Can My Children Be Friends With Black People?
Yes, this question is racist. Yes, it is cheap provocative clickbait. And yes, it is based on a recent New York Times article, a new low of click-hungry journalism and another symptom of the decline of universal values.
Of course we can be friends
Obviously, I’m not seriously asking this question. I wouldn’t want my children to even wonder whether race should be a factor for selecting friends. Actually, I don’t think race should be a determining factor for any relationship. I thought for any non-racist this is a no-brainer. Apparently this is not the case for Ekow N. Yankah, a Professor of Law who was given a platform by The New York Times to seriously wonder “Can My Children Be Friends With White People?”. Yankah believes it is necessary to teach his boys to be skeptical towards white people:
I will teach them to be cautious, I will teach them suspicion, and I will teach them distrust. Much sooner than I thought I would, I will have to discuss with my boys whether they can truly be friends with white people.
I will not waste your time by summing up his utterly unhelpful pessimistic rant in detail as it does not provide us with any meaningful insights. It is not even consistent. “My heart is unbearably heavy when I assure you we cannot be friends” Yankah sighs, just to point out that actually some of his closest people are white:
My bi-ethnic wife, my most trusted friend, understands she is seen as a white woman, even though her brother and father are not. Among my dearest friends, the wedding party and children’s godparents variety, many are white. But these are the friends who have marched in protest, rushed to airports to protest the president’s travel ban, people who have shared the risks required by strength and decency.
In short, Yankah acknowledges that interracial friendship is indeed possible. Values trump skin color. Some might be relieved that Yankah could be less racist than the article’s deliberately awful title suggests. But this just underlines how careless and irresponsible he — and more importantly — The New York Times is. They choose to fuel the racial divide, rather than fighting it.
Nihilistic clickbait
This comes as no surprise. Choosing titles that stir up emotions is a lucrative strategy. Maybe it’s even a necessary strategy in the digital attention economy as the New York Times reflects:
For The Times to succeed in a digital age, The Times has to write headlines for a digital age. That means making sure we’re giving people a compelling reason to stop and read the articles. While that has always been the point of a headline, what’s different now is that we can measure just how compelling a digital headline is, and can test it against alternatives.
No doubt, the chosen title is a compelling reason for many to click or share the article. It quickly made its way up to the NYT’s “Trending” section.
How many people actually read the piece, is another question. Cynics may wonder if it is even a relevant question in an economy that is largely based on clicks and shares. From a marketing point of view, the headline is brilliant. It appeals to our lowest emotions, no matter our skin color or political orientation. You can share it because you agree or you can share it to express your anger about it. If it wasn’t so dangerous, one could admire this piece of nihilistic clickbait.
The usual double standard
In case my slight alteration of the title hasn’t revealed what’s wrong with it, let’s try a few other ones:
Can My Children Be Friends With Muslims?
Can My Children Be Friends With Jews?
Can My Children Be Friends With Mexicans?
Actually, replacing “White People” with pretty much any other group, immediately makes it obvious how incredibly racist the headlining question is. We would never accept it in a liberal publication like The New York Times and we should make no exception here. It is another example of the decline of universal values in favor for double standards. It should not surprise anybody when it triggers counter reactions like this one:
What did surprise me, were the reactions I found when Alt-Right poster boy Milo Yiannopoulos posted the piece on Facebook. I expected an endless stream of racist anger. While some surely fell in this category, I was astonished to find numerous people quoting and applauding Martin Luther King Jr. and sharing stories of interracial friendships. The fact that many of Milo’s fans are less racist than a law professor commenting in The New York Times fills me with shock and hope at the same time. It’s shocking to see how this formerly liberal “quality” newspaper has deteriorated. However, if Milo’s fans embrace Martin Luther King Jr., the racial divide might be actually less severe than Yankah and his progress-negating friends want us to believe.
