THE
MANY FACES OF BIAS
BY
JULIANNE MALVEAUX
If 2002 did nothing
else, it provided those who teach African American studies with
scores of “teachable moments” about race, class, gender,
history, and intersectionality. The end-year flap about Trent
Lott’s hankering back to the good old days of segregation
could easily take up hours of conversation, with a dissection
of his Pascagoula, Mississippi “apology” and BET embrace
of affirmative action easily taking up hours of discussion.
It was amusing (and amazing) to listen to the coded signals that
Lott continued to send until the end, alarming to think that the
Republican Party (or Democrats, for that matter) can sidestep
the issue of race by using Lott as a sacrificial lamb. And it
will be interesting to see if Lott’s newfound racial sensitivity
results in any amended actions on his part. Will he, indeed, tour
the South with Georgia Congressman John Lewis? Will he continue
to support Judge Pickering for an appointment to the Appeals Court?
Or will he go back to his god-ole-boy ways?
Another story had nearly as much intensity as the Lott story,
it will probably stay in headlines longer. Martha Burk, President
of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, set off
a firestorm when she wrote Hootie Johnson, President of the Augusta
National Golf Club, asking that he consider admitting women to
the all-male golf club. Since the Augusta National Golf Club had
only reluctantly admitted African Americans and other minorities,
Burk must have expected the resistance she got when she wrote
a man named Hootie (talk about code speak and conjuring up images
of good-ole-boy status) in a letter she says was private. Hootie,
predictably, made the letter public, dug his heels in, and said
that he’d not be forced to do anything, anytime.
My reactions to the story were as predictable as anyone’s.
As a feminist, I support Martha Burk’s position and admire
her moxie in taking Augusta on. All-male private clubs, especially
those subsidized by tax dollars, are places where commerce takes
place, commerce that women are excluded from. When Fortune 500
CEOs and their staff members rub elbows and cut deals, women who
might legitimately want a piece of the action (or just a place
at the table) are excluded, and miss networking and other business
opportunities.
At the same time, as a former President of an all-black women’s
organization, the National Association of Negro Business and Professional
Women’s Clubs, incorporated, I am often asked to justify
why I support separatism on one hand, and inclusion on the other.
We still have African American and women’s organizations
because we have been, in large part, excluded form the mainstream.
Though exclusionary membership barriers have sometimes disappeared
(African Americans can, for example, now join the American Medical
Association), there are enough racial and gender gaps to warrant
the continued existence of organizations that fight to close these
gaps. Thus, white women who agree with Delta Sigma Theta’s
struggle for black women’s rights are welcomed into the
sorority. And organizations like the NAACP that many perceive
as “black” organizations are actually civil rights
organizations that were founded by black and white leaders through
the Niagara Movement.
So, there is ample justification for the continued existence of
women’s groups, African American groups, and civil rights
groups. I comfortably made those comparisons in conversation,
looked from a distance at Martha, Hootie, and Augusta, marveled
as Hootie said he’d reject advertising to insulate his sponsors
from women’s ire, and wondered just how the story would
turn out. I cared about the issue but, frankly, hadn’t put
it on my front burner. Then Martha Burk and the New York Times
upped the ante, suggesting that Tiger Woods should refuse to play
at Augusta until women were admitted to the club. Talk about snapping
me to attention. The first thing I thought was “black man’s
burden”. How dare Martha and the Times put Tiger on the
line when they hadn’t called any white golfers onto the
carpet? It rather reminded me of the historic suffragist indignation
that African Americans got the vote before they did, and of all
the race and gender collisions that have taken place in the late
20th century, from the issues raised in the Clarence Thomas confirmation
hearings, to the race-gender conflict that took place around OJ
Simpson’s trial for the murder of his wife, Nicole.
Tiger Woods has said he thinks the Augusta national Golf Club
should admit women. But he also says he won’t boycott a
tournament to make it happen. Martha Burk is not satisfied. "If
others had taken that view," Burk told a reporter, "he'd
be a caddie at Augusta. He wouldn't be a player." I cringed
when I read the comment because I realized that some women, right
as they are on women’s issues, don’t get civil rights,
the civil rights struggle, and the difference between bias against
women and bias against African Americans. As I cringed, I also
wondered how many white women, including Martha Burk, shrug off
their white skin privilege around race matters. Where have they
been in the face of race matters? Feminists have come a long way
in terms of racial sensitivities, but comments like Martha Burk’s
suggest women still have a long way to go.
It takes a history lesson to understand why Tiger may be a reluctant
spokesperson for women, and why I look askance at Martha Burk’s
willingness to turn Tiger Woods into a pawn in her game. One might
ask if she gave him the same courtesy she gave Hootie, the courtesy
of a letter or a phone call before she called him out. She is
acting as if Tiger is the establishment, the enemy. The real enemy
is the white male patriarchy that has excluded both African Americans
and women from Augusta. In the name of women’s rights, should
black men walk away from Augusta? When, in the name of civil rights,
have white women walked away from racist institutions?
African Americans and women have somewhat parallel histories in
terms of having been discriminated against. But the histories
are not the same. Only African Americans were enslaved. And white
women, often, have enjoyed the privilege their race confers. When
the many faces of bias are viewed through the lens of history,
the result is a fascinating complexity absent from Martha Burk’s
comments about Tiger Woods.
From Black Issues in Higher Education, January 2003