[Mb-civic] SHOULD READ: Hope Beyond the Rage? - David Ignatius - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Hope Beyond the Rage?

By David Ignatius
Friday, February 10, 2006; A19

Looking at the cartoons, a non-Muslim wonders how they could possibly 
have given such offense. How could a few juvenile, satirical drawings of 
the prophet Muhammad have created a global crisis? It seems 
inexplicable, until you think about American reactions to a word we 
hesitate even to write for fear of giving offense, calling it instead 
the "n-word."

The African American experience reminds us that there is a rage so deep 
and abiding that it can be triggered by a small comment, an unintended 
slight, a remark perhaps meant as a joke but heard as a grievous insult. 
The legacy of slavery left behind that residue of anger. It created 
taboos that protect what Sigmund Freud described as the sacred totems of 
cultural identity. It established boundaries where outsiders -- in this 
case, white people -- are not allowed to venture. That's why the n-word 
is so powerful -- it is the symbol of the suffering that a people 
experienced at the hands of others.

By drawing this comparison, I don't mean to condone what Muslims are 
doing in their violent, deadly overreaction to a provocation by a 
foolish newspaper editor in Denmark. And I think the Muslim world could 
learn something about tolerance from African Americans. The United 
States still abounds with racist images, but blacks are no longer 
rioting in the streets or burning down buildings. With time, people have 
learned to deal with their anger in less self-destructive ways -- even, 
sometimes, to laugh about it.

This week, the African American cartoonist Aaron McGruder is running a 
series in his taboo-busting strip "The Boondocks" making fun of civil 
rights leader Al Sharpton's protests about racism. In Monday's strip, 
Huey Freeman muses to his friend: "Give me news of hope, Caesar. Tell me 
of the leaders who dare to stand against the grave dangers faced by this 
world. I crave inspiration." His pal Caesar looks up from his newspaper: 
"Says here Al Sharpton is protesting a cartoon for using the n-word." To 
which Huey responds: "I'm going back to bed."

Maybe the Muslim world will someday be able to laugh off slurs against 
the prophet Muhammad, but not now. The wounds are too raw; the sense of 
victimization is too immediate. I travel often to Muslim countries, and 
I am sometimes astonished at how hundreds of years of history can seem 
condensed into the present, so that every current injustice is magnified 
by the weight of every past one. I don't understand it, but then, I have 
to remind myself, I'm not a Muslim. I haven't lived it.

Hoping to understand this blood-knot of rage and intolerance, I called 
Randall Kennedy, a prominent African American professor of law at 
Harvard University. He is the author of a 2002 book that explores the 
intense emotions aroused by the n-word, which he actually dares to spell 
out in the book's title. He says he's not surprised that a cartoon, like 
a taboo word, can become a focus for rage. For African Americans, he 
explains, "there are all sorts of indignities and insults, but they're 
momentary and ambiguous." But when white people say the hateful word, 
"it crystallizes something that's often hard to discern."

"When people feel they're being disrespected, they respond in all sorts 
of ways, including very self-destructive ways," Kennedy observes. That 
said, he finds the Muslim reaction to the Danish cartoons unacceptable 
-- just as he thinks people overreact to the n-word. "Are we going to 
bleep out Richard Pryor's album? Are we going to scratch out every 
reference to the word in 'Huckleberry Finn'? I would say with respect 
that's what is happening here with the reaction to the cartoons."

Whenever I'm feeling really pessimistic about the world, I remind myself 
of the American civil rights movement. In the space of my lifetime, 
America has gone from a country of brutal racism and outright 
segregation to a place where black folks and white folks pretty much get 
along. We haven't abolished racism, but by working honestly at the 
problem, we've made real progress. Along the way, we experienced rage 
and violence: Our cities burned; our nation sometimes felt at war with 
itself. But we passed through that dark period into a brighter one.

I want to believe that Muslims and the West are in that kind of 
transition. We're in the rage phase -- the part of the story where black 
folks are torching cities, white governors are sending in the National 
Guard and the problems seem insoluble. But if people keep their heads, 
we will eventually pass from this crazy moment into a different one 
where a genuine reconciliation is possible. Let's face it: We are living 
the clash of civilizations, and it's likely that things won't get much 
better until they get a bit worse.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020901424.html?nav=hcmodule
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