Tucker - Black and Brown Optimism, White Pessimism
Posted
Cynthia Tucker-
It’s hard to overstate the power of the symbolism: The first black president dedicated a national monument to Martin Luther King Jr., whose leadership forged a path that would take Barack Obama to the White House.
Obama’s presidency and the new King sculpture on the National Mall are impressive reminders of the many ways in which the nation has triumphed over a sordid history of racism.
That’s not to say that racism no longer exists. While there is a vigorous cottage industry on the right of racism-deniers, the vociferous protests simply reinforce the point: a minority of white Americans are discomfited by the cultural changes ushered in by the civil rights movement.
They are, however, outnumbered by the majority of citizens who are comfortable with the nation’s growing diversity and proud that its civic institutions more closely reflect full equality for all. Even King would likely be surprised that a black man occupies the White House a mere four decades or so after his death.
The hopefulness generated by Obama’s election is so profound that black and brown Americans are quite optimistic about the future. Though their immediate prospects have been battered by the Great Recession, they still believe that their children will have more opportunities and brighter futures than they did, according to a recent poll.
Oddly, white voters have the opposite view, according to a study conducted jointly by The Washington Post, Harvard University and the Kaiser Family Foundation. They see an America in decline, a country in which their children are likely to have dimmer prospects.
There is much irony in those differing outlooks. Between 2005 and 2009, black Americans saw their median household wealth drop by 53 percent, while Latinos recorded a drop of 66 percent, according to the Pew Center, which drew its conclusions from U.S. census figures. By contrast, white Americans saw their household wealth decline by just 16 percent.
But white Americans have benefited from decades of prosperity, while black and brown Americans are much accustomed to economic difficulty. The difference in perspective explains much about the divergent responses to current circumstances.
That said, it hardly matters why white voters have such a pessimistic view of the current economic climate. Perception is reality - especially in politics. Their anxieties spell trouble for Obama’s re-election chances.
Worse yet, those anxieties are poor harbingers for the America that made Obama’s election possible. People are always more generous, more trusting and more accommodating to those outside their caste or tribe when times are good. When there is plenty, people don’t mind sharing.
It’s no mere coincidence that the civil rights movement saw its greatest successes during the prosperous postwar period, when factories throughout the country churned and belched and pumped out products admired for quality the world over. Detroit made cars, Pittsburgh made steel, Kodak made Polaroids and the American middle class mushroomed.
But the last several decades have brought a globalized economy, with increased competition outside our shores. The American job engine has been sputtering for decades. The recent financial meltdown all but shut it down.
