Now, there are two approaches I'd like to take today, both a result of work that was done by correspondents from The New York Times. In 2000, they sent their correspondents across the country to simply observe the ways in which race affects the lives of people in day-to day-living. And there were about 15 essays that were produced, eventually put together and published as a book. But they're very, very good essays because they actually give us an up close and personal view of what it's like to live in a country in which race has such a profound effect. Now, we've known from social science work and from other work that it is systemic. And that there are ways to measure everything from perceptions of social distance to institutionalized effects in education, in employment, in housing, in neighborhoods, and so forth. But one of the things we get from the New York Times correspondents is a kind of up close and personal view as to what it's like to live in communities, in schools, and in workplaces. And to feel the effects of race every day, to see how it defines the ways in which we feel about ourselves. And also, shapes the ways in which others feel about us, respond to us, react to us, and its significance for everyday living. The second part will focus on more recent production by The New York Times. They followed up the essays of 2000 with about seven short videos in 2015. And they allowed individuals from various backgrounds to talk about the ways in which their lives are affected by issues of race. One of the important differences between the 2000 essays and the 2015 short videos is that the 2000 essays, although not exclusively, follow the traditional pattern of focusing primarily on black-white relations. And much of the work on the study of race in America and its impact tends to zero in on black-white relations. And the Times did much of that in the essays that were published in 2000. But in 2015, they broadened that perspective, and they looked at different segments of the American population, Asian Americans, Latinos, African Americans. They also looked at white Americans, and they even went into particular segments, like the police as well, to talk to them about the same issues. So it's a very needed perspective in our understanding of the impact of race in America, is that it changes as we move from one segment of the population to another. Different segments of the population have different angles of vision, and collectively, they tell a story about the overall impact of race in everyday life. Now, the videos that were recorded in 2015 have several titles. One, A Conversation with Asian Americans. A Conversation with Black Sons, and also, a conversation with parents about what they tell their black sons, how they raise them. A Conversation with Latinos, A Conversation with Police. Conversations with black women, really to look at the multi-layered aspects of race. Ways in which black women will experience the impact of race in America that's unique to them, and also different than ways in which other populations. Now, first, we will review the essays from 2000. We'll look at several of them, not all 15 of them, but take 3 of them and sort of discuss what they add to our understanding. One of them is called Best of Friends, Worlds Apart, and that essay really focused on two immigrants from Cuba that came to Miami. And in Cuba, they were best of friends, they were childhood friends, they played on the same soccer team. And they were aware of issues of skin color differences in Cuba, somewhat also aware of issues of race. But they lived in a society in which, at least, they felt that they were not defined by race, that they were defined by nationality. That it was more important being Cuban than it was to focus on the skin color differences between them. And eventually, they migrated to Miami, and once they got to Miami, they drifted apart. The Cuban who was dark-skinned, sometimes called Afro Cuban, actually moved into an African-American neighborhood. His friends became African American, even his activities and his hobbies, because in Cuba, he really played soccer with his friend. That's how they came to be the best of friends in the first place. He moved to Miami, and he no longer plays soccer. He's now playing basketball with African Americans in the neighborhood that he lives. Occasionally, he goes to his friend. They live not that far from each other, maybe 15 minutes by car ride, but they don't really have much to do with each other anymore. The other friend, who's white, actually lives in a white community and is quite separated from his friend. Now, what it tells us is that living in Cuba, even though they were aware of skin color differences, and in some ways, that race is an issue everywhere. But it didn't define them, and it didn't determine their relationship, and it did not separate one from the other. Once they moved to Miami, it was a very different experience, both of them realizing that race was much more rigidly defined in Miami than in Cuba. And that race, much more than in Cuba, in America, in Miami, determined where they lived, who their friends were, the kinds of hobbies, activities they engaged in, in ways that they did not suspect. And so eventually, they simply drifted apart from each other. A second article from the 2000 series focused on growing up, growing apart. And what it really focuses on is what happens to young children in America. And in this case, there were three girls who were the best of friends, childhood friends. And as they moved through school, particularly into the middle grades, and graduated, and was headed into high school, there was a lot of pressure on them to choose their friendship groups. What groups they supported or were loyal to, what side they were on, and a number of questions. And what happened to those three childhood friends is instructive to all of us, because eventually, they found it difficult to maintain their friendship. And they separated as they moved into the high school. And in the past, when they would have parties together, they would have sleepovers together, would visit each other. All that ended as they moved into high school, into adolescence. Again, feeling the very strong pressures within society, within our neighborhoods, within our larger culture to identify along lines of race. And they found it virtually impossible to sustain those friendships through those pressures. A lot of those pressures come from parents. But those pressures also come from peers, as peers often are sort of asking individuals, as well as collectively, asking groups to identify with a particular race or another. And to sort of confess as to where their loyalties are, where their commitments are, kind of which side are you on question that they have to answer. And they couldn't answer those questions and remain friends. In fact, they discovered that the best way to answer those questions was to identify with groups that were much like their own, and to really separate those friendships. A third article from the 2000 issues was called At the Slaughterhouse, and it says, Some Things Never Die. And this was a correspondent that went to North Carolina, went to a place where there were workers in a slaughterhouse. And this is interesting because it actually deals with the question of what happens in the workplace. Does race really infuse the workplace? Or, do we get up in the morning, we go to work, we have coworkers, we do our jobs. And then when we leave, race might be something that actually determines our social life and our sort of activities, whether they're in church, or in tithings, or schools, or things like that. So [COUGH] this particular one asks the question, what happens in workplaces? And in this case, they went to a slaughterhouse in North Carolina, and what they found, well, there were workers from various backgrounds. There were white workers, Mexican workers, Native American workers, and African-American workers. And the relationships within the slaughterhouse, within the workplace were very tense. In fact, it got to the point where there were separate locker rooms, and facilities, and even bathrooms for the different populations. They worked in segregated groups. The African Americans worked together, the Mexicans worked together, the Native Americans and whites worked together. And they we're separated in so many ways. And there was no other way to account for that separation and that segregation within that particular slaughterhouse. Except to really focus in on the ways in which people congregated around issues of ethnic identity and issues of race. So each group sort of stayed within its own ranks, so to speak, making it very difficult to pull together a workforce that could work and collaborate together, as opposed to separating. And those separations demanded so many extra accommodations as well. They also discovered that once they left work, they went to taverns, actually, tumble-down taverns, taverns that were not all that great. But they found, along the highway from the workplace, there was a tavern for each group, one for Mexicans, one for African Americans, one for whites, one for Native Americans. And so they were not only segregated within the slaughterhouse, within the workplace. They were also segregated in their social life as they left to, in some ways, relax.
