A Recovering Racist

Since moving to Alabama four years ago, I've wondered about the depth of racism lying just below the polite surface of society. What are the lingering effects of Jim Crow? How have the views of White people who were born before the Civil Rights era changed — or not — about their Black neighbors?

The Alabama Politics This Week podcast interviewed Dr. Jim Vickrey about his continuing journey. It's a fascinating conversation.

“I consider myself, for example, a recovering racist. I don’t think any white person born and raised in the South ever overcomes the effects of the scarlet fever of racism. You can tell yourself, and you can think to yourself mentally that I’m past this. My conversion put me on the other side of this matter. But it’s still there. It will pop up in the darndest places when you are in an encounter suddenly with a Black person, and you do the wrong thing, you realize later. I’ve had that happen to me several times. It’s just a part of growing up here.” Dr. Jim Vickrey from his interview on Alabama Politics This Week

Alabama's Republican Legislators: Obtuse, Recalcitrant, Afraid?

Alabama's legislature recently concluded a special session to redraw Alabama's congressional districts mandated by the federal courts — including a 5–4 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a state where 27 percent of the residents are Black, the federal government argued — and the argument was supported by the courts — that more than one of the seven congressional districts should be expected to elect a Black representative. Not so. Historically, only one district was configured to elect a Black representative, which the federal government viewed as a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Agreeing with the federal government, the court ordered the legislature to create

“an additional majority-Black congressional district, or an additional district in which Black voters otherwise have an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.”

Providing further guidance, the judges wrote,

"As the Legislature considers such plans, it should be mindful of the practical reality … that any remedial plan will need to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it."

The legislature's solution, according to the Alabama Reflector:

GOP maps created a new 7th Congressional District in the western Black Belt with a bare majority of Black voters (it ended up at 50.65 percent) and a new 2nd Congressional District in southeast Alabama with a Black population that ranged from 38 to 42 percent.

Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, who co-chaired the reapportionment committee, said while the district wasn’t majority-Black, Black voters would have the "opportunity" to elect leaders of their choice, according to the Alabama Reflector.

Opportunity doesn't mean the outcome is likely. I can buy a lottery ticket, with the outcome most assuredly the opposite of what I hope. A population that's 38 to 42 percent hardly meets the criteria of "a voting-age majority or something quite close to it."

So it's back to court, the Alabama legislature wasting taxpayer money to defend Jim Crow.

However, my assessment may be too harsh. A thought experiment written by Brian Lyman posits the legislature may be motivated more by the fear of retribution from their hard-core voters than racial bias.

Regardless, Alabama's racial infamy lives on.

Dishonoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Last week the country honored the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy, lamenting his tragically shortened life and yet unfulfilled promise of racial equity. The same day as the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Alabama and Mississippi memorialized Robert E. Lee’s birthday, state holidays dating from the late 1800s.

Perhaps a Robert E. Lee holiday in the decades post-Reconstruction, when the South was building Jim Crow to undermine the outcome of the Civil War, is understandable. By the 1960s, however, these Confederate celebrations were clearly antithetical to the values of racial equity raised by the Civil Rights movement, hopefully mirrored in the social evolution of the country.

Yet the Robert E. Lee holidays have remained on the calendar, incredibly paired with the MLK holiday in Alabama and Mississippi since it started in 1986. Alabama’s governor and legislature don’t seem bothered by the contradictory values, content to quietly honor the legacy of the Civil War and slavery.

As a new resident of Alabama, I’m appalled by the dissonance, which prompted a letter to the governor:

❝Dear Governor Ivey,

Before moving to Alabama a year ago, I was curious how I would find the state addressing its history of slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights era. I’ve found some hopeful signs, such as the effort to amend the state constitution to delete racist language. However, I’m appalled that the state has a holiday memorializing Robert E. Lee’s birthday. Even worse, it’s the same day as the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday — which I interpret as a sophomoric and impudent attempt to negate the life and contributions of Rev. Dr. King.

Other than the symbolism of Jim Crow, Alabama honoring Robert E. Lee with a holiday surprises me. Lee had no tie to the state other than his military campaigns during the Civil War. Although the record shows he was conflicted by slavery, he fought to preserve it, leading many Confederate soldiers to their deaths under his command.

For Alabama to honor Lee and his legacy with a holiday is inconsistent with reconciling the state’s lamentable racial history. I urge you to use your last term as governor to remove this annual commemoration of the state’s racist past. You have the opportunity to articulate a vision of racial equity that respects all of Alabama’s citizens.

Respectfully,

Gary Lerude

Words Do Matter

Senator Tuberville,

Moving to Alabama a year ago, I was curious how I would find the state addressing its legacy of slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights era. I’ve found some hopeful signs, such as amending the state constitution to delete racist language and the portions that have been repealed. However, celebrating Robert E. Lee’s and Jefferson Davis’ birthdays and Confederate Memorial Day as state holidays seems inconsistent with reconciling the state’s lamentable history. Perhaps the idea is to let sleeping dogs lie.

But your remarks at Donald Trump’s political rally in Minden kicked that dog:

“They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that. Bullshit. They are not owed that."

Equating reparations — “something done or money paid to make amends or compensate for a wrong,” meaning the wrong of slavery — to “the people that do the crime” seems patently racist to me. The two are not equal.

Following your unfortunate remarks, you issued no clarification. No apology. No acknowledgment of the slur on 27 percent of the state’s population, whom you are supposed to represent.

Then, when pressed in your recent interview with Lenise Ligon of FOX10 news, you tried to dismiss the critique with an illogical string of words:

“Race has no color. Reparation would have no color.”

That makes no sense, Senator. To quote you, it sounds like BS. I can’t judge your intent, but it seems your remarks reflect the Jim Crow era that framed you.