I read a very interesting news article and it dawned on me why race relations are taking a new direction as a major problem in America. The article, How did a Hispanic-majority city end up appointing a hate group member? allowed me to look closer at the race problem. As America becomes more diverse, we must examine group relationships here.
What is the direction of Race Relations?
In Fennville, Michigan the article notes, the town is the changing face of rural American small towns. The Fennville population is 51% Hispanic. Church services are conducted in Spanish and there is a tortilla factory nearby. Like many American agricultural areas the need for migrant workers earning a living in the corn, soybean and blueberry fields surrounding Fennville has birthed new citizens requiring the school district to create special accommodations for the children of Mexican migrant workers.
The issue presented in the article revolves around the December appointment of 32 year old Morgan Bolles, a white man, to a city commissioner position. Controversy exploded when it was later learned that Bolles was affiliated with Proud Boys, an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center had designated a hate group for their nationalistic positions and anti-immigrant views.
“Bolles didn’t disclose his affiliation with Proud Boys ahead of the appointment, and Fennville’s commissioners say they were duped.” In the intense and emotional discussion that followed, a picture of a racially divided town emerged. Many viewed Bolles’s presence as a stain on the Hispanic-majority city of about 1,800. Many others supported him.
So, as I wrapped my head around this story from a social structure, race relations perspective, I did a concept analysis for understanding the fine points. Ok, let’s say whites from say Atlantis move into a country that is predominately Black, say Blackville. They settle in and multiply. They become 51% of the small country. They bring their language and culture with them and require Blackville natives to accommodate their traditions. It is learned that the Black native newly appointed to the government council is a proud nationalist. An alarm is heard, “Hater, xenophobic, nationalist – how did this happen?” Are we right so far? What is the town to do? We asked the community.
“Racism is part of Blackville– it’s just who we are,” said a former resident of Atlantis who moved to Blackville about 40 years ago and describes himself as “Blackville to the bone”. He also said “What’s good is that we know him, this is all out in the open, and you got people like myself who are willing to speak up on the problem. If he does something racist in the open, now we can deal with it.”
Another former Atlantis national said “That’s Blackville, we just have to keep working and making a better life and not let it affect us.”
The Race Problem
When one side of an issue is the only side heard, accepted and deemed the “fair” position, how can you avoid conflict? When we call one side names for holding the same sentiments heard across the world by nationalist, including from the very homeland of new residents, how can we sustain harmonious relationships?
The race problem in America has always been an ethical, economic and social system failure that pits one group against another as the basis for who wins and who fails. Across the globe these issues are pulsing and shaking nations into realities that have been covered up with concepts like diversity, inclusion, globalism which some see as shorthand for something else.
In order to responsibly address the race problem we must identify those "something else" factors with regard to Homeland principles of group survival behaviors, fairness and respect.