There are no ‘typical’ people

Whether Barack Obama’s “landmark” speech on race in America this past week mended rifts or further strained racial relations may be debated for years. Whatever your opinion of the speech and the remarks that followed, it put the issue of race in the center of American thought.

America is a marvelous melting pot, and most of its denizens are pleased to be in a diverse country where there is opportunity for all. Racism is an ugly word and most of us shy away from it. But most of us, no matter what our race, practice some inadvertent racism. Obama has shown us this.

Obama talked about his white grandmother being afraid of meeting a black man on the street. And Obama, in explaining the comments, referred to a “typical white person.”

We are inadvertent racists because we are naturally more comfortable with people who look like us. No matter how many friends we have of other races, there is a natural tendency to flock to one’s own. As the race barriers in America have blurred over the past century, our flocks are not necessarily Irish, Samoan or Jewish; black, Native or white. But prejudice by race, age, gender, religion and ethnicity will always remain.

Here in Alaska, we have our own melting pot, which includes sizable populations of Indigenous Peoples, Pacific Islanders, Eastern Europeans, Asians and others. Thankfully, in the Valley we seldom witness overt or malicious racism, hate crimes and the like. Not many months ago some perceived race issues at Palmer High School drew a quick response from the school district to uproot any seeds of prejudice.

Unfortunately, the Valley isn’t immune from racial hatred or ignorance.

This past Tuesday, as Obama’s speech was being broken down by television news analysts, a seemingly ordinary Alaska woman of middling years watched in a waiting room at a Valley medical facility. She listened intently, for a long while saying nothing.

When at last she opened her mouth, a vitriolic litany of hatred against one segment of Alaska’s population spewed out. While she advocated reparations for one American minority, she advocated violently expelling another. When confronted, she crowed about her pride in her prejudice and intolerance.

Yes, America has race issues. Some may never be resolved. But with an open dialogue about the issues beyond race that unite us as Americans, and as Alaskans, we can move away, if never completely beyond, from prejudice and build a future for ourselves and our children. This happens when we realize that, regardless of race, ethnicity or religious beliefs, there are no “typical” any kind of people.