On Racism

a saying that clothes make the man. Now that may have been true a couple of generations ago. But I doubt if it’s true today.

So when this Mark Fuhrman thing came along, and I read about how he had once interceded with the LA District Attorney on behalf of some black kids, I began to wonder if words make the racist any more than clothes make the man.

By the way, this is neither a defense of nor an attack on Mark Fuhrman; the only information I have about the guy came from newspapers. And so I know nothing about him.

Anyway, Webster’s says that "racism" is "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race."

Now how do you know what someone else believes? And how can you decide whether or not he’s a racist if you don’t?

Well, you can go by what he says. But people say all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons.

Or you can watch what he does, as Isaac Bashevis Singer suggested when he wrote: "We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions."

For example, I once knew a guy who employed a couple dozen people. A handful of blacks among them. All the time I knew him, he would say the most appalling, denigrating, offensive things about blacks in general. But when it came to the blacks who were his own employees, his actions completely belied his words. Whatever problem any one of them had, he responded with money, reassurance, counsel, hand-holding, whatever it took. And always with caring, warmth, and empathy.

Now I ask you: Was he a racist?

And suppose it had been the other way around? Suppose he had said all the right things to his black employees but was never there when they needed him. Would that have made him truly color-blind? Or just another closet racist?

Think about it.