I just finished reading the 1963 essay "My Negro Problem—And Ours" by Norman Podhoretz and it was the most touching piece I've read in a while. I found this in a Glenn Greenwald tweet in the midst of the Shirley Sherrod fiasco. Discussing publicly and honestly one's own racial prejudices may be one of the bravest actions any of us can take.
To find out after reading the essay that Podhoretz holds political views I can not possibly reconcile has been challenging to say the least. But perhaps there's another lesson in all of this.
I'm reminded of my 8th grade social studies teacher. I do not remember the context of the class discussion but he was telling a story about taking his children to the Maryland Science Center. As he was walking them though the various exhibits he noticed a black man teaching his own child some further detail about the exhibit before them. This sight gave my teacher pause to find a black man not only caught in a moment of tenderness with his child, but educating her on his free time, with nothing but the knowledge in his head and the display before them. My teacher identified his surprise as prejudice and felt immediately ashamed. But then he chose to share this story with a classroom of 13-year-olds. It was, and probably still is, a predominately white, private school. But I distinctly remember a tall black boy named Sean was sitting at the table beside me. That class also held at least two black girls. I was immediately astonished and later quite proud that he made this confession. And, like Sherrod, and I guess even like Podhoretz, his story illustrates a great point. We cannot pretend to be a colorblind society. We all have prejudices. Recognizing them might actually help us facilitate an adult conversation about race. Although you wouldn't know it looking at the majority of our mainstream media.
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