Race Doesn't Matter?
Tom Guarriello argues that race clearly matters in America, pointing to the scarcity of Black senators, governors, and Supreme Court justices, and noting that the 2022 Super Bowl's two Black head coaches was historic precisely because it was so rare. He draws on his Bronx childhood in the 1960s to show how racial attitudes shaped everyday life and continue to affect who gets opportunities.
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Good morning, it's Tom Guarriello. We Americans continue to have a difficult, very difficult time with the issue of race. I always find it intriguing when people talk about how race doesn't matter to them, that, you know, they never see what color anybody is, they just see a person. You know, I find this a remarkable statement for people to make because race is so integral a part of our society. Different racial Backgrounds, different colors are still, in my way of looking at things, hugely important in American society. I, you know, I made a video a few weeks ago about the possibility of asking the question of whether you all thought it was possible for an African American to be elected President of the United States. Obviously this year Barack Obama is the African American candidate who prompts that question. And got a lot of interesting responses, some of which said, "Well, of course it's possible. Why would you even ask such a question? What's wrong with you for asking such a question?" I think it's a legitimate— for me, it's a legitimate question, especially when you think of the fact that, you know, there've only been 5 African American senators ever in the Senate, um, and 2 of those were appointed. Only 3 African American senators have ever been elected to the U.S. Senate. The first one was in 1966. I was 18, 19 at the time. When the first African American was elected to the United States Senate. We've only had two, I believe, African American governors ever elected to run states, to be the governors of states. There have only been two African American Supreme Court justices in our history. I was alive for the first one of those, Thurgood, and Clarence Thomas now is the second. So the idea that race is not a factor in American life, with politics being a crucial aspect of, I think, an indicator of American life, I think there's something to be explored there if we don't think that race matters. Now this weekend, tomorrow here in the United States, the Super Bowl, dun-da-da, the biggest sporting event day of the year. Will be played, and both head coaches of the two teams are African American. The first time that African American head coach has ever coached in the Super Bowl, and now there's two of them at the same time. Now, wonderfully, these are two extraordinary men. They're exemplary gentlemen. Their manner of coaching their teams is so distinctive from the stereotypical, you know, browbeating, yelling, intimidating football coach that, you know, all for the last 2 weeks, all we've been reading about is all these great ways that these 2 men motivate their teams and connect with their players and so on. But, you know, that's an aside. The first two African American head coaches ever will be coaching tomorrow. And then Renato's video asks a question, why aren't there more Black people on YouTube? Now, you know, Renato being Renato always asks questions in his Renato way. Why wouldn't he? How else is he going to ask them? And that means with, you know, a little bit of whatever, tongue-in-cheek, a little bit of irony thrown in. But, but I think it's, it's a not inconsequential question of why there aren't more Black people on YouTube. Now we saw, uh, uh, uh, Kev from South Africa make his response to Renato's video or his, you know, that he and Renato having a dialogue back and forth, both of these guys, I think, with their tongues pretty firmly planted in their cheek in talking to one another. But I don't think it's an irrelevant question. And I think that people who insist that they have no racial element at all to any of their reactions to other people I find that extraordinary. I'm not going to say I don't believe it, but I find it extraordinary because everybody I talk to, you know, just kind of talking to people, has some kind of element of racial thinking in their perception and relationships with other people. Well, here in America, you know, it's not easy. To establish relationships with people outside of your own group, kind of demographic group, whether it's economic, social, racial. We tend to relate to people who are very much like ourselves. And one of the things which I've said from the beginning about, about YouTube's appeal to me was the fact that there were a lot of different people here who I probably wouldn't get to hear from or get to know or become friends with if it weren't for YouTube. And the fact that there are not more Black people that I've found— and I, I know there are more Black people on YouTube than I know about, um, but I think what Renetta was saying is, you know, among the people who are likely to get the first wave of attention from YouTube, there aren't very many. There are essentially none who are Black. So, you know, I just, I think it's an important question to bring up because it's part of a bigger conversation about race that we here in the United States have a very, very difficult time with. And, you know, We don't recognize that it's only been— I mean, for us it feels like a long time since the Civil War that, you know, was fought over, among other things, the issue of slavery. But it's only been, you know, 140 years, which is not very long by societal standards, particularly when you're dealing with something as really fundamental as race in a country that is established on principles that are supposed to make issues of race unimportant around matters of citizenship? You know, that's still for me an evolving question. That doesn't mean that we're not working hard. I mean, I was, I was a young man in the '60s and was very much affected by the civil rights movement because it was such a clearly, uh, destructive phenomenon to have separate but equal be the law of the land. Um, and growing up in a place like the Bronx where You know, you take a look at my third grade class picture, it looks like the UN. You know, we were pretty— we didn't have to integrate. We went to school together. That was all there was to get. There was no idea about, well, are we integrated or we're not? No, we went to public school in the Bronx, and we were all there. Now, didn't mean that we weren't— that we didn't have lots and lots of racist ideas. Like, you know, I tell my friends now that, you know, We spoke the language of the streets, and the language of the streets is the language of profane prejudice. That's just the way it was. And I think probably in many places, in many ways, still is. But, so, not but, but so, the idea that race is somehow not germane to things that go on on YouTube when it's germane to things everywhere else, it doesn't, I don't quite get that. So anyway, I'll be rooting for Tony Dungy and his Colts tomorrow because when I lived in Pittsburgh and we won 4 Super Bowls, finally winning the last one last year, Tony Dungy was a defensive back on that team, a terrific defensive back, always the kind of player you wanted to watch. So I'm rooting for Tony and his Colts. So take it easy, guys. Bye-bye.
