Race relations in the pre-Obama era

My son, George, is 46 years old, unmarried, living in Tacoma and a pretty good basketball player, by his own admission. By general agreement of his peers, he was in his time the best player at the Harvard Graduate School, faint as that praise might be.

One on his pastimes is playing pick-up basketball at playgrounds or occasionally a public gym. Until recently he was living in Pacific Palisades, and most of his basketball activity was in playgrounds along the Santa Monica or Venice beach area or elsewhere in West L.A. The regulars at these games are of all races but mostly black, good players and generally friendly and accommodating. If you want to get into a game, you get in. The only taboo I have ever heard of from George is the strict prohibition against wearing any clothes with a logo or a recognizable derivation. Pro or college t-shirts are not allowed – a Laker logo, for example, would incur instant banishment. One could wear a t-shirt from Southwest Kentucky State Teachers College.

A day or two ago, having some time to kill before a job in a wet and dark wooded area somewhere in the Tacoma environs, he chanced upon a schoolyard game. All the players were black. Upon asking if he could play, a tryout was put in play that required George to drive on the basket. After negotiating the drive with some success, a player was heard to remark, “See, I told you he was hard and dirty.” That sufficed to let George into the game.

For a while, all went as well as could be expected. The leader seemed to be the point guard, and George was fed the ball in normal order. After a while, George was not getting the ball. A black observer shouted to the point guard from the sideline, “Why don’t you feed the white guy; he’s your best player. Nothing doing. George was frozen out.

In the meantime, the patter among the players was becoming increasingly exclusionary in tone, although George did not report that it was directed toward him. George derived the following: White language is derided. Whites are soft and incapable. The blacks are intensely tribal. The whites are the others and worse. Conclusion: The period of desegregation is over. In urban areas, taking into account that in areas like Tacoma live men in the manner of left-over loggers, we are now back in South Africa. My guess is that Venice Beach integration is increasingly illusionary.