Social Segregation: A Necessary Phrase To Understand Contemporary Race Relations
Paramendra Bhagat
July 17, 2002

The United States, more than anything else, is a concept, it is an idea. It is not primarily geography, expansive as it stands, or, historically, an European offshoot, though the majority of Americans today might claim European descent. It is not a land of the "whites" that non-whites should feel grateful to be able to participate in, to whatever degree, mostly limited, more so further back in time you go.

For all the criticism that can be levelled upon its reality in the geopolitic, of its racist tendencies, in the actions of individuals and institutions, of the historic sexism, patriarchy, similar deficiencies in its social psyche that marginalize groups unfairly and levy unearned advantage upon others, for its recorded excesses in the past on world stage, and possible excesses in the future, for its arrogance as a state, a tendency to go against tendencies toward rule of law at the international level, there is something vibrant about this oldest democracy that gives one hope that the wrongs that remain can be righted with the rights enshrined within and perhaps not always elaborated.

You can not blame Newton for not having come up with the Theory of Relativity. His genius lay in what he did come up with. Not that there is any one person who unfolded the United States, but the original idea was no divine revelation, but was meant, from the outset, a work in progress, as it continues to be. As at times in the past, opportunities are around to keep expounding upon the original idea, to propose the most enlightened interpretation of what an individual is politically, and where the state stands in relation, not only for this country, but all countries in an attempt to suggest, though cultural diversity there is, and always will be, the basic tenets of democracy have universal appeal.

There might be dictators and domestic concentrations of power in countries not yet democracies, entrenched and suggesting democracy is a western concept as opposed to a universally human one, as there might be powerful groups within the United States itself, bent on keeping the workings of government away from the common folks at home, and presenting it as a modern day Roman Empire abroad, a might that is right, and, damn it, mistakes will be made.

Issues in race relations are very much alive today, for there have been too many suggestions too often in the history of this country that the individual as defined in the constitution is not the universal human being, but members of a particular cultural background, or a particular gender. A hundred years after slaves were emancipated, the civil rights movement rattled this nation. It just so happens to be that the period also saw a decisive end to colonization as nation after nation all over the Global South gained independence from the uncouth European powers, uncivilized since the days they landed on unsuspecting shores.

The national movement had internatioal repercussions, just as positive developments like Indian independence kept afloat the spirit of the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

There are people today, as there were 50 and 150 years back, who think those who see racism still existing today are too eager to blame others for their personal shortcomings that keeps them away from articulating and reaching out to aspirations. Well-meaning people tried to suggest in the 1990s that now was the time to economically uplift the minorities, and that is all there is left to do. That voice makes sense but is profoundly inadequate, if at all an attempt to articulate the new contours of challenges in race relations.

Lunch counters might have been morphed by relentless struggle, but social space still remains segregated, as in social capital is a precondition to making progress, in forging relationships, in making and remaking coalitions. The segregated golf club, or the church, is today segregation in momentum. Romance along racial lines, it just happens to be that your best friend is also white, or black, if you are black. At workplace, the hanging out, after-work get togethers, just so happen not to overmix. Such are the seeming non-threatening outlines that belie a much potent interior of the social space as it exists today, and awaits defining, so as to see racism for what it is today, and to legally confront it. Change of heart is welcome, and of course the struggle will be social, and legal and political, utterly non-violent, but it asks for a greatly sophisticated understanding of political power, and how it plays out through various institutions, formal and informal. There is still rallying to do, but it might no longer be about marching, except if it mean marching in the corridors of power, so naturally as to almost appear casual.

And the complexity of a legal confrontation of social segregation that enacts laws - imagine awaiting a change of heart among would be murderers with an accompanying naivete that has no legal weapons to confront acts of muder, you can't - and disinfects social space in a proactive way will have repercussions. A greater or, rather, total, cultural inclusion in the American democracy, not as a gift but as a birthright, will necessarily make "exporting" democracy morally easier, and might unloosen the resources to do so, will help confront the social ills in predemocratic societies, and also will unleash forces that will confront domestically tendencies like sexism and homophobia, among others, with a much greater enthusiasm than in the hitherto hush-hush approaches.

50 years after that new inadequacies will surely be uncovered, but at least this generation will have tried, and will have passed on the torch.