I’m not sure if Geraldo Rivera doesn’t know, doesn’t want to know, or simply doesn’t care. In a Fox News “Race in America” discussion, Rivera made the statement regarding the “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirt LeBron James recently wore in pregame warmups:
“I wondered to myself,” Rivera said, “what if LeBron James instead had a shirt, ‘Be a better father to your son.’ ‘Raise your children.’
Rivera then went to an out-card many whites go to when discussing (dismissing) racism–telling blacks they need to take responsibility for their problems and to stop acting like victims.
First of all, why do people who share Rivera’s viewpoint think that there aren’t scores of black people who are already advocating for these things within their own community? Scores of black people who reprimand the black youth they see who don’t care about their educations or who don’t value being responsible citizens? Scores of black people who are advocating for black families to be strong and for black fathers to raise their children. Scores of black people who care way more about these things than Rivera does. To cast all blacks together into one lump of being irresponsible, or into one lump of victimization, or to assume that all whites are the pinnacle models for strong and stable families is incredibly racist.
Second, it’s not victimization to simply be real about how we got here. It’s honesty and reality. You can have honesty and reality without victimization. These two things don’t go hand in hand. For Rivera and others with his mindset, the baby always goes out with the bathwater. As soon as someone brings up our history of slavery and racism, opportunity deprived from blacks for generation after generation, how black ghettos were formed by whites in power (along with forming affluent white suburbs at the same time), how these ghettos (and suburbs) created under-resourced and over-resourced communities, and how that disparity in resources created a continual uphill climb for people of color that has been there since the foundation of our country. But if you bring that up to Rivera, he’ll tell you that’s just an excuse for black people to look for handouts and to wear shirts that say, “I can’t breathe” without even considering the actual weight of our formative history.
Third, Rivera has no idea what the phrase “I can’t breathe” actually means. “I can’t breathe” doesn’t mean “I’m a victim,” it doesn’t mean “I don’t need to take personal responsibility” and it doesn’t mean “I don’t need to apply myself.” “I can’t breathe” means I am voiceless.
When Eric Garner gasped “I can’t breathe” eleven times while being choked to death by NYPD police, it’s obvious the officers didn’t listen to him. He couldn’t have said it any clearer. But no one cared. He had no voice.
Black people have never had a voice.
They can’t breathe.
Throughout history, the reason the black local church has been the rallying point for black civil rights is because it’s the only place they had a voice. It’s the only place they could hold positions of leadership. It’s the only place that was their own. This is tragic on two accounts: they weren’t allowed into white churches and they were consistently ignored and oppressed in all other facets of society. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”
They had no voice.
They couldn’t breathe and no one cared.
It’s not that they didn’t raise their voices to express the injustices that were upon them, it’s that no one did anything about it.
Rivera’s comments are just another affluent white voice telling blacks to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. (Bootstraps that often don’t exist or that are much shorter than they ought to be.) To work hard. To try harder. That we’re all equal. There is no black and white. We are all one race. There is no color. There is no white privilege. Be color blind. Stop creating race problems. Stop making excuses. No legislation is needed to help you. There’s nothing wrong or unjust about the way things are. Anything you presume as racist is simply in your head. You are making it up. You are liars. You are victimizing yourself. I know everything. I know more about you than you do.
The irony of Rivera’s comments is that it only reinforces the “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirts LeBron, Kobe, Derrick Rose and many other black athletes have worn. Rivera’s response (and the whites who support his statements) simply says, “You’re right, you can’t breath. I will continue to not listen to you, to not learn from you and to not care about you.”
Which sadly means not much has actually changed.
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A couple of thoughts Riveria is Purto Rican and Jewish. His dad was a cab driver and mom was a waitresss growing up in Brooklyn. He identifies himself as Hispanic. He was referred to as white in this blog. He is a person of color
Second he has been married five times and had has five children throughout those marriages. One with a women who he never married. Probably not the best represetation of somone to speak on family values.
Ignorance exists and definitely needs conversation and brought to light. Using a over 70 year Hispanic man as a generlization for white ignorant suburan thinking could turn moderate thinkers away from true dialogue. Geraldo gets paid to sensationalize the news. He lost credit as a thinker and journalist many times throughout his career. Like:
1. While on a convoy, before an operation in Iraq he drew a map and gave away coordinates on live television to the world
2. Claimed to be in a fire fight in Afganastian when he was over 300 miles away.
3. When he claimed to find Calones vault with money and bodies. On live TV they broke through vault and found only a broken bootleg glass.
4. Finally who can forget his show “Geraldo” Where he got his nose broke during a fight when he had a skin head, white supremist, a jewish activist and black activist on a show. Many of his shows where called trash TV due to titles like, ” men who wear lace and women who love them”
In my opinion the more we pay attention to sensalized journalism draws awy from true conversation.
A couple of thoughts Riveria is Purto Rican and Jewish. His dad was a cab driver and mom was a waitresss growing up in Brooklyn. He identifies himself as Hispanic. He was referred to as white in this blog. He is a person of color
Second he has been married five times and had has five children throughout those marriages. One with a women who he never married. Probably not the best represetation of somone to speak on family values.
Ignorance exists and definitely needs conversation and brought to light. Using a over 70 year Hispanic man as a generlization for white ignorant suburan thinking could turn moderate thinkers away from true dialogue. Geraldo gets paid to sensationalize the news. He lost credit as a thinker and journalist many times throughout his career. Like:
1. While on a convoy, before an operation in Iraq he drew a map and gave away coordinates on live television to the world
2. Claimed to be in a fire fight in Afganastian when he was over 300 miles away.
3. When he claimed to find Calones vault with money and bodies. On live TV they broke through vault and found only a broken bootleg glass.
4. Finally who can forget his show “Geraldo” Where he got his nose broke during a fight when he had a skin head, white supremist, a jewish activist and black activist on a show. Many of his shows where called trash TV due to titles like, ” men who wear lace and women who love them”
In my opinion the more we pay attention to sensalized journalism draws awy from true conversation.
Thanks Jeff. Someone on Facebook caught my same error stating the Rivera is white. That is definitely my bad and I own that one (I also changed that line in the article). It’s interesting that I associated him as being white though based on his view of blacks and poverty. I agree with your points about Rivera and would springboard off what you said to ask why he is a frequent guest on Fox News, which is supposed to be a credible news outlet. Which I guess is why I felt led to write the post. My desire was to point out racism when it’s just thrown out there unchecked because if it’s never identified for what it is, it will continue to fester. I honestly may have been overestimating the credibility of Fox News as a credible news source. I don’t have cable and don’t follow which channel is which vantage point, I just expected more professionalism out of what I thought was a respected news outlet.
I disagree. “White privilege” is the first place every race baiter goes to define race relations. One should consider that the vast majority of whites were brought to this country as indentured servants, little more than slaves, and were ostracized for their ethnic heritage too. Just because Dr. King makes a statement regarding riot does not make it universally applicable. Remember when OJ Simpson was declared not guilty? was there riots by angry white racists? I don’t remember them. How about locally when a street gang threw a white girl in the trunk of a car and filled her with bullets? Was there an outpouring of white rage? I hate being cast as a racist because I stand for personal responsibility. My family raised me broke with no plumbing or central heat. Two parents working full time when they could, my father absolutely refusing to accept state aid. It was for those that were not willing to take responsibility and stand up. I realize that this commentary will be translated into a racist rant by those that wish to stir the pot but the fact is it’s time to throw out that rotting stew and accept the fact that we are ONE RACE and it’s time to start supporting and treating each other as such. The only division that exists is between those that know Jesus Christ as their saviour and those that are lost in their sin. That is the only discrimination we should be making.
Hi Ken, thank you for your thoughts and your passion on this. It’s important to know that while your experience of “My family raised me broke with no plumbing or central heat” is yours and it’s true, it’s not the majority experience for whites, which stats clearly show. It’s also important to note that the majority of whites in power didn’t have this experience. And that your experience, while it is very true, does not negate or erase the experience of blacks, an experience that dates back to slavery, which is different than immigration. I too am a descendent of poor immigrants. My grandparents immigrated here from Poland and were very poor and lived a very economically poor life here in America. But coming to America by choice as an immigrant, and being given full rights of a citizen upon entering the country, is very different from being forced to be here as a slave and given no rights of citizenship. Meanwhile, law after law is made to give whites privileges like land, voting, education, jobs, etc and to make sure non-whites don’t have those privileges. Don’t allow the feeling that someone is going to call you “racist” from allowing yourself to stop and slow down and humbly look at this history. It is just history, data, facts, which we really need to look at. Check out these laws, I’m pasting these from a previous blog post I did: http://www.atacrossroads.net/talk-race-church/
It’s pretty hard to look at those laws and not admit that our country was founded in a way to give whites privilege over all other races and that 45 years of not having these laws on the books isn’t enough time to fix all the damage they did. Let me know what you think