Now this was quite interesting. I'm really hoping these guys will give me some embed so I can post video. Anyway Matt--who attended--has his impressions here, here, here and here. The panel featured Shelby Steele, Charles Kamasaki, and Richard Thompson Ford. I had a devil of a time because I was moderating, but as many of you know, I have some deep deep--dare I say profound--disagreements with Shelby Steele. I was hoping that someone on the panel would challenge some of his more outlandish statements, but it mostly fell to me. i don't think that was out of any passivity--it wasn't Kamasaki's area, and I think Richard may be a little closer to Shelby's politics than me. I hope I'm not miscasting Richard there. Anyway, I challenged where I could--the idea that the biggest problem in America, regarding race, is white guilt was particularly ridiculous, and I said as much.
But more interesting to me was the crowd, which immediately made me understand why someone might think that white guilt was a problem. When people say white folks are "uncomfortable" talking about race, I've basically accepted it as true. It's never been my experience--all the white people I know talk about it willingly. But once again, we're back to the differing tribes of whiteness, no? There were a few black folks in the audience (We've actually been represented well out here. Props to Aspen on that), but virtually no Latinos or Asians. More importantly, the crowd was, in the main, over fifty. What I mean is that, the crowd was of a generation where people were extremely uncomfortable discussing race.
Of course, I'm slow on the uptake. Man listen, I'm steady cracking jokes, trying to lighten the mood, and I'm getting the stone-face treatment the whole time. A riff on all the black folks rooting for the Celtics this year went over like a Toby Keith concert in Harlem. Tough crowd. Plus we got questions like "Where are all the black leaders to tell black people about social responsibility" and "Will Barack Obama be assassinated." The whole thing sort of depressed me, because I felt as a moderator, I could have done better, and yet I also wanted to be in a better position to challenge Shelby on some of his arguments. That said, again, this is where you see that the biggest divide on this whole racial conversation may not be between black and white, but between the old and the young.
UPDATE: On Monday Shelby bizarely claimed that white guilt was one of the reasons we were losing the Iraq War. I don't think I have to comment on that. But what's interesting is that it wasn't the first time he'd made such a statement.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
"Where are all the black leaders to tell black people about social responsibility" and "Will Barack Obama be assassinated."
Banging my head on the keyboard.
Personally, I only read your blog out of white guilt. I'm sure it's very nice, but I don't understand most of it because I don't speak ebonics. Please give me your address so I can send you reparations.
'Guilt' is the wrong word. 'Anxiety' is closer, and off the top of my head I'm gonna say it falls into two categories. 1) The anxiety that we'll say something that's taken as racist, and 2) the anxiety that we'll say something that's racist. Well, and 3) all of the above.
And granted, you're right about the tribes of whiteness, but I'm not confident this is such a generational thing. I think that younger white people might--speaking -incredibly- generally--have more -personal- comfort with blacks than older whites, so you don't see the stone-faces and the awkwardness. (Though I dunno about your joke: "I'm having a white devil of a time moderating... ") But I think the price of that is the whole 'I'm completely colorblind' thing, and 'I don't even -think- of him as black', and 'let's just treat everyone exactly the same'--in other words, a pronounced lack of awareness about institutional and society and cultural racism vs. mere personal racism.
Too bad the Celtics joke didn't go over better. As a Celtics fan (a white one), it definitely alleviated some of my white guilt to see this team get support from black fans. You grow up, and you're a fan of a team before you realize what a team meant historically--what a city meant historically. The Celtics were especially complicated since the ownership and its GM throughout the 80s were famously NOT racist, but the city was. The first black player in the NBA was a Celtic, and Auerbach was famous for just wanting the most talented players.
Still, I know of the tensions from the 80s (though I am too young to remember them) and on some level always felt I would have enjoyed the Lakers' style more, as what young person doesn't like fast-paced pretty basketball.
Kevin Garnett was very weary of playing in Boston, and rightly so given the city's history, but it's a testament to cultural changes in Boston (if not socio-economic, geographic, etc.) that most of its most beloved athletes in every sport are not white. Terrible city to live in though, blah.
Nah, no white devil joke there. Were I racist, I'd like to think I'd be more clever than that. Cooly inserting "Why'd he" for "Whitey" perhaps?
Agreed. I thought the Celtics/Toby Keith riff was hilarious! And I'll double-down on the generational theory. As someone who's militantly pro-youth, I have to wonder why the Aspen organizers are afraid of the under-50 set?
I think next year's festival needs more age-based affirmative action!
I also endorse the generational theory. Remember that for us over 50, part of our collective experience was seeing people getting killed in race riots and white backlash on TV in living color. With 80% approval of white folks. That's only a slight exaggeration.
My children's school is kaleidoscopic in a way mine never was. Which is maybe not enough in itself, but still a very good thing.