What happened to "Justice for All?"
The door to opportunity is through education, he observed, and “sadly, in Mesa County, many young people can only peek through the keyhole of that door to see what opportunities might exist.” He recalled a recent school board meeting where it was reported that more than 600 students were being lost between ninth grade and high school graduation. Estimates were that half of these were Hispanics typically from low-income households. Mr. Robinson called this loss heartbreaking and a disappearance of the hopes and dreams that most young people enter school with. He then cited a gap of up to 30 percent in the third-grade achievement scores between Anglos and Hispanics. It is not surprising, he continued, that the so-called low-performing schools have the poorest children in the county in them.
Mr. Robinson told the Committee that the Mesa County school district is the 10th largest in the state, yet is the most poorly funded. He added that Colorado remains one of four states with the lowest overall school funding.
He then shared with the Committee statistics reflecting the region’s rapid growth, noting that most people are employed in lower-paying service and retail jobs, and that the per capita income is considerably lower in Mesa County than in Colorado as a whole.
Mr. Robinson told the Committee that poor people are not afforded the same degree of protection of their civil rights as those with greater economic means. He said that poor people’s civil rights are always compromised, and observed that as a white male, he is afforded certain privileges that do not extend “to a black man or Hispanic man or an immigrant with limited-English ability.” The discrimination, he observed, is not blatant but subtle and difficult to address.
In an era when we can project through computer models all sorts of trends statistically . . . you would think we could apply a similar model to addressing human rights and human relations issues.
When a citizen is arrested at a town council meeting (in Palisade) for not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance . . . when a group of developmentally disabled citizens are not allowed to move into a group home without criticism . . . when half the Chicanos don’t graduate from high school; when the gap widens between Anglo and Hispanic students on test scores, when almost all the kids doing poorly in school are also poor kids economically, we need to stand and take notice.
He was emphatic in telling the Committee that the focus in Mesa County needs to be on educating poor kids. “That has to be our priority,” he said.
In response to Committee questions, Mr. Robinson stated that he knows of only one minority person who has ever served on the school board and that the participation of minorities in the political process is very low. He also said the school district is not competing effectively for qualified Hispanic teachers. Part of the problem lies with noncompetitive salaries; however, he conceded that other strategies such as using the Home Grown Teachers program also need to be aggressively pursued.
Dan Robinson, and others like him, practice what is often called “Paternalistic Racism.” Paternalistic Racism is a fawning, condescending perspective which views individuals of minority or “underprivileged” status as being helpless, their rights diminished because of their race or nationality. The paternalistic racist believes that the objects of his pity are dependent upon the help of “compassionate” others, because they simply cannot make it on their own.
Paternalistic Racism and Attack Racism both arise from the same lie: That man is defined by his race and economic condition. Attack Racism asserts that individuals of another race or nationality are not equal because they are genetically differentiated from the racist who asserts superiority (Attack Racism is practiced by individuals and regimes of all colors from David Duke, to Jeremiah Wright, to Nazi Fascists). Paternalistic Racism asserts that a man is limited by his race, nationality, or social caste, and is therefore relatively impotent against prevailing social forces. For example; “poor people are not afforded the same degree of protection of their civil rights as those with greater economic means. Poor people’s civil rights are always compromised. As a white male, I am afforded certain privileges that do not extend “to a black man or Hispanic man or an immigrant with limited-English ability.” Dan Robinson, 2001, as quoted in the Grand Junction Report.
The Paternalistic Racist asserts that the individual, because he is “poor,” “black,” or “Hispanic,” or is an “immigrant with limited-English ability,” cannot overcome these barriers to his personal success without help from the government, and its tax-payer funded schools and social safety-nets. Paternalistic Racism has failed to ever help a poor man out of poverty, or an immigrant to learn English, because Paternalistic Racism seeks to provide for the needs of such people without an expectation that they work, learn a new language, go through the processes of naturalization, and lift themselves out of their own adversities.
The paternalistic racist feels that his actions are compassionate because he believes his actions come from a sincere desire to help the helpless or underprivileged. This feeling is more a love of the impression that one gives, and feeling that one has that he is compassionate. To do for another what would bring that person, or class of people, blessings of integrity, self-worth, and valuable skills, is not love, but the expression of the thinking of the racist who sees other races as incapable of doing for themselves and succeeding.
The mindset of the racist; that a class, color, or condition of a person hinders to their ability to succeed, is sinister because it creates a vacuum of expectations for the object of the racist’s pity. Illegal immigrants, for example, have no expectation that they must follow a legal path to naturalization. They are invited to break the law, abuse social services programs, and insinuate themselves into every government program that subsidizes the poor. They are not expected to do well in school. Traditional standards for grading are simply diminished. Language and culture fade as important components of national identity. Indeed,the paternalistic racist fears that the sensitive, frail, and helpless object of his pity, cannot bear under any expectation, including learning a new language, earning a living, or paying the same price that others must pay if they break the law.
Racism is racism, whether it is aggressive and hate-filled, or passive and pitiful. Illegal immigrants, and other classes and individuals who are not expected to use their human liberty with care and responsibility, end up being harmed, not helped by this condescending counterfeit of compassion. They are made more dependent upon others and the government, and less free when paternalistic racism is practiced. All men are created equal, and color and nationality do not make them unequal. Human potential, success and failure, ability and inability, are not determined by race or nationality, but by individual industry, inherent traits of character, and the responsible use of freedom.