This isn't the racism you're looking for.

It's not even 6 pm, and at least four of my Facebook friends have posted this video on their Timelines today. Apparently the video, originally posted on YouTube in 2010, is just now reaching a lot of people via Upworthy, where a fellow named Rafael Casal shared it under this headline: "Know Anyone Who Thinks Racial Profiling Is Exaggerated? Watch This, And Tell Me When Your Jaw Drops."

Please check it out before reading further:



In each case, I think the people posting this video, and the people responding to it, are missing the real story. Indeed, I think that the creators of the experiment, the producers of the TV show, "What Would You Do?", are missing the real story of their own work.

At 1:54, when host John Quinones is shown reviewing the footage, he remarks that people respond to the black guy "right away."

AS WELL THEY SHOULD - a CRIME is in progress.

The real story is not that a black kid committing a crime is treated like a criminal. The real story is that a white kid committing a crime is not, and that a white girl committing a crime receives an offer of help (What the what?!?).

Does this clip demonstrate racism? Yes. But the racism demonstrated here is not the racism of persecution (WHICH DEFINITELY EXISTS) - it's the racism of privilege.

On Upworthy, Mr. Casal says:

"at 1:50, I literally yelled, "You've got to be kidding me!" at my screen."

The problem is not at 1:50. The problem is at 1:31, when a black woman (sigh) says, "I remember thinking, 'Young white men don't usually carry burglar tools.'"

The problem is at 3:56, when an older white gentleman helps a white girl to commit her crime.

The racism of privilege says, "that person can't be committing a crime, even though it really does look like they are - because they're white," or worse yet, "that person's committing a crime, but that's ok - because they're white."

That's the racism of privilege - when the assumption of white rightness overrides the evidence of one's own senses, and shuts down one's own moral faculties.

A commenter on YouTube said, "The old guy at 3:23 is my hero." He's mine, too, because he tried to stop a crime. And for all he knew, that kid could have had a gun. That old guy doesn't bother me. The old guy at 3:56 does.

All forms of racism are stupid and evil, but the racism of privilege is especially pernicious in some ways.

• First, because it is largely unconscious. The racism of persecution knows that it is race-based. The racism of privilege often doesn't.
• Second, because, since it operates by unjustly lifting some people up, rather than by keeping some people down, it may feel like generosity of spirit.
• Third, precisely because it is largely unconscious and feels like a virtue, it may be more pervasive than the racism of persecution.

It's hard to know how pervasive it is. And it's especially hard for Black folk to know how pervasive it is, because it happens when we're not around and when people aren't even thinking about us. It is not just a white thing, it is a white-on-white thing. And it is up to white people to notice it and to fight it (also, probably, while we're not around).

Now, some of the white people in the middle segment may be racist. Heck, they all may be. But this clip doesn't demonstrate that. If the same people who let the white guy go, stopped the black guy, that might demonstrate racism. If people gave the black guy a hard time when he was not committing a crime, that might demonstrate racism (and that scenario would have been more worthy of invoking Trayvon Martin, as some have done). But stopping a black kid from committing a crime is not racial profiling, and it is not a racist thing to do. It's a neighborly thing to do. And you know what? I would rather have white neighbors who do that, than black neighbors who allow babies to be shot to death, and say nothing.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 9 - Killing Emily Dickinson

In order to build a billion-dollar enterprise, I must kill my inner Emily Dickinson.

For all my life, a part of me has been content merely to create stuff and then stuff it in a drawer. I need to terminate that part of me, with extreme prejudice.

Poems? Stories? Get 'em out there for others to read. Songs? Get 'em out there for others to sing. Scripts? Get 'em out there for others to produce. Or produce 'em myself and get the shows and films out there for others to view.

I don't know that it is even correct to say that part of me has been content to create content without distributing it. I do know that part of has been afraid of putting stuff out there. Afraid that my stuff would not be good enough.

Which then raises the question, "Good enough for what?" Or better yet, "Good enough, compared to what?"  I could not possibly do worse than some of what people get paid to produce every day.

At the meta level, the work only has value when others value it. On the ground, that means that it's worth what others will pay for it; and that it's gotta be out there for them do that. The worst that can happen when I put my stuff out there is that people will refuse to pay; that out of the earth's six billion people, none at all will find any value in anything I produce.

But every week, SyFy movies offer hilarious evidence that somebody will pay for pretty much anything. There are markets that are ravenous for content. Somewhere out there are markets for my stuff.

Let this, then, be my mantra, to be recited internally, whether I ever say it out loud to anyone or not:

This is what I have. Take it or leave it. If you take it, drop some coins in the hat, and thank you very much.

* * * * *

Today, my primary tasks were preparing for, then leading, the monthly meeting of the Save Race Street Committee's executive committee, which consists of block captains for each of our five blocks, the chair, vice-chair, secretary and treasurer. Three block captains, the secretary and myself were present. Two block captains were absent, as was the vice-chair. We don't have a treasurer, the post having been recently vacated.

Leading that group, along with SRSC itself, and Block Watch Plus (which I chair), gives me huge opportunities for experiential learning in effective leadership (EL2). Lessons learned in those contexts could be useful in building a billion-dollar enterprise. At the same time, billion-dollar enterprises can provide lessons that prove useful in leading volunteer groups of citizens.

I got in around 8 pm, ate dinner, and basically passed out on the love seat in the living room. Woke up a little after 11:30. And reminded myself that I had not done anything today to build my billion-dollar enterprise, or to make any money at all. And lounged on the love seat a little longer before going to the refrigerator to grab the last slice of Edwards key lime pie (left over from New Year's Eve), and bringing it up to my office with a large mug of cold water so I could do some BBDE work.

I realized that the thing I said yesterday about having goals emerge from my masterplan could have been a dodge to put off actually producing "Quick Flicks." So I worked on "Quick Flicks." I did not do as much as I would have liked, and I'm not yet done for the night. But at least I am doing something, have done something, this day to make money. I have done something this day to build my billion-dollar enterprise.