Finneran: On Sharpton, Kareem, and Uncle Toms

Friday, January 02, 2015

Tom Finneran, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

Writing about race relations in America became decidedly more difficult in August. The nation which elected its first black president more than six years ago and which reelected him quite comfortably two years ago seems to have slipped a substantial racial gear or two since August 9th. It was on that date that Ferguson Missouri police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown an unarmed black teenager, triggering a boiling racial stew and illuminating a great gap in black and white perspectives.

A story from 1995 illuminates the enormous gulf between the races. At that time I had a staff of young financial analysts with whom I worked on a daily basis, oft times well into the evening, oft times over the weekends as well. We had very serious responsibilities and if we had to work 80 and 90 hour weeks we did so with good cheer. These analysts were all college graduates. Perhaps half of them had graduate degrees as well. About half of them were black. It was as integrated a team as you could find in all of Massachusetts and they worked very well together.

The trial of O.J. Simpson dominated the news for months that year and inevitably it became part of the office chatter. As final arguments were made and the jury began its deliberations these young smart professional men and women offered their opinions and predictions about the jury’s likely verdict. To a person, right down the line, every white staffer thought O.J. would be quickly found guilty. And to a person, right down the line, every black staffer thought that he would be acquitted. In the aftermath of the jury’s decision, which stunned me by the way, I plumbed the reasoning of my black colleagues. After all, they had called the verdict quite accurately and I was way off the mark. They explained the whys and the wherefores to me---that there were three or four blacks on the jury, that virtually every black family in America had a bad experience or even a horror story about the police, that such stories were passed from generation to generation permeating each generation’s consciousness, and that no black juror would be quick to condemn a black man on anything less than perfect evidence. The O.J. prosecution had bungled some evidence and the prosecution’s witnesses were not entirely credible. Thus the predictions of “not guilty”.

I’ve reflected on that episode on and off for many years now and I’ve concluded that no white family can truly comprehend the black experience in America. We can in good faith try to do so but that history is utterly unique. The Irish, the Italians, the Poles, the Germans, the Chinese, Catholics, Jews---the whole glorious mix of America---all faced hardship and hostility, bigotry and discrimination. Yet none of it really compares to the outright ownership of fellow human beings and the forced extraction of their labors. While white America might truly yearn for the “post-racial” ideal, there’s a very long road yet to travel.

That being said, I offer a few thoughts on the current racial scene:

• Al Sharpton is a complete and utter disgrace. Why the black community has not shunned him is beyond me. His “cred’ with black America is sadly not a mystery. It is however a tragedy. The fact that black America allows him to lead the conversation is an indictment of black America. Embrace better leaders.
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote a thoughtful article on the recent demonstrations against police aggression in minority communities. He makes the point that his father and grandfather were police officers, that it is a noble, difficult, and often thankless profession, and that as a profession the police should be eager to rid themselves of the few bad apples in their midst. I don’t agree with every point he makes but I hope that Kareem continues to write and speak.
• Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the shooter who murdered New York police officers Ramos and Liu was a violent lunatic who deserved some serious prison time well before his final vicious act. The fact that he called for killing “two of them for every one of ours” has added rocket fuel to the nation’s racial tension. If it comes to that—an us against them mentality—then America will become a slaughterhouse.
• Minority communities across America are the overwhelming beneficiaries of pro-active police work. No law abiding American family should ever hope to see a tentative passive police force. Such a force will inevitably surrender the streets of an entire community to social anarchy. That thin blue line is precious to civilization. Do not demean it. And do not take it for granted.
• The relatively peaceful demonstrations in Boston had an ugly underside to them that has escaped the attention of the press. Black police officers in particular were the targets of vile racial slurs uttered by some of the demonstrators. In a city with a tough racial reputation, where supreme efforts have been made to diversify the police force, such slurs are a peculiar and ignorant taunt. They cut very deeply into the souls of black police officers who are doing their best to protect the lives and liberties of all Americans. Those police officers, as all police officers, deserve our thanks. They are not Uncle Toms. And shame to those who uttered such slanders.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.