No innocent bystanders

Julian Bond says everyone has to take responsibility for our racial divisions

by Ian Donnis

Like no other event in recent Rhode Island history, the death of Providence police Sgt. Cornel Young Jr. has illuminated frustration and anger about racial inequality. As a veteran of the civil rights movement of the '60s, Julian Bond is keenly aware of America's unfinished business when it comes to race. Achieving progress is all the more difficult since the movement's urgency has been supplanted by widespread complacency, not to mention reactionary attacks on affirmative action.

Bond, chairman of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), has been an active participant in movements for civil rights, economic justice and peace. As a student at Morehouse College, he was a founder in 1960 of the Atlanta student sit-in and anti-segregation effort, and of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Elected in 1965 to the Georgia House of Representatives, Bond was prevented from taking his seat by fellow legislators who objected to his opposition to the Vietnam war. He was reelected to his own seat, blocked from taking it again, and seated only after a third election and a decision in which the US Supreme Court found the Georgia House had violated his rights.

Bond hosted Saturday Night Live in 1977 and has narrated many documentaries, including the prize-winning and critically acclaimed series, Eyes On the Prize. He is a distinguished professor at American University in Washington, D.C. Bond, who was scheduled to visit Bryant College in Smithfield this week to share his view of race and rights in the new millennium, spoke with the Phoenix from his Washington office.

Q: As a veteran of the civil rights movement of the '60s, how do you see the outlook for progress?

A: As Yogi Berra said, it's déjà vu all over again. Many Americans think that the Civil Rights Acts of '64 and '65 solved whatever racial problems the country had, and that there is no necessity for any vigilant action against racial discrimination. Secondly, I think people are suffering from race fatigue. They've heard about racial problems so often and for so long that they are tired of it and they want it to go away. There are probably more reasons. Finally, there are so many competing concerns for the public's attention that weren't as prominent in the 1960s -- environmental concerns for one. A combination of these and other concerns make it difficult to focus attention on what I believe is the most pressing American problem.

Q: The fatal shooting here of a black police officer by two white colleagues -- in what Providence police officials describe as a terrible mistake -- has brought a lot of frustration and anger among minorities to the surface. Why does this kind of serious discussion about racial division tend to occur only after a crisis?

A: As a people, as a nation, we do not like to talk about racial discrimination, because the implications are too awful. Every white American -- whether or not their ancestors owned slaves, no matter when their forebears arrived here -- is a beneficiary of discrimination against racial minorities, to a lesser or greater degree. We cannot acknowledge that, because to do so poses a real threat to the status we have -- that white Americans have -- in society.

It is only these awful events that bring these discussions back to the surface. Then, sadly, only until there's some resolution of the event. It's rare indeed that a community takes advantage of an event like this to address a wider range of problems which have been pushed under the surface.

Q: How can individuals and communities do a better job of coming to terms with this?

A: We all have to take some ownership of this problem and say, I'm implicated in this, because all of us are implicated in it. There are no innocent bystanders here. Each of us, in his or her own way, has to find a way to work toward the amelioration of these problems. Whether it's something as blatant as the failure of police academy classmates to recognize their classmate [one of the officers who shot Young was an academy classmate of his -- Ed.] or [more routine instances of bias, prejudice and stereotyping] all of us have to say, what can I do to stop this from happening again?

Q: Racism and other complex and deeply rooted social problems sometimes seem so big and abstract to people that they feel powerless to change the situation. What kind of tangible steps would you recommend?

A: People who run things -- CEOs, governors, mayors and heads of organizations, labor leaders, people whose voices are listened to -- can make forthright statements about the dedication of their organization, their institution, to a just and fair society. And they can lend the power and the prestige of their institutions to a variety of solutions. Individuals who don't speak for anyone but themselves can find some way, and there are millions of ways, to engage themselves in some project, however small, that makes a dent in this wall between majority and minority Americans.

It could be something like tutoring underprivileged children. It could be some group project, like Habitat for Humanity. It could be telling someone, who tells a joke about two Jews walking down the street, to shut up. There are ample opportunities for concerned people to take hold of some small part of this big problem. We don't have to change the whole world, but we do have to change the part of it we're responsible for.

Q: Many people, particularly members of the minority community, have called for the Rhode Island attorney general's office to turn the investigation into the death of the slain police officer, Cornel Young Jr., over to an outside, independent entity. This represents a lack of confidence in civic institutions. What should be done to build this kind of confidence?

A: Wherever you are, these institutions have to be seen as open and honest about admitting mistakes and errors, and friendly toward their customers, in this case, the citizens. If they aren't that, it doesn't take an incident like this to create cynicism; it pre-exists. These institutions need to be open and accountable to the people they serve.

Q: W.E.B. DuBois famously predicted that the color line would be the dominant issue of the 20th century. How does his statement apply to the new century?

A: I think the prospect is the same, but you've got to be more optimistic now than DuBois was 95 years ago when he said that. This is a very different and better world than when he said that, precisely because individuals and organizations worked to make it so. If individuals and organizations work to do the same in this century, this will be a better century.

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.