Anger, on a Saturday afternoon, in the summertime: Let's not let it be about that

For the record, I never said most black people are uncivil.  Yes, I do think many of them are.   But to whom is that news?  The liberal position is not that that is not true but that it is true, only you cannot say it.  And that is because it is considered not a real problem, since it is not a politically correct one. 

When I notice that the uncivil person is also black, what generally comes to my mind is not that they are this way because black people are that way, but that many, not most, of their people are uncivil in ways that are particular.  Particular to them.  And partly because of a culture that encourages it.

I have wanted to understand this.  I know that I can overreact.  

The political event disturbing the peace this afternoon on my residential street, with music so loud that the drums sounded and felt like pounding on my walls.  At first, I thought this must be the neighbor.  No, it was actually coming from the street.  My neighborhood is black, so it is an unremarkable fact about the woman shouting at the very few people on the street in her audience, shouting angrily but apparently not because she is grinding an ax at the moment, but because she’s one of those activist types who starts with anger.  

I first called 311 to file a noise complaint so that a police officer would get involved—“within,” I was assured, “8 hours.”  I then went downstairs (I’m on the 5th floor) to the street and approach this woman relentlessly shouting into her microphone, and a lady in a dress dress standing nearby who did not seem very interested in my problem but who happens to be the City Council member for our district.  I have spoken with people from her office, and I respect her as much as I can any elected official. 

I stood in front of the yelling lady and told her what my problem was.  She asked, how long have you lived here?  Long enough, I said.  Well, she said, this is a street fair and that’s how it is.  I explained that what matters is not how long I have lived here (and whether or not I understand by now that this is the way things are; she obviously is not going to budge for me).  She told me it’s not her problem.  The impression I had already that this is a very angry person who will be preemptively aggressive, was confirmed.  I told her she is wrong and should turn the noise down.  She then called out for police officers to come and deal with me, and some place on the side.  Several officers then explained to me on the sidewalk that they have a permit, and not only will they not make them stop, they can’t even ask them to turn it down.  

I walked back to speak to the lady in the dress, and she agreed finally that she would ask them to turn it down.  Indeed, it’s quieter now, so I guess they did.  But, wow!  I have never been assaulted by proximate noise that loud.  The city hotline representative asked me if the background noise he could hear was what I was talking about, and then commented that that is pretty fucking loud, or words to that effect that could be published in venues where they might be read by innocent children.  

That Shouting Lady (let’s make that her name here; I knew better than to ask or say anything else) was clearly disposed already to be angry at anyone who gets in her way.  And I’m sure she has an attitude, to the effect that I’m not the boss here.  

But why so much anger?  Don’t you dare tell me it is because they are all oppressed.  She was not thinking about American history, and you can be oppressed and not let it make you uncivil.  John Lewis understood that, as did Martin Luther King.  Yes, I certainly know that the problems facing black people in this country are a whole lot more disturbing than urban noise complaints.  Even on the Jewish Sabbath, when I like to relax in a space with peace of mind.  

But of course I knew instantly once I spoke to her that she was also angry at me, and that if I were not very careful, she would cause shit to rain down on me, to my great misfortune.  You don’t mess with people like that.  She’s the boss.  And she’s angry.

One thing is important here to recognize: She’s not angry about race.  And she did not claim that I am racist.  I bet she would say that if she thought it would help her get whatever she wants.  She’s just basically angry as a person, no doubt with various social causes that are all things worth complaining about, and these doubtless do also include racial grievances.  Maybe too they include aspects of her culture, which I do not quite or fully share. 

It bothers me that people like this have so much influence and power.  It bothers me that you cannot criticize them.  It bothers me that you cannot complain to them civilly and expect a civil response. 

But it seems I got one from the council member.  Thank you, Madam Council member.  

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It bothers me that so much of American culture is authoritarian and encourages the cultivation of the rage of victimology.  It also bothers me that much of this is black, and when it is, the whole situation is unhappy because you cannot do anything about or say anything.  Automatic reflexes will call you “racist.”  I do realize that the larger causal factors are not racially specific.  

When I encounter people like this woman, I expect to be treated unfairly, as it seems to me I usually have been; I expect to be wronged; and I certainly will not be surprised if I am despised, nor if race is made the issue. Though I prefer it not be. It is a causal factor; it need not figure at all in the solution.

Oppression does not justify hatred.  John Lewis understood that, too.  So do most people, everywhere. 

Why does oppression not justify anything?  Doesn’t it at least justify struggling, in ways that can be productive, against it?  Yes, it justifies that; I would say that that exactly is what justifies it, and it doesn’t justify anything else. 

“We hate you because you hate us”: Does that make any sense?  I think it does not.  “We often commit crimes of violence because of how oppressed we are”: that makes no sense either.  

Oppression is not ennobling.  The Jews are not special or chosen for the privilege of being hated or exterminated.  In American and Western culture, the paradigm of oppression and liberation is the Biblical story of Exodus.  If the Jews were ennobled by oppression, then they might as well have stayed in Egypt.  They ennobled themselves through liberation.  It’s what you do about oppression that counts.  Lots of Americans have been poor and, yes, oppressed.  Not all of them hate you because of it.  Most do not commit crimes, and even in America not every poor person is routinely uncivil.  So what does explain it?  Is it a religious belief, an historical peculiarity, the fault of bad leadership?  I know what does not explain it: “I am not responsible for what I do and how it affects you, because you collectively did and do oppress me and us.”     

Maybe my question is, “Since you are so angry, and at me because of the people you associate me with, how can I make myself a good enough neighbor to you, since that normally precludes hatred or deep anger?”  I don’t have the answer, but I expect it will consist of several propositions, one of which is about what a good neighbor does not do: To not stand up for yourself even, or to decline out of timidity to tell you when they think you are wrong.

Justice is unitary, in a way that artistic taste for example is not. If it is unjust for anyone in particular to do a particular thing, then it is unjust for anyone at all. There is not one law for the stranger and one for those who “belong here” or have a property right, such as that of that lady and her event, who thinks her right to blast noise and angrily yell is one that counts, while my living here does not.

To misquote Elton John: “I’m your brother, let us live in peace.”