January 13, 2014

Obsessive-Compulsive Racism and the Black Guilt Complex

By Deborah C. Tyler
My relationship with Joe evokes the Jane Austen line, "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"  Joe is an 82-year-old black man, a very successful retired computer engineer.  He owns homes in the most affluent areas of this city, and until recently he tooled around the southeastern U.S. in his Cessna.  Joe is a forceful man who has assumed the role of a leader among our common acquaintance. Joe is obsessed with white racism, and because he is black, people acquiesce to him in ways they would not for a white man.  Regardless of the setting, Joe will change the topic to excoriate white people for their racism.  I believe that Joe's obsessional racism and compulsion to express it are fueled by guilt over the fact that he began avoiding people of his own race about 50 years ago. Joe was born in Brooklyn in 1931.  Despite being raised in a middle-class family (his father was a...(Read Full Article)