The Miss Black America Pageant
“Why is it still acceptable to have a Miss Black America pageant but not a Miss White America pageant?” – Kelly Trainer
For centuries American society judged black people inferior simply because of the color of skin. Black people were little more than beast of burden legally bought and sold on the slave market. The economy of the southern half of the United States was built on the backs of people who were enslaved and were forced to sacrifice their labor with absolutely no real compensation other than the substandard food, clothing, and shelter a slave owner felt compelled to offer. This arrangement allowed the white population to accumulate a huge advantage in the collection and distribution of wealth.
After America’s institutionalized slavery the dominant American race which was overwhelmingly composed of white people, felt justified in denying black people equal access to education and employment. While white children were granted an education in quality schools with quality educational materials black students at black schools were regularly given outdated materials if the board of education bothered to give them anything at all. Black schools were allowed to decay while white schools received all manners of investment. This arrangement allowed the white community to develop an educational advantage that would allow white people to be the superior candidate in an employment situation.
Irregardless of the educational and financial advantages of white people to their black counterparts, the dominant community was simply racist. America was developed with the notion that black people are not to live with white people, black people are not allowed to work with white people, black people were not allowed to learn with white people. Black people were not even allowed to use the sidewalk at the same time white people were on it. America was developed as a nation of racial disparity and racial separatism. In response to this environment, the black population had to develop its own institutions.
While white women were lining up and competing in their beauty pageants that did not allow black women to compete fairly, the black community responded with its own beauty pageant. The Miss America Beauty pageant existed for decades before it was able to allow a black woman to compete. And it was years later still before a black woman would actually win. The Miss America pageant didn’t have to call itself the Miss White America Beauty pageant. Everybody knew it was only for white women. In America, the dominant community had introduced and established a tradition of racial separation. The black community simply responded. And now the dominant community wants to eradicate these institutions and hold them up as examples of blacks imposing a condition of separatism on white people.
Black women had to earn the right to compete in the Miss America pageant. Imagine the number of black women who tried to compete in this competition that celebrates a European standard of beauty with features of hair texture and facial structure that has black women at a disadvantage. And yet, black women stepped up to the plate and jumped through the hoops to meet white people’s standards.
If white people think it is unfair for black people to have a black only contest for beauty then let white women learn to compete on the stage with black women like black women had to learn to compete on the stage with white women. How many white women want to compete in the Miss Black America pageant? Let white people learn to deal with the same level of animosity and hostility the first black beauty contestants had to face when they tried to compete with white women in an all white environment. And when white women don’t win after their first year, second year, tenth year, or twentieth year, white people need to remember how long it took for a black women to win their previously all white Miss America Pageant.
Some white people think it is unfair to be in their position of dominance and control and yet be excluded from the black institutions that were developed because of white exclusion. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. It took a concerted effort over time by many black people who wanted to compete in white people’s world. It didn’t happen overnight. If white people want to compete in black people’s world then white people need to learn to make the sacrifice and the commitment to compete in the world black people created because white people wouldn’t allow us to compete in theirs.
The Guardians
A few weeks ago, the morning news broadcast a story about the Coast Guard being called to help some utility workers who were stranded on top of a light pole one hundred fifty feet in the air when the cherry picker they were using malfunctioned. Amazingly, the fire department wasn’t able to make a quick rescue. One man was hanging onto the light pole and were tiring. The news video showed the familiar red and white Coast Guard helicopter dropping a rescuer down a cable to pluck each man from his perch. Everyone was saved.
I was reminded of the images of two and a half years ago when the Coast Guard worked overtime and double time to pull people off the roof tops of their flooded houses, businesses, and other structures. At the peak of the storm the Coast Guard and its helicopters were at work plucking people out of the way of danger. When other arms of the government were arguing about who had jurisdiction and who filed the proper paperwork and who was to decide if the federal government had the right to trample over the rights of the state in order to save people. The other arms of the government were paralyzed into doing nothing because everybody needed time to put together a plan for a disaster that was predicted years ago, the Coast Guard acted.
The Coast Guard didn’t stop to get permission from its higher ups in Washington, DC. The people in the Coast Guard weren’t paralyzed into protecting their territory or offending the sensitivities of government officials who were more concerned with scoring political points. When the President George Bush was in California strumming a guitar there was a Coast Guard helicopter in New Orleans saving a life. When Condoleezza Rice was buying expensive boots and attending a concert in New York someone from the Coast Guard was helping a poor elderly person into a basket so they can be rescued.
Such quick action has bought this government institution a lot of goodwill in my book. If someone was to ask me to vote for a tax increase to increase funding for the Coast Guard I would return the favor and would not hesitate to give this measure my utmost support. I don’t need to know how many helicopters they plan to buy or if the helicopters are being used for personal trips. I don’t need to know the salary of the guy who is flying the machine or the guy who lowers the basket or the guy who gets lowered with the basket. I don’t need to know how much of their funds are going to no bid contracts and I don’t need to know how much of their funds is going to some war effort. Unlike a lot of government entities, I am sold on the belief that the Coast Guard operates with integrity. Why, because the Coast Guard was there to save American lives from a real and immediate threat at the very moment when the American people needed them most.
A few months ago there was a news story about a noose hanging in the locker room of the Coast Guard academy. I don’t remember all the details because it was at a time when there seemed to be a noose hanging every other day. The last thing the coast guard needs is the specter of racism among its personnel. I would hope they found the racist and expelled him. If not I hope the Coast Guard expelled the entire class. Better to err on the side of caution and expel everyone than let a cowardly white racist who was willing to express his or her intolerance of others under the cloak of anonymity infiltrate the system. If those other cadets wanted to stay in the coast guard they’d better help identify the bigot in their midst.
I don’t know how many people in the Coast Guard would be willing to let their racial prejudices interfere with their ability to do their job. I can imagine someone wrapping the harness around a black person’s neck instead of their waist and giving the hoist operator the thumbs up to lift them up. I can imagine a coast guard pilot intentionally picking through the houses looking only for white people to help. Racist so bold yet cowardly as to put nooses in front of black people would be the same type of people who would claim that the Coast Guard would need a plan before it could just go in willy nilly saving people from a predominantly black area. The Coast Guard doesn’t need to be saddled with such dishonesty.
The Coast Guard is one of the few government agencies I trust without reservation. I would hope they will forever move to keep and protect the trust that I, as well as a number of other Americans, have in them. I applaud them. I thank each and every one of their personnel for their work in protecting and saving all Americans. They truly are the guardians.
