Stories At The Margin
columnist: Christopher Espinal

Topic: Ron Paul
Honest, Conservative, Racist Just Like Me

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No, I am not writing about John Derbyshire!

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by Christopher Espinal
(Conservative)
Wednesday, January 9, 2008

We all have fears of the very ideas and concepts alien to our lives. It turns out that humans by nature don’t learn about the world and their surroundings in a manner that fully reveals truth. As we observe our surroundings from the time our mothers give us life in this world, we try our best to comprehend nature. We categorize everything we see, from colors and shapes, to people. This natural form of organizational thought provides efficiency in storing information in our brains. It becomes easier to think of all the items we see as derivatives of shapes or ideas as derivatives of more general ideas. The same thought process goes for humans, where our experiences with foreign cultures and people with different physical appearances becomes a member of some category in our minds. As our rate of exposure to different kinds of people increases, so does our understanding of the exclusive details of their individual being.

I can’t help but describe how this though process of generalizing once took complete hold of how I perceived different people and ethnicities. I was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Dominican family. I don’t intend to delve into our initial impoverished conditions to bore you with the same inner city story. I intend to do something interesting: describe my family’s everyday understanding of other people. My mother taught me to always look over my shoulder when on the go. She specifically asked that I look for them, the animals, or the darkies. I never quite understood her fear of them as she didn’t have the lightest skin. Today, I see this as proof of Michael Eric Dyson’s statement that immigrants just like whites have skewed understandings of black Americans.

My mother never really interacted with them or spoke to them. All she saw on the news were black men put on charges for crimes of murder and robbery, or pictures of wanted black rapists. These represented her only knowledge and information by which to categorize another people vilified and feared by many. Over holiday break she asked me "Why are black people lazy?"

Unfortunately, I grew up with these ideas, strongly believing that blacks were prone to crime and dangerous qualities. My experience with my people led me to believe that we were different, despite similar perceptions of us outside of the Latino community. I had the experience with my people to prove in my mind that each of us are individuals and our personalities and preferences varied across each Dominican; but no, not them, not the darkies. Seems contradictory, huh? Well my parents taught me well with good wisdom and experience of the world. They observed closely and detailed every black person’s moves.

Of course it took my own experience with black America to realize that they have qualities and personalities that vary across individuals like us Latinos. I categorized them as my brain usually does with everything else I observe physically and verbally. Honestly, what could I say or do when I was thought of these images and visions of the black community with no intention of figuring out these so-called qualities out on my own?

I now believe that every individual in this world has at one point suffered the consequences of our brain’s intrinsic generalizing function. To me this experience thus demonstrates that to become prejudiced is much easier than the task of learning to see each person as an individual. It requires time and education brought forth by everyday experiences with new and different kinds of people.

Some folks get so caught up in their lack of experience with other kinds that their fear evolves into hate. They join the KKK, the Nation of Islam, the New Black Panthers, or Stormfront espousing views and speaking of their perils while blaming the other kind. They all seem to profess a so-called wisdom about "those people" but in actuality, it is their lack of wisdom or their lack of experience that imprisons them in a proverbial jail of hate.

It wasn’t a proverbial jail of hate, but maybe one of ignorance that once sealed in Presidential hopeful Ron Paul. Just this week a silly and biased journalist seeking to curtail the ReLOVEution of small government, peace, and prosperity researched years of the congressman’s political writings ranging from the Ron Paul Investment Letter to his Political Report.

James Kirchick’s criticisms ranged from Paul’s alliance with "neo-confederate" organizations to blatant ignorance and bigotry towards blacks, Jews, and gays. While Thomas DiLorenzo, frequent writer for LewRockwell.com, and author of the The Real Lincoln, made what I thought were fine rebuttals to Kirchick’s criticisms of Paul’s leanings towards pro-constitutional secessions, the racist comments need a bit more attention by Paul. Nick Gillespie, chief editor of Reason, and Radley Balko, another Reason staff member, both favorable to the intense constitutional message of Paul would agree with me on this point. Balko even wrote a comment on how disappointed he was in the Ron Paul 2008 Campaign. He needs to provide skeptics and people seeking change in American government with details to prove that he fits their requisites of a real truthful leader.

Let’s face it! The reason former Klansman, Senator Robert Byrd, can’t run for president lies in his past affiliation. The American people seeking change in ideals and purity in character will not look to a candidate who offers the former or latter unless confronted with an extreme limit in choices.

Paul’s reluctance to provide these necessary details forces me to conclude that at some point he possessed these racist ideas once in his past. For Paul to say that these racist remarks were already dealt with resembles a common shrug of irritation, "Awe, not that again!" I find it too easy to say that someone else wrote these articles in his place while he was gone practicing medicine and decides not to provide evidence or say who. Come on! Do you expect me to believe that after a decade of bigoted commentary on his political report he didn’t put a foot down and demand editing procedures? Sounds like a former racist in denial to me. Whoa! Just the way I used to be! But the question then becomes if it’s right to blame Paul for his past as for any former bigot.

Just as numerous black intellectuals like Michael Eric Dyson, Henry Louis Gates, and Cornell West would blame the modern peril of their people on environmental and socio-economic conditions, I would do the same for sheltered and ignorant white Americans. Ethnic extremists, both white and black, obviously haven’t worked side by side with many of the "other kind" but still manage to construct some general image or pattern of black or white qualities in their mind.

These racists with lackluster experience with diverse people lags so much to those who accept differences that they fail to realize the complexity of humankind and civilization and more so individuality. Might I add the difficulties of the early 1900’s throughout the early 1980’s for people both black and white to go beyond their limited communities and explore the diversity necessary to revamp their ignorance.

Paul’s controversy reminds me of an American History paper I put together on a store named Hastings in Amherst Massachusetts. A small family owned this candy, stationary, and newspaper shop for generations and I had the chance to interview an old Hastings couple who ran the New England friendly business for more than several decades. I inquired about topics ranging from the fear instilled by the Cold War to their relations with the black community. From this interview I left their home shocked, not appalled, but more so interested in their use of the word Negro when discussing, very positively, the latter topic. After several minutes of contemplating their language, I remembered that the 80-year-old couple lived in that town since the Amherst of yesterday: an almost completely white blue-collar farm community before the University of Massachusetts-Amherst scrapped its agricultural program for a worldly education. From what I remember that was way before the 50’s. In other words, the couple was old-school using old-school language. They were molded by the world they lived in with its ideas and phrases. It was the same kind of molding that made me who I was and the Ron Paul of his bigoted past.

Of course hurtful language and bigotry is not necessarily the same thing but I am still able to apply it to Ron Paul. He and many others had a different experience with black America especially during extremely volatile and sensitive times. Race tensions in the form of riots and murders happened quite frequently. With years to contemplate such complex matters of the recent past most veterans of that period in American history certainly look back to the old days with regret. Others will not risk humiliation of admitting to having prejudiced sentiments themselves. Education of oneself in relation to others, or others in relation to others, requires more than a couple of years. To destroy the over simplistic thought process of generalization or to expand its capabilities requires more life experience than we may believe. This applies to Mr. Paul and every other individual, white or black.

The saddest part of this story is that Kirchick used Paul’s dirty past with an attempt to bring down the campaign and message of freedom. I doubt Senator Byrd and his progressive politics would ever come under this sort of fire by liberal Kirchick. In general The New Republic espouses a biased overall message of a new generation of big government and greater activity in the personal lives of individuals. Thus, Kirchick only played his role in reporting anti-constitutional news. Not to mention that a mainstream conservative blogger used TNR’s report for her purpose as well. Had Ron Paul championed the War in Iraq I have to admit one of my favorite comical Townhall.com bloggers, Mary Katherine Ham, would never allow a hyperlink for such propaganda by a deceptive liberal writer like James Kirchick.

What I find most interesting about this controversy is that the same people, who cry racism to destroy an important and historic movement of freedom and liberty, are the same who will shake in their boots if dropped off in the middle of South Bronx or Harlem. I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw Kirchick cross the street if a group of young black or Latino men walk towards him. I pity these so called anti-racists like Kirchick who seek equal treatment for everyone yet can’t prove their own innocence.

I personally may disagree with Paul’s message of non-intervention in foreign nations in a modern world like this, but I feel for a man who changed his bigotry to an active fight for the rights of young black men unfairly persecuted in the Death Penalty and the War on Drugs.

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2008 Christopher Espinal, all rights reserved.
Published: Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of Christopher Espinal only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Christopher Espinal is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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