When do some media people realize that ascribing behaviors to entire groups of people, then making excuses for the behavior, does not elevate public perceptions of the groups\’ status, it lowers them?
In his New York Times column this morning, Charles Blow, who seems to make a career of making excuses, explains to us why Black people are less likely to go to museums than non-Black people.
Do you need me to tell you that he says it is racism? If you are a regular reader of Charles Blow\’s columns, I doubt it.
To “prove” his point about museums, Mr. Blow uses Rush Limbaugh as a foil, by attacking Limbaugh\’s contention that “Everything has to be about race with these people” – a sentiment Blow himself admits many other people, including people who are not fans of Limbaugh, feel the same way about.
So, other than invoking Limbaugh, how does Mr. Blow try to convince us that Museums, which are fully open to all people, inhibit Black people from attending?
First he offers us this quote from Michelle Obama:
“You see, there are so many kids in this country who look at places like museums and concert halls and other cultural centers and they think to themselves, well, that\’s not a place for me, for someone who looks like me, for someone who comes from my neighborhood. In fact, I guarantee you that right now, there are kids living less than a mile from here who would never in a million years dream that they would be welcome in this museum.”
Ok, you just read the quote. Can you show me what facts Ms. Obama offers to support any premise that Black people are being excluded – other than her vague, unsubstantiated assumption that Black children have unilaterally decided the doors there are closed to them?
I suggest Ms. Obama get out of the White House for a while and, unannounced, attend a few Museums in New York. Because, since every time we go we certainly see Black people in them, it\’s a pretty good bet that she will too.
Next, Mr. Blow unearths a summary of 30 year old data (with no link so anyone can see how the research was conducted, with how many people, how the questions were asked or whether things had changed in the ensuing 30 years). From it, he tells us this:
“African-Americans and Latinos have notably lower rates of museum attendance than white Americans. Why is that so? In part, it is the legacy of historic discrimination. A summary study of S.P.P.A. [Survey of Public Participation in the Arts] data from the 1980s on white and black attendance at arts events concluded that the measurable difference in participation could be tied to \’subtle forms of exclusion.\'”
The report cited data that shows “historic patterns of segregation and exclusion as one reason that fewer African-American families instill museum-going habits in their young children. More recent studies have identified a distinct cultural psychology among African-Americans, rooted in historical and social experience, which has produced heightened sensitivity to stereotypes and real or perceived racism.”
In other words, in 2015, during the 7th year of a Black man being President of the United States, with more Black elected officials than at any other time in history, 60 years since Brown v Board of Education, a half century since the Voting Rights Act was passed and with no legal segregation in any public place anywhere…..Charles Blow is telling us that Black people don\’t go to museums because there are “subtle forms of exclusion” – with not one specific form of exclusion mentioned, and not one example of any museum, anywhere, turning away anyone, Black or otherwise, based on skin color or ancestry of any kind.
That is asinine.
I wonder if Mr. Blow can come up with any other factors which might explain a lesser degree of museum attendance for Blacks than non-Blacks?
For example, does he think the 72% out-of-wedlock childbirth rate among Black citizens might have something to do with this? Has he considered the possibility that Black women heads of household who, in the absence of a male, may have to work at multiple jobs and/or take government assistance to so much as survive, might have something to do with their lack of the time or inclination to instill a museum culture in their children?
What about the well-documented incidents of Black children who work at excelling in school and are perfectly comfortable going to cultural entities like museums being attacked for “trying to be White” by other Black children? Are their attackers showing that Blacks feel unwelcome in museums, or are they showing that some people resent it when others try to better themselves…..and if it is the latter, what is being done to minimize such attacks and encourage the children who head for those museums?
How about the quality of education in mostly-Black areas of major cities; cities which are almost always controlled by Democrats, and have been for decades? Could their “solutions” to problems in those areas possibly be failing? Are their failures the reason some Black people are not as committed to learning, not as imbued with as strong an interest in what centers of learning such as museums have to offer, than their non-Black counterparts?
Uh…..nope. Not to Charles Blow. To him, it is not any of that inconsequential stuff. It pretty much begins and ends at the unreferenced, non-specific “subtle forms of exclusion” from bygone days, which carry over to the present.
A few questions for Mr. Blow: Does your point about “subtle forms of exclusion” mean that Black people also don\’t go to restaurants outside their residential areas – restaurants where, in another era, they would have been excluded because of their skin color? Do they self-segregate themselves in bus station waiting rooms? At airports? Do they avoid going to hotels in cities and towns where, at one time, they would not have been allowed to stay?
Look, there is no doubt that racism still exists. Loads of it. Racism is a sad reality – not of the United States in particular, but of the world. That said, however, it is also true that – now we are talking about the United States in particular – there is far less than it used to be. Places that used to be segregated no longer are. And, in any event, to the best of muy knowledge, segregation/exclusion is non-existent in public museums.
Note to Charles Blow: with the above in mind, can you please stop making excuses now, and talk reality? If so, thank you for the refreshing change of direction.
