Ross Gay’s piece “Some Thoughts on Mercy” is about the experiences of African Americans in predominantly white communities. Gay’s struggle throughout the piece is that whites simply don’t seem to respect African Americans, no matter where they go or what they do. In doing so, he inadvertently makes a case for the voluntary self-separation of blacks from whites.
Gay’s piece is composed largely of personal anecdotes of various racially-charged encounters. He begins with an encounter he had with police one night, and he wonders about how it might have gone had circumstances been different. He relates how he’s been called many slurs by his white neighbors, and how those neighbors just seem to be racist in general. He relates how when he was in …show more content…
Blacks in this country seem to be increasingly of the opinion that whites are incurably racist. Take the Black Lives Matter movement. 83% of blacks support BLM (Easley, 57% Have Negative View of BLM). The official Black Lives Matter website states they are working towards “a world where black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise.” The black talk show host and author Tavis Smiley writes that when he once gave a speech at Lehigh University, a black student asked him if he thought blacks could someday be enslaved again. Mr. Smiley says he thought hard about the question, and answered “Yes” (Smiley, Why I Fear America Could Enslave Black People Again). Ta-Naheesi Coates is probably the most influential black author in American today, arguably the world. He says white people believe in a “demon religion,” called white supremacy, saying “I would like to tell you that a day approaches when white people renounce this demon religion and begin to think of themselves as humans. But I can see no real promise of such a day” (Coates, Letter To My Son). In addition to these anecdotes, the premise that Gay’s beliefs are common in the black community are expressed clearly by statistics. According to Pew Research Center, 88% of blacks still don’t believe they have equal rights as whites in this country. Not equal outcome or equal achievement; equal rights. 84% of blacks say the police treat them unfairly (Pew Social Trends, On Views of Race …show more content…
Blacks need their own neighborhoods and regions to safely call their own. Likewise for whites. Just as the Japanese and the Israelis have countries of their own to call home, so too do black and white Americans need areas of the country to call their own. Self-segregation is a perfectly normal, natural process. What is not natural is for whites to try and force blacks to integrate into their society, and vice versa. If people like Ross Gay simply didn’t have to worry about conforming to a white society that will never accept them, if they had their own society to call home, maybe they would be happier people.
In conclusion, there is an argument to be made that the best, long-term solution to racial tensions in the United States is voluntary separation. Blacks have been horrendously mistreated and will never be accepted by whites, so they should cut their losses and peacefully, voluntarily separate themselves from whites. Only then can African Americans and white Americans finally have a chance at a resolving our centuries-old
Gay’s piece is composed largely of personal anecdotes of various racially-charged encounters. He begins with an encounter he had with police one night, and he wonders about how it might have gone had circumstances been different. He relates how he’s been called many slurs by his white neighbors, and how those neighbors just seem to be racist in general. He relates how when he was in …show more content…
Blacks in this country seem to be increasingly of the opinion that whites are incurably racist. Take the Black Lives Matter movement. 83% of blacks support BLM (Easley, 57% Have Negative View of BLM). The official Black Lives Matter website states they are working towards “a world where black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise.” The black talk show host and author Tavis Smiley writes that when he once gave a speech at Lehigh University, a black student asked him if he thought blacks could someday be enslaved again. Mr. Smiley says he thought hard about the question, and answered “Yes” (Smiley, Why I Fear America Could Enslave Black People Again). Ta-Naheesi Coates is probably the most influential black author in American today, arguably the world. He says white people believe in a “demon religion,” called white supremacy, saying “I would like to tell you that a day approaches when white people renounce this demon religion and begin to think of themselves as humans. But I can see no real promise of such a day” (Coates, Letter To My Son). In addition to these anecdotes, the premise that Gay’s beliefs are common in the black community are expressed clearly by statistics. According to Pew Research Center, 88% of blacks still don’t believe they have equal rights as whites in this country. Not equal outcome or equal achievement; equal rights. 84% of blacks say the police treat them unfairly (Pew Social Trends, On Views of Race …show more content…
Blacks need their own neighborhoods and regions to safely call their own. Likewise for whites. Just as the Japanese and the Israelis have countries of their own to call home, so too do black and white Americans need areas of the country to call their own. Self-segregation is a perfectly normal, natural process. What is not natural is for whites to try and force blacks to integrate into their society, and vice versa. If people like Ross Gay simply didn’t have to worry about conforming to a white society that will never accept them, if they had their own society to call home, maybe they would be happier people.
In conclusion, there is an argument to be made that the best, long-term solution to racial tensions in the United States is voluntary separation. Blacks have been horrendously mistreated and will never be accepted by whites, so they should cut their losses and peacefully, voluntarily separate themselves from whites. Only then can African Americans and white Americans finally have a chance at a resolving our centuries-old