Reader Responds to 'Civil Rights Racism?'

I have to say, I’ve been working in the civil rights movement in Texas for more than a decade, and I’ve heard terms like cracker, honky, whitey, etc. used by activists, all the way up to the occasional Farrakhan-inspired “white devil.” Not that often, but often enough to know it’s not uncommon. The vast majority in the civil rights movement don’t think that way, but some do. I’m personally sick of it and consider it just as racist as the redneck who uses the “n-word,” a word, incidentally often routinely used by some of the same activists, who tend to be from the all-talk-no-action, let’s-whine-about-it crowd, not the folks actually getting stuff done.

I also don’t buy a lot of the stuff about differing power relations justifying bigoted rhetoric by minorites, either – it’s an argument 40 years dated. Very few folks are more disempowered in today’s political environment than a white redneck who routinely uses the “n-word.” To move away from a racist society, I think we have to quit apologizing for it, including racism within the civil rights movement.

Received via email May 31.