Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Photo courtesy of here.

In Learning to be White, cultural critic Thandeka describes what she calls ”The Race Game.” The rules are simple:  white people, for one week, should practice using the racial descriptor “white” whenever they refer to white people.  Here at The Cincinnati Beacon, discussions about race can get ugly and defensive pretty quickly.  Does Cincinnati need to play The Race Game?

Check out this comment by the aptly named anonymous commenter “white male.” (We should note that this commenter’s handle does not qualify as playing “The Race Game” for reasons that will become clear in a moment.)

This individual’s attitude is one that seems prevalent among a significant portion of white Cincinnati.  In an anecdote about Catholic church festivals, “white male” wrote the following:

This did not occur at St. Catherines, but let me share my experience.  We had one person to man (turn) the dice cage.  We then had 2-3 otehrs to watch the board.  We had several African American young men playing the game.  We would announce that all bets are down, hands off the board. The dice cage would turn and then the players would try to slip #1 and $5 onto the winning number.  It got so bad with the nastiness on the part of the African Americans that the security (off duty police) told us to shut down the booth for 10 minutes and start over.

Then we start over......

Things are fine for a while, then the same bunch of young African American males come back.  The same mess is repeated.  Those guys are trying to slip bills on the table AFTER WE HAVE SAID NO MORE BETS.

Finally, security suggested that we just shut down the booth.

Then came the final insult when the Pastor said to us devoted workers that you guys were too rough on the African Americans at the table.

Firstly, why does this person insist on indicating the race of the people allegedly causing a disturbance?  Does he mean to suggest that African Americans have some innate characteristic which predisposes them to such behavior?  If so, that is an example of a racist attitude.  If not, then why mention it?  Does race mean something in these stories?  If so, then why doesn’t everyone’s race mean something?

But look at the excerpt in terms of “The Race Game.” Look at the unstated racial descriptors.  He writes, “We had one person to man (turn) the dice cage.” Why not write, “We had one white person to man the dice cage”? 

He wrote, “Finally, security suggested that we just shut down the booth.” Why not write, “Finally, white security suggested that we just shut down the booth”?

He wrote, “Then came the final insult when the Pastor said to us devoted workers that you guys were too rough on the African Americans at the table.” Why not write, “Then came the final insult when the white Pastor said...”

You get the picture. 

(If these individuals are not white, then one must wonder why the non-white racial descriptor is only assigned to those exhibiting allegedly negative behavior.)

Sadly, I predict that the simple concept of “The Race Game” will just make white people angry.  They will then complain about the suggestion without even trying it. 

Thank you for reading (and printing from) The Cincinnati Beacon.