Race and Community, Essay Example

Race remains a prominent feature of contemporary American life. Despite clear advancements in race relations within America over the last half-century, from the successful interventions of the civil rights movement to the election of the United States’ first African-American president, it would be premature to declare an end to racial discourses in America. As Arlo Kempf (2009) notes, in late 2008 when Barrack Obama was already the winner of the general election and the President-elect, “anti-Obama calls of ‘string him up’ drifted through cords at republic rallies (the party that received the other half of the vote.” (p. 2) Kempf’s point is precisely that despite such apparent major macro-level shifts in American society, according to which minorities increasingly hold positions of visible power, it is a crucial oversight to consider this shift as indicative of an end of racism. This idea becomes clearer when considering the micro-level of societal life and the community: societal divisions in terms of racism and ethnicity can be said to be present within these very communities. When considering my own community of Lakewood, California, the structures of this community can certainly be said to demonstrate the presence of racial discourses: for example, despite an increasingly diverse America, the city council of Lakewood remains largely white. This is not to suggest that racism is not gradually weakening: rather, race still remains a factor in our community discourses. In the particular case of Lakewood, however, my thesis is that this presence of race remains implicit rather than explicit. That is to say, the apparent absence of discourses on racism and ethnicity in Lakewood is itself reflective of the continued pertinence of racial and ethnic divisions within the community. In the following essay, with a reliance on both an autobiographical perspective and concepts from the academic literature, I shall attempt a field research of my own community, Lakewood, in an effort to examine how race can be viewed within this context.

It is relevant to provide some background information on Lakewood itself. Lakewood has often been classified as the typical post-Second World War American suburb. The community followed distinct urban planning trends of the time period, trends that were designed to facilitate the growth of ideal communities for the post-War generation, which consisted of veterans and the baby boom generation. Alida Brill (1996) describes these origins of Lakewood as follows: “A planned, post-World War II community, Lakewood was built with the hope and the promise inherent in the cultural ethos of the 1950s. A victorious spirit of optimism had gone into each hammer stroke in Lakewood’s building.” (p. 99) Thus, Lakewood could be viewed as symptomatic of the post-war discourse of the American dream: the attempt to create an ideal family oriented community in the American style. However, as the American dream has changed, becoming more racially inclusive, the population demographics of Lakewood have begun to reflect these same trends. For example, according to the demographic information provided by the decennial census of 2000, Lakewood possessed the following racial and ethnic makeup: 62.7% White, 22.78% Hispanic or Latino, 13.51% Asian, 7.34% African American, 0.62% Pacific Islands and 10.10% other races.

Such racial and ethnic diversity is certainly reflected in my own autobiographical experiences in Lakewood. It is not uncommon to walk down the street and encounter people of many different origins and races. For example, the African American community maintains a strong presence in the Lakewood Manor Apartments and in Bolivar Park. Small businesses reflect this same population diversity, for example, in the numerous Asian restaurants throughout the community. Whereas this same restaurant business landscape is nevertheless dominated by the capitalist phenomenon of the chain restaurant, such as East Side Mario’s and Outback’s, diversity is to be found in the workforces of these eateries.

Nevertheless, the majority of the population of Lakewood is white. I myself am white and of French ethnicity. While my first-hand empirical observation suggests that the white majority has declined since the census of 2000, it is still safe to say that the white population maintains a majority in Lakewood. Accordingly, when considering how my own race and ethnicity has affected me autobiographically, I have not noticed first-hand any types of discrimination, which is to say I myself have never been treated poorly because of my race or ethnicity. From this standpoint, therefore, it would seem that racial relations within Lakewood are a non-factor.

Nevertheless, when contrasting my own observations with sociological theory, according to the latter the phenomenon of race and ethnicity is viewed as a social construction. For example, Schaeffer (2006) notes that race is not entirely reducible to a biological concept, but is rather primarily the product of social relations; the concept of ethnicity reflects the cultural background of the subject, and thus can refer to different languages, customs, or traditional practices. When reflecting on my own experiences, therefore, it would seem that ethnicity is more explicit, whereas questions of race are more implicit, insofar as ethnicity can be clearly identified by different languages and the customs of community members. It would seem that this is counter-intuitive, as race appears to be easily identifiable by, for example, skin color: however, sociological theory emphasizes that race is more the result of a particular viewpoint imposed by society, and thus our views of race largely remains implicit components of our actions and observations.

One of the means by which I can understand this implicit nature of race is to note the fact that I myself have never maintained a consciousness of my own race. When considering, for example, the question of how the media represents people like me, this has always been a non-question. However, when the American media presented negative accounts of the French in the lead-up to the Iraq war, because of my French ethnicity I could not help but feel that this was unfair treatment. With this exception, I have not been conscious of such discourses of race affecting me personally. Obviously, this could be the result of me belonging to the racial majority within my community.

Such a racial majority in Lakewood is reflected when considering examples from politics, such as the Lakewood City Council. The City Council reflects the majority, however, with slight differences that are symptomatic of some of the gradual changes in demographic trends. For example, the current mayor of Lakewood is Joe Esquivel – the Esquivel family name is of Latino origin and reflects the increased presence of Latinos not only in California, but in America overall. The remaining members of the city council are all of white origin: Larry van Nostran, Steve Croft and Todd Rogers. Council member Diane Dubois is of French extraction, which is similar to my own ethnic background, and thus demonstrates that members of my own ethnic background are active on the political level.

This white majority is also reflected in the concerns of community groups present in Lakewood. For example, the Lakewood Accountability Action Group (LAAG) is a non-profit community group concerned with the workings of City Council. The primary concern of the LAAG, however, appears to be issues related to fiscal responsibility. For example, when searching the archives of the LAAG website (http://www.laag.us), there is only one article that appears under the keyword “racism”: this article primarily concerns the Sheriff’s Department of Los Angeles’ difficulties with gangs in the county. This would suggest that the issue of race in Lakewood is not prominent; there is no sustained discourse on the issue. On the one hand, this could be attributable to the real absence of the importance of race in the community; on the other hand, this could suggest that racial discourses in the community are implicit rather than explicit. I would suggest that perhaps this absence is the result of Lakewood’s origin in the post-World War II error and its attempt to adhere to this model. This could explain why Lakewood has remained a predominantly white community.

When considering this absence of race in the public discourse from the sociological perspective, this would suggest that race operates in the community in the manner of a social construct. Race is not prevalent simply because it is a part of the social construction itself, and therefore does not become prevalent in the discourse: it is a part of the greater ideology of Lakewood that minorities do not play an important role in life. However, I would suggest that with the changing demographic trends, this situation could in fact change: for example, the increase of the Latino population clearly indicates that issues of race will continue to grow in importance. In this regard, Lakewood needs to become more conducive to these racial and ethnic groups and thus be prepared to open a dialogue with such groups. Otherwise the community could stand the risk of becoming archaic when contrasted with the growing demographic changes in both California and the county.

Accordingly, when considering some of the possible changes to the thinking about race in Lakewood, I would suggest that positive changes in inequalities and other divisions could be resolved by making the issue of race in the community more prominent. My example from the LAAG infers that the primary concern of Lakewood is economic, as opposed to social. This hierarchy of concerns appears to reflect itself on the political level. For example, in an article from the Long Beach Press-Telegram, Sonia Southwell, Lakewood’s Acting Director of Community Development emphasized that “Lakewood is also a city of businesses…being business friendly is our priority.” (Hale-Burns, 2010) Southwell’s statement demonstrates a certain commitment within my community towards economic policies over social issues. While the two can nevertheless be considered to be thoroughly related, the economic nevertheless overshadows the social in Lakewood. For example, in the same article Southwood is quoted as saying: “Some may think that Lakewood is a rich community; is a fat cat city, when in reality Lakewood is a city that is well managed by the city council and the council manager.” (Hale-Burns, 2010) The continued importance of business to Lakewood could not only be attributed to economics, but perhaps is derivative of the absence of diversity within the community itself.

When considering my community in terms of concepts such as race and ethnicity, my empirical first-hand perspective suggests that in Lakewood there is an absence of explicit instances of racism. This does not suggest that racism is not an implicit presence within the community. When considering the remarks of City Council and community groups such as the LAAG, there is a noticeable absence of race in their discourses. I believe this suggests that Lakewood is in a certain denial over the changes in race and ethnicity that are occurring in America. That is to say, I believe that Lakewood has not yet prepared itself to enter into dialogue with different groups, preferring instead to remain bound to its 1950s viewpoint on economic growth for a homogeneous community. In other words, the emphasis on economics within Lakewood could be symptomatic of a systematic racism in the community. From my own racial and ethnic background, I have largely been oblivious to this phenomenon. Nevertheless, when reflecting more thoroughly on such issues, it becomes conceivable that for Lakewood to continue as a strong community in the 21^st century, it must open up to greater societal changes.

Works Cited

Brill, Alida. (1996). “Lakewood, California: ‘Tomorrowland’ at 40”, In eds. M.J. Dear,

H.E. Schockman, G. Hise, Rethinking Los Angeles. London: SAGE. 97-126.

Hale-Burns, Pamela. “Lakewood faring well in tough times, say officials.” Long Beach Press-Telegram, Feburary, 24, 2010. Accessed at: http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_14465170?IADID=Search-www.presstelegram.com-www.presstelegram.com

Kempf, Arlo. (2009). “The Politics of the North American Colonial in 2009.” In ed. A.

Kempf, Breaching the Colonial Contract: Anti-Colonialism in the U.S. and Canada. London: Springer. pp.1-11.

Schaefer, Richard T. (2006). Racial and Ethnic Groups. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.