How to Talk about Race: Eric Deggans at TEDxBloomington

how you doing how you doing wow I feel like a rock star guest on The Daily Show or something that's amazing I want to thank the folks from TEDx Bloomington for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today and I got to tell you this feels like a homecoming for me I was at IU on the seven-year plan so I kind of got to know the city and the people here pretty well when I was here 25 years ago to get that 25 years ago and uh one thing after I got settled in the city one thing happened to me every year without fail somebody would drive by me usually in a pickup truck sometimes with a few friends and they would call me a now the first time that happened I just froze I was like one of those red shirted Star Trek security guys you know we used to call him yeoman Johnson so I'm there like yeoman Johnson certain that a beat down is in my future and it didn't happen but what did happen is that every year like clockwork it was like a Rite of Spring or something that the snow would go away the flowers would come out and somebody would say hey not in a friendly way so I say that not to disparage the city not to disparage this wonderful University just to point out that even in a place is cool as Bloomington even in us in a school as wonderful as Indiana University there are still some corners some pockets where stereotypes and Prejudice rear their ugly heads so I decided to bring to you this talk about jumping in to talk about race across racial lines alright I see you guys are nervous already so since I left IU I've kind of gone on and I've written about this and I've talked about this and I thought about this and I found that there's two big obstacles to this conversation white folks get too guilty and defensive and black folks get too mad and but I'm really convinced that at the root of that is a difference in how different people perceive racial progress now researchers at Stanford and Yale University's they looked into this they asked people different persuasions different ethnicities how do you judge racial progress and it turns out that black folks compare where we are now to where we ought to be this imagined future where we're all equal and white folks compare where we are right now to where we used to be the journey that we made so you asked a white person where are we on wave racial progress and they go well you know we're not segregated anymore you can have the kind of job you want regardless of who you are we have a black president can you believe that things seem pretty cool you ask a black person about racial progress and they go well let's see I get followed around by security every time I go in a store I earn about 75 percent of what a white guy just like me earns I'm 12 times more likely to get prison time if I get arrested on a drug charge than a white person I'm more likely to end up on death row you know what maybe things aren't quite where they need to be right for black folks and people of color racial issues our security goals they're as primal is putting food on your table and taking care of your family now for a lot of white folks racial issues are nurturance goals there are things you do to make the world a better place not quite as primal as a security goal so we're seeing the same data we're seeing the same universe we're just using different yardsticks to judge it so these conversations are about inspiring people to think right they're about taking these thoughts often when we think about race it's an implicit thought it's something in the back of our heads we don't think about it directly they the side of our brains and their reflex actions and the goal of this conversation is to bring that stuff to the forefront and make you think about it now I can only guarantee one thing if you have these conversations it is going to be uncomfortable but I tell you what if it's uncomfortable that means you're doing it right now this reminds me a little bit of a man I met on my travels as I've written about this stuff I met a man by the name of dr. Bernard Lafayette jr. and he's an expert on civil rights and talking across race and racial reconciliation he teaches at Emory University and he also teaches at the dr. Martin Luther King jr. Center in Atlanta and he told me about the concept of how legal segregation back when segregation was legal in America it was horizontal segregation so when people were waiting in line or when people were in an elevator they didn't really segregate by race but they segregated restaurants and they segregated movie theaters they segregated churches they segregated where people sit down because when you sit down and you sit next to somebody you're more likely to see them as your equal and you're more likely to see what you have in common with them so I guess the question becomes how do we in a digital age learn this sit together now I'm convinced we got to have some ground rules number one we got to say nobody owns this issue now I know we're used to people of color bringing up this stuff because it's a skirt yes you after all but white folks I'm here to tell you you have a racial culture too and it's time for you to jump into this conversation as well because believe it or not you have just as much at stake as we do and let me tell you something else talking about race does not equal racism let me say that one more time talking about race does not equal racism because a lot of times when you want to talk about race people are going to turn that around I was called a race baiter by Bill O'Reilly on his show on Fox News now my reaction was Bill O'Reilly calling me a racist I must be doing something okay but anyway I got to say to me calling someone a race baiter or a racist for wanting to talk about race is like calling the guy who's trying to keep you from stepping in a pothole the pothole there's already a ditch in the road I'm just trying to keep you from stepping in another important point we only talk about race issues in a crisis when Trayvon Martin a sixteen year old black boy gets killed in a Florida subdivision or when a respected academic like Henry Louis Gates gets arrested in his home by the police who are investigating a report of a robbery okay now we want to talk about racial profiling and now we want to talk about how people of color get treated by the police but by then people are polarized they're angry they're set in their ways they don't they're not willing to be open they're not willing to challenge themselves it's really hard to talk in an environment like that whenever somebody does something that's questionable stereotypical or racist the first thing we want to do is say it's like a bigot that guy a racist what is wrong with that guy now believe me I understand the impulse but to me that almost outsources racism to racists and bigots and you know what that's a myth that only bigots can act with stereotypes or prejudice as a matter of fact I think prejudice is kind of seductive it explains the world to us it allows us to go into situations where we don't know anybody and we can prejudge I can say oh that guy likes rock music Errol I better I better be careful of that guy right but in the end it's not particularly accurate words matter now for me the word racism is like a DEFCON 5 level root word right I hardly ever use it I prefer words like bias prejudice stereotypes feeling uncomfortable spill kiss whatever you know what because that way we can edge it back a little bit talk about things that aren't quite at that big level because the important thing to remember is that ugly ass stereotypes and racism are prejudice is also kind of seductive it draws us in it can be funny can be entertaining one of the things that's interesting to me about this time in our culture is that now that we have a black president I sent so many people going I have to talk about you guys got a black president what more do you want right but what people don't understand is that because we have a black president that conversation is only getting started as we get more diverse as a nation as we grow more diverse as a nation these conversations are only going to happen more and more so maybe it's time to get engaged maybe it's time to get involved maybe it's time to jump in thank you very much you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 67,497

Keywords: education, culture, English, jump in, politics, ted x, Indiana, Bloomington, tedx talk, social change, race, media, United States, history, TEDxBloomington, ted, ted talk, tedx talks, community, tedx, ted talks, journalism

Id: UojLHDG_Y4w

Length: 9min 46sec (586 seconds)

Published: Sun May 05 2013