you still need to be a little bit heroic if you are, say, an unarmed black man minding your own business where white police happen to be. That would make me special as a black man for living over 60 years without getting shot by cops in America. I'd be a bit of a hero for not going to jail. Let's say that the American ruling class has been half-assed since day one and haven't changed things. Even President Barack Obama would tell us "We've got a long way to go, so y'all need to be heroic out there. Stay Woke."
If I say "We've got a long way to go towards equality." It basically means that I am, one of those real-estate agents warning you that you need to be heroic like Homer Plessy, like Rosa Parks. That you have to go out there and defy the law and the status quo just to be treated equally. It means that there are plenty of areas in American life where it is safe to presume that there are racists working to make your average black life not quite enough and that you need people to deny you access to certain places for your own good. Because, you know, white supremacists have always been there, and you can't handle that truth. In other words, you need me on that wall.
Everything Is Racially Proximate, Right?
Are you seeing what I'm seeing? All of these racial denials are either for my own good, or white supremacist conspiracy that average white people can be complicit in to my detriment. That can only be the case when the whole of the country is colorstruck, when we always see race and if it is not proximate cause for all our crimes and dysfunctions, it's approximately proximate. In other words, nobody 'just happens to be white' or 'just happens to be black'. For those who are nominally white or nominally some other racialized color, you need somebody on that wall, or you need to be heroic. That is the inevitable and I believe, inescapable consequence of always taking race seriously.
Wait, do white people need somebody on that wall? Yes, of course they do. This is the entire premise of white allyship, white fragility and the new anti-racist activism which unifies the proper blacks and whites against those complicit in the systemic racism of the historic America of malicious racial intent. It takes a race of millions to move us forward. This is the premise of Race Traitor, whose slogan made sense to me some 25 years ago in 1997. "Treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity." At the time I thought everybody in America required a revolution in racial consciousness and new transformational identities. This, by the way, was when I considered out loud whether or not to teach my boy to punch anyone in the face at school if they called him a nigger. My liberal friends told me absolutely not, and I thought better of it and never mentioned the idea in my house again. Fast forwards 8 years and my son had a hard time in middle school identifying himself as the black kid in class. Who do they mean, he asked, Jeremy? Chalk one up for me, I guess. Perhaps the best answer remains with Travis Bickle, when accused of being a racial object. "You talking to me?" Yes, the colorstruck racialists are always talking to you - well at you and people they perceive to be like you. You and your community. Everyone belongs in a racial bucket, sez American History sez the new colorstruck anti-racist activists.
The colorstruck racialists, whether Woke or not, are always addressing a nation of millions. They have ideas that you should buy into. They're just keeping it real. You may not be interested in your race, but the racialists are interested in you, and they have prescriptions for your own good.
What is My Intent?
With revisionists afoot and by reading the tea leaves of historical discrimination, it will tend to be the intent of the current regime in power that matters more than the actual intent of any transaction of the past. If the thought-experimental white Forsyth County real-estate agent was actually fearful for my health but actually did a back-door deal with the KKK, how could I know? How could anyone know? If the thought-experimental black Forsyth County real-estate agent was secretly Jewish and wished me to obey his hidden Kosher rules, how could I know? How could anyone? It bears mentioning but I think it goes without saying that the for the Afrocentrics of the Temple School, of which Ibrahim Kendi is the latest success, intent doesn’t matter. According to them, whatever happens in America by race has racial animus as its proximate cause. That is the axiomatic premise of the Temple School. However vacuous a premise, it successfully created a national movement whose assumptions still need to be disabused.
The future may respect original intent. The intent of the past may be impossible to determine. The intent of those objecting to any reasonable premise will matter in a way similar to ‘Black Lives’. My intent in getting Reparations moolah doesn’t matter - the foregone conclusion of making them payable presumes all that’s required. Making Reparations real will finally be a fait accompli, like the Union winning the Civil War. No matter how clear or muddy the statements and declarations made for or against Reparations, intent will be debated forever more.
So long as race matters, all the baggage of race matters, logical or mythological. Intent does not.
Let us remember at all times that the intent to repair is to settle the racial injustice of the past once and for all. They need to hit the bullseye, and because of that, I suspect they will attempt self-indemnification from future blowback. Well because their intent to do good is self-evident, right? Only racists could make it go wrong, right?
The California Lottery
Here's how to break ethics. It is held in the answer to the question, "What do you give the man who has everything?" The answer is an offer of double or nothing, which is the same way of giving said man an irresistible chance to throw it all away. When I consider that the California Lottery gives me a snowball's chance in hell to win 900 million dollars, it's absolutely worth throwing away 20 for a set of numbers. But when I consider that the State of California might offer me $1.3 million just for being black and having experienced racial discrimination of some particular sort, that's another kind of risk entirely. Why wouldn't I put my blackified hat into that ring?
I'm gambling several things, and the incentives and disincentives are interesting. On the one hand, I think, well a lot of smart people and ethical people would object to making this sort of grant if one claims to pursue racial equality. But I'm not really thinking about the ethics of living in California. I'm thinking about being a Peasant in a state where mind-bending reversals of logic are commonplace in the legislature. While I'm reluctant to burn it all down, what risk to I take in receiving some kind of boon from a clumsy state? If you've ever filed a California state income tax form, you know that there are literally dozens of special categories for which you can get immunities. I don't know where the 1.3 million figure comes from, suffice to say that if every man has his price, mine is easily met by that figure. What do I have to do? I have to shuffle in front of massa and say "Ise gwine tuh take your'n offer there, suh." I take that money and move to Mississippi. Cause it's my money now. Right? Well, I have been tasked to read the Reparations proposal and I know I'm against it on principle, but I need to find specific and possibly legal exceptions to its logic and rationale. But I already know that what's fungible is fungible. Once it's in my bank account, Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #1 is in effect. Once you have their money, never give it back.
On the other hand, passage of such a policy just invites everybody to take race more seriously than ever, because there’s proven gold in them thar hills, now. My first concern is whether or not I can take this boon anonymously. Fat chance of that. So my name and perhaps those of my heirs will go into the State database, and of course the records of all of the payments will be part of the banking record. The State will know and surely the IRS will know as well. If the devotees of St. Kyle Rittenhouse have their way, the database will be hacked and I will be put on somebody’s shit list. On the other hand, it surely can’t cost more than 50k to find an attorney who can put all of my stuff behind the sort of legal firewalls available for such a fee. Either way, like with the handguns and rifles many Americans say I have absolutely now right to, I will take what I want and give them no regard. Will my conscience nag me? I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it. The economic incentive is there, clear enough to invite the legitimate and gated beneficiary class as well as those with fraudulent bona fides. Bigger boondoggles have been given. After all, I just read about the Louisiana Purchase. It would be nice to be land rich if cash poor. Who cares why?
Plessy?
I am reminded of A Man for All Seasons with regard to the knotty complexities of law. But let us consider the complexion of Homer A. Plessy. Here is his picture. He was legally black. This is the man whose case made for landmark law in America. Are our legal racial definitions any better than those of 1896? How could they be? We didn’t even know that DNA existed at the time. No matter. Biological race is a fantasy and no there is no scientific consensus, any more than there is a scientific consensus on the nature of God or the definition of the soul.
OK I actually deceived you. Ask any search engine for a picture of Homer Plessy and you will get the above picture. It’s not Homer Plessy, it is P.B.S. Pinchback. We’re winging it. This is why no racially informed intent is discoverable, from my perspective. I mean, how many witches were there, actually? We have disabused the notion of legitimizing witchcraft. Are descendants of witches owed an apology? It doesn’t matter. Plessy was black enough to be put up as an example for all blacks, and his case failed. But that didn’t change the majority opinion which was in essence, social equality cannot be legislated;
From the Majority in Plessy v Ferguson:
Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences, and the attempt to do so can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation. If the civil and political rights of both races be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically. If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.
Racial instincts. Nothing legal about that. Race is an essential component that we all understand. Yeah right. That how easy it is for all of us to identify Homer Plessy above as a black American. Who needs to be instructed? We can all infer racial intent, right?
In the dissent:
Every one knows that the statute in question had its origin in the purpose, not so much to exclude white people from railroad cars occupied by blacks, as to exclude colored people from coaches occupied by or assigned to white persons. ... The thing to accomplish was, under the guise of giving equal accommodation for whites and blacks, to compel the latter to keep to themselves while traveling in railroad passenger coaches. No one would be so wanting in candor as to assert the contrary.
It wasn’t for another 50 odd years that Brown v Board overturned the far reaching implications of Plessy. The law and its justifications can be twisted such that only a few can navigate their way through. Sometimes that’s a good thing. But the very dynamism of the emergence and influence of the Temple School is a throwback to the era when it was socially acceptable to assume and expect racial animus in society. They are colorstruck with bias. This is everything behind Reparations. It is simply the monetization of racial consciousness, and it can be as poorly decided as Plessy, so then we’ll need yet another set of racial heroes. Will that result in a black endgame? Will black Americans actually be healed and cured?
The thing is, you never know. You just watch the who's tugging, and you keep track of your own imaginary lines. Or maybe you lose track. Or maybe you stop counting. Or maybe you decide that the world is not enough. More likely however, the world keeps turning, and something new becomes what's happening. If race has meaning to you, you will attribute what’s happening to race, your ‘racial instinct’ becomes part of your intent. How much is impossible to judge, and this is certainly a charitable view of the Temple School’s axiom of racial animus as always proximate cause. But of course they leave out the premises of equality of race and of negation of race, ie raceless consciousness.
So the question of healing and curing is going to be different for every class and psyche of black American. It’s not something that can be summarized at a federal level and all things set right.
My default position is that individual blackfolks will continue to break free of the mental chains of racial identity and when they reach that point, they will know but America en masse probably will not. Everybody understands that Morgan Freeman has no use for racial identity. I’m there. It’s kind of no big deal for me personally and ironically that’s why I write about race when I care to because it’s so obvious to me.
Speaking of obvious, the Stoic angle is to understand that race is not written into the laws of physics, the mind or God or the rules of the universe. It’s a manmade mythology which gives meaning in the absence of rigor. I’m not in control of that and it doesn’t make be behave irrationally. Works for me.
Great article!
My mother used to say that life isn't always fair. But it's that way to everyone. She told us never to see yourself as a victim. Bad things happen and there are mean people out there. Brush yourself off and pick yourself up. Get help if you need to, but move on, move past or move around your obstacle. Don't let other people determine who you are.
You will eventually find what you believe in: ie. the wolf that wins, is the one you feed.
All of these are pretty simple concepts that I believe are getting increasingly lost on our current culture. The culture of victimhood crosses all boundaries and the damage it can cause is very real. It doesn't matter what you look like, the clothes you wear or how you walk.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this!
OK, Homer Plessy = PBS Pinchback, (but not Homer Simpson!). So why’d ya throw that slider — same photo for two different names? And Wikipedia shows same image for both names, too. (Yeah, the scheme was originally by design, to entrap and expose state government racism.) And the racist Supremes (of District of Columbia, not Motown!) said it was ok as long as “separate but equal.” But you assert that “it’s not Homer Plessy”. Yet Homer Plessy was the plaintiff in the Supreme Court. “Will the real Homer Plessy please stand up?” Plessy gets messy here. Was he a personable strawman with two names? Help us out, please. We’re confused.
Aside: There are French poodles in several colors — black, brown, beige, grey, white (but not pink, except when dyed). If a French poodle wears an American dog tag, is it still French?
I think we agree that monetary reparations are racist nonsense. Maybe they worked for Japanese-American citizens, condemned for their features and citizenship, and then confined in concentration camps during WW2; but not well for Native Americans repeatedly bilked out of reservation land by treaty. Slaves liberated at the end of the Civil War who were offered 40 acres and a mule are long dead. Sending their reparation checks to the cemetery will change nothing. Those who harbor racial hatred are victims, just as are those whom they hate, so blaming the victims goes nowhere. MB Eddy wrote well when she penned this line from her poem, titled The New Century: ’Tis writ on earth, on leaf and flower: Love hath one race, one realm, one power. (We would all do well to honor this with our lives.)