What is race-baiting?

“RACE-BAITING!” is a common criticism I’ve seen while working for a news organization. The term gets thrown around frequently on our Facebook page— as you can imagine, this mainly happens when we post an article that brings up race.

When I first noticed this happening, I thought I understood what the criticisms meant. But when I actually sat down to think about it, I could not come up with a solid definition of race-baiting. So I set out to figure out what race-baiting is.

The term ‘race-baiter’ dates back to the 1920s as a way to describe the hatred that white people stoked against racial and cultural minorities. And in its simplest definition, race-baiting is making verbal attacks against people of another racial group. But now, “the term is just as likely to be used to accuse those fighting racism of unjustly referencing the issue to win a fight,” according to media critic Eric Deggans.

This means that the term “race-baiting” is used accusingly against people or media organizations that bring up race.

Our country struggles to talk about race productively. And the accusation of race-baiting can imply that by discussing our divisions, we’re making the problem worse by pitting racial groups against each other. There is a presumption that if we stopped talking about issues of race, then everything would be fine.

But, as a journalist, I disagree. Problems do not go away on their own, and journalism can help uncover them. Think about Watergate — if journalists had just ignored the corruption in the White House, Nixon never would have resigned (this is an oversimplification of a complex story; here is the Wikipedia page if you need more info).

Likewise, talking about race can be effective because it can provide an opportunity for discussion, action, and change. However, this central idea hinges on whether or not you think there is a race issue in America.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality” — Desmond Tutu

“It’s 2018. How is race still a problem?”

It can be uncomfortable to talk about race, maybe because we have never really learned how to do it constructively. So instead, there is an instinct to just say that we solved our race problems a long time ago, and can we please move on.

But there is a lot evidence that race is still a problem, even though it may not be as overt as it was in the 1950s and 60s. Here are some of the statistics that point to an issue of race:

• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black people and Hispanics are more likely to be unemployed than white people. In 2016, 8.4% of black or African American people were unemployed, 5.8% of Hispanics, and 4.3% of white people.
• The CDC released a study in 2015, which showed that black youths are not committing more crimes than white youths. Yet, black juveniles were 5 times as likely to be incarcerated than white juveniles, according to the National Center for Juvenile Justice.
• Black people are 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for using or selling drugs, when white people are actually more likely to sell drugs and are just about as likely to use them, according to the Brookings Institute.
• In 2015, 24.1% of black Americans were below the poverty rate, 21.4% of Hispanics were, and the overall rate of poverty in the United States was 13.5%.

It is a very complicated and systematic problem. In addition those statistics, Harvard University conducted a study that examined implicit bias. This means that you don’t think you have a prejudice against race, but a lifetime of certain message, ideologies and perceptions have impacted how you think.

They conducted a study called Project Implicit which offered online tests to measure unconscious bias. They did this by asking test subjects to pair positive words with white faces and positive words with black faces. They then measured the time it took for individuals to do these tasks.

They found that 88% of white people had a pro-white or anti-black implicit bias, and 48% of black people shared that implicit bias.

“Race doesn’t really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don’t have that choice” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

You are talking about race right now. Are you race-baiting?

It has been common rhetoric over the past 20 years that talking about race is “race-baiting.” But, it’s not.

The traditional model of race-baiting from the early 20th century would be to talk negatively about a certain race, but that’s pretty obvious racism. Now, it manifests by exploiting existing stereotypes and prejudice about race. For example, George Bush Sr. ran a political ad in 1988 in which he preyed upon people’s fears and assumptions of black people.

Currently though, the term is used as a way to end a discussion about race and as a way to insist that we don’t have race problems in America. This approach is often paired with the idea of color-blindness, in which the belief is if we don’t see race, then we won’t have race problems.

“Such color-blindness, in practice, often means burying any talk about possible prejudice or racial issues, leading us to ignore problems instead of deal with them,” said Eric Deggans.

So, let me assure you, when we talk about race or bring race into a story, the intention is not to simply dredge up a problem. Instead, by discussing race and talking about it openly, it might cease to be such a fraught, emotionally explosive, and divisive topic.

As a journalist, I take the responsibility seriously to report accurately and fairly. But that means, I am going to talk about race because ignoring racial disparities and not talking about problems would be irresponsible.

That said, it is hard for us to effectually talk about race in the current media climate. In fact, I’m not sure how many of you will have stayed on this page long enough to reach this point. But for those of you that did, the more we can discuss race, the easier it will be to confront our nation’s historical and contemporary issues related to race. Unfortunately, “we live in such a sound bite culture, there’s no time for reflection and dialogue,” said Linda Tropp, a psychology researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“You must let suffering speak, if you want to hear the truth” — Cornel West

So, what now?

Well, I’m not going to stop talking about race, and most major media outlets aren’t going to either. Talking about race in America can be very uncomfortable because it forces us to confront our nation’s oppressive past and the current condition of race relations.

The point is not to force you to apologize for your ancestors, but to acknowledge that they out racist institutions in place that still have effects today.

Personally, I know my intention is not to bring division when talking about race. I want to give people information, which is empowering. And it has gotten to the point where if someone cries, “race-baiting,” I am starting to take it as a compliment. It seems to be a signal that we have broached a topic that is important to our dialogue as a community.