Backhanded Racism

By Dave Haigler

Dec. 5, 2004

Growing up in the deep south during the 50’s and 60’s, I thought I’d seen the worst of racism. But I fear a lot of it is still with us, and I want to say some things about that. But first let me share a bit more about my background. My family still owns land that traces back to a king’s grant around the 1750’s in South Carolina, and so apparently they owned slaves up until reconstruction after the Civil War of 1860-65. I’ve seen fragments of testamentary wills by my ancestors leaving land and slaves to their descendants during that period of time. My earliest memories of my grandfather’s farm include working alongside Black sharecroppers’ children baling hay and other dirty farm work, and having the impression that Granddaddy Haigler was paying me more than he was paying them – a feeling that made me vaguely uncomfortable, but something I never declined. It was my earliest memory of the hypocrisy of everyone getting what they deserved solely on the basis of hard work and merit.

My years in grade school were still during the segregation era, when the Blacks had separate schools across town, which became newer and better facilities after the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 and prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. My grandfather even donated the land for one of those Black schools a few years before he ran for County Superintendent of Education, a post he held for several years after the county closed down the white public schools rather than integrate them in Calhoun County, S.C. The public schools were exclusively Black for several years during which the self-respecting whites sent their children to private schools. Gradually, the whites began attending the formerly-Black schools.

In high school, I remember visiting a girlfriend out in the countryside where I had to drive past a service station run by a blatant racist who had signs up on his property, proudly proclaiming inflammatory statements like, “Intergration [sic] is sinful” and “No niggers or apes allowed.” I remember the curious feeling that this hatemonger couldn’t spell “integration,” but somehow he knew it was sinful, and the revulsion I felt over fellow human beings being likened to animals.

In college, I remember our first Black student, Albert Gray, who became a friend of mine. I was the Features Editor of the student newspaper at Wofford College then, and I wrote a favorable article on Albert on the front page of that paper. I got called into the Dean of Students’ office and threatened with discipline for publicizing this Black student and risking wealthy white donors’ dissatisfaction with the college. I was shocked and instinctively reacted that this sounded like a First Amendment violation, not realizing that the constitution had little to say to small, private, white colleges in the south during that era. I even threatened to call a press conference if the dean retaliated against me. The dean escalated the confrontation by threatening to take me to the college president. I brashly said, “OK, Dean, let’s go.”

The dean marched me over to President Marsh’s office and made his case against me. I defended myself, saying I was appalled that a student would be threatened and a student editor would be censored. The president took my side, and I was encouraged that racism was dying.

After college, I was on a student deferment to start law school at George Washington University, and moved to D.C. to start working as an intern in a job secured for me by the senior senator from S.C., Strom Thurmond. I am sure that job was extended exclusively on merit and had nothing to do with the fact that a girlfriend of mine and her family were close friends of the senator, who often stayed overnight at their home. In the dorm that summer waiting for the fall semester to start, I became friends with Les Smith, a young Black man who had been the first Black law student at W&L University in Virginia and who was then an intern in the office of U.S. Senator Spong from Virginia. Les invited me to visit his home in tidewater, Virginia, and I remember the strange feeling that this was the first time a white person had visited their home and of being a racial minority myself there.

During my internship I met a beautiful female fellow intern at the agency where I worked, and asked her out. We doubled dated with a colleague I’d met in the Downtown Jaycees in D.C. who was a lobbyist with a pharmacists association. He was the editor of the Jaycees’ newsletter and I was his assistant. After the dinner, he informed me his girlfriend felt uncomfortable doubling with us and we’d not be able to do that anymore. Oh -- I almost forgot to mention that my date had been a Black woman. I felt sad for that uncomfortable couple.

On a subsequent visit home to S.C., I told the story about the double date to some friends of mine in Columbia. The husband of this couple had been one of my professors at the university there. The wife was the daughter of a former governor of N.C. This lady informed me I’d better never date a Black woman again, or she’d never have me in her house again. I felt sad for them too.

I decided to end my student deferment and enter the U.S. Air Force under my ROTC commission, and my friendship with Les Smith continued. During the ensuing year there was a civil-rights demonstration on the nation’s mall in 1968 called “the long hot summer,” and Les took me down there. I can remember being the only white face among the sea of black ones encamped on the mall between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. I remember hearing taunts being spouted at me by some of the Blacks, and feeling proud that my Black friend Les defended me, not having any sense of the danger.

A couple of years later, in 1970, I invited my friend Les to stand up for me at my wedding, and remember the feeling of shame that my new father-in-law would not allow Les to come into his house. We made special arrangements to make Les feel welcome in other ways – to level the playing field of hospitality for all our wedding attendants, if you will. My bride also had a Hispanic former roommate of hers as one of her bridesmaids. We were proud of having a multi-racial wedding.

A few months later I was grieved to learn that my friend Les had been murdered in a drug-related burglary in D.C. He was at the time of his death in 1971 an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division in the Nixon Administration. So much promise – and it made me sad and angry that some people still thought of him as just a “little nigger fellow.”

During my time in the Air Force, I worked shoulder to shoulder with people of all races and felt people were treated fairly and promoted on merit and performance regardless of their race. The finest boss I had in the service was a Black officer who had come up through the enlisted ranks, and one of the worst was a white captain who had been grounded as a navigator and was bitter over being in personnel work.

Later in law school, I remember having fellow students who were Black, Hispanic, male or female, and everyone being treated on merit and performance. The exams were graded blind, with the professors knowing nothing of the students on their exams but their identification numbers. The only memory I have of racial discrimination in law school was actually reverse discrimination, when one summer I applied to the EEOC for a job, and was told they had quotas only for women and racial minorities. A white male need not apply.

During my law practice, I’ve had several cases involving racial and sexual discrimination, and remember feeling sad for people who would stoop so low as to treat other human beings in such a shabby manner. I remember one case in particular, in which a white supervisor made racial and homosexual slurs against a Hispanic employee, and the irony was that the employee was married with children and not indicative of being homosexual in any way. It was as though, because he was different racially, he could be demeaned racially and sexually. We made the company pay a settlement through the EEOC, although it was nowhere high enough for the employee’s losses, and he later had to resort to bankruptcy because of those losses.

Notwithstanding all my background of shame and anger over racism, during my Republican years I bought into the rhetoric that reverse discrimination was wrong, that quotas were wrong, and that everyone simply should be treated the same on merit and performance.

I didn’t understand the fact that special actions needed to be taken to make sure the playing field would truly be level for all; and to do that, remedial actions were needed to compensate for the lack of levelness, if you will, in the playing field for minorities in the past. I didn’t understand the fact that treating everyone the same on merit and performance is really a myth in a lot of situations.

George W. Bush’s whirlwind ascension up the ladder of “success” is an example.

When I realized the Bush Administration was lying to us about the war in Iraq and switched parties, in an op-ed piece published by the Abilene Reporter News of Dec. 28, 2003, I stated my admiration for Gov. Howard Dean’s candor, giving as an example his statement that the Democratic Party needed to reclaim the loyalty and votes of the rednecks in the South who had rifles and confederate flags in their pickups. A local civil-rights activist took offense at that and questioned my commitment to civil rights. At my first Democratic meeting, I had the chance to answer that question, explaining some of my background recited above. Most were content with that answer.

Working to rebuild the Democratic Party with people of various races, I’ve attended meetings of minority groups, such as LULAC and NAACP. At a recent NAACP banquet, Dr. Ernest Dover, a Midwestern University professor, spoke of commitment to the Democratic Party and criticized President Bush for lying to the American people about the Iraq war.

Dr. Dover also told of being invited to a State Democratic Convention as alternate delegate. He refused, feeling entitled to the higher status of full delegate, and was accommodated. I feel he was misguided. I have dealt with political prima donnas of all races, in both parties, who come to meetings flaunting their “entitlements.” When chairing delegate selection, I list myself as last alternate, to model service before position to anyone who feels “entitled” to a higher spot.

Dr. Dover incurred other criticism, which I felt unwarranted. Lance Voorhees, who writes a column for “Big Country Free Press,” was also at the banquet. His November 28 column says Dover insulted President Bush by claiming Bush lied about Iraq. But it’s no insult to say someone lied when he did lie! Lance said Dover bashed Republicans, claiming their policies hurt African-Americans. But that’s the truth too. Lance says Dover doesn’t represent “the values most Abilenians espouse.” I believe most Abilenians do espouse equal rights for all. Finally, incredibly, Lance says:

  The Republican Party has done more for African Americans than any other political party…. Republicans were the anti-slavery party…. Republicans were the party responsible for enacting civil rights protections for minorities and had a higher percentage of support than Democrats for legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination….
  It is in fact the Democratic leadership who diminishes the legacy of Reverend King by pushing affirmative action legislation that promotes color over character and handouts over hard work. They don't want equality for minorities -- they want special treatment, which is nothing more than an attempt to buy the minority vote.

I must dissent!

The Republican Party tries to buy votes by appointing figurehead minorities to political posts, but does nothing for minorities in policy.

OK, give Republican Abraham Lincoln credit for the Emancipation Proclamation. Republicans were also responsible for Reconstruction and Carpetbaggers, movements so oppressive that Republicans had no significant Southern presence until the late 1960’s. Democratic President Lyndon Johnson said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would cost the Democratic Party dominance in the prejudiced South for a generation. It was Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy” that brought the South into the Republican Party in 1968, where it has remained since, as LBJ predicted.

Voorhees misrepresents Republican influence on the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Democrats needed only 5 Republican votes to pass that bill. So Republicans were hardly “the party responsible.” To make this a party issue distorts the history. The law was passed by liberals over conservatives. Mr. Conservative is bragging about what liberals did! Also, remember, this was the decade when racists like Strom Thurmond left the Democratic Party and became Republicans.

The real insult in this discussion is Voorhees saying civil rights laws “promote color over character and handouts over hard work.” We have Black friends stopped when store alarms sound, while the white patron who stole something gets away. We have friends of color who compulsively file all receipts to document their movements every day. Minority employment opportunities are not on par with whites. There is not full equality in America. Laws to overcome institutional racism are still needed: opposition to them is a backhanded alignment with racism. Dr. King’s dream cannot be realized until we level the playing field for all.