> Even in the Ruins, Race Matters
> by Playthell Benjamin
>The Black World Today
> October 11, 2001
>
> One morning a few days after the terrorist attack on the World Trade
Center a
> young Afro-American woman called in to C-SPAN and asked whether all the
talk
> about the new unity of purpose being forged in the fires of adversity
would
> survive after the state of emergency had passed, "or will racism still be
> here?" Judging by the phone calls that ensued many listeners, this writer
> included, thought it a naive question. Of course racism will be with us
long
> after this incident recedes into memory, most callers argued. And after
> listening to James' story, (he asked that his last name not be used) one
of
> the few African American men working on the site, that naivete seems
> magnified.
>
> "There is racism all over down in the disaster area," he says "and it's
> blatant too!" Perhaps, along with a history of racist exclusion in the
> uniform services and the building trades, that's why we observe a sea of
> white faces every time we are given a tour of the site on TV. "See, part
of
> the problem is that there are a lot of out of town guys that they have put
in
> authoritative positions, and they don't know how to deal with diverse
races
> because many of them come from all white towns around the country where
they
> have never had to deal with black and Hispanic people."
>
> According to James the problem for black construction workers, who are a
> small percentage of the rescue force, begins when they approach the site.
> "There are thousands of workers down there, and to enter the site you have
to
> go through armed checkpoints," he says," one guy will ask you for your ID
and
> another guy standing two feet from him watching the whole procedure will
stop
> you and put you through it again." And he was quick to point that this was
> the attitude of the armed white men securing ground zero whether they were
> military or civilian cops.
>
> "If you are my color," James says, pointing to his rich ebony colored
skin,
> "you can see the pure racism on their faces." However light brown skin
> Hispanics and Afro-Americans are encountering even bigger problems. "But
if
> you are just dark enough to be an Arab, then you really got a problem. My
> cousin is light skin and he gets a lot of hassles.
>
> "When we walk through check points it's usually three of us and we all
have
> the same union issue and state ID's, but they let us pass and pull him
aside.
> He and I have the same last name but that doesn't matter; sometimes they
> detain him for ten minutes or more just checking out his ID. But while
they
> be checking us out to the max, always calling in supervisors to double
check
> our ID's, the white boys just flash their cards and walk on through."
>
> Work clothes have been donated to the rescue workers in such abundance
that
> the site managers are giving them away to workers. But James tells us "If
you
> are black and walking off the site with one of the big bags they give you
to
> carry the work gear you are asking for trouble. We often get stopped
leaving
> the site. A crowd of black and white workers can approach the security
people
> with bags and they pull the black workers over, like they suspect us of
> looting or something. I mean their whole body language during the
> interrogation is aggressive, looking us up and down with their hands on
their
> guns. It's really annoying, seems like every single day there's something.
> But you just look past it because we've got a serious job to do. But we
talk
> about it all the time amongst ourselves."
>
> The real drag about all the suspicion of looting is that James has
witnessed
> white cops looting. Recently some media talking heads were expressing
> disbelief that any of "these heroes could be engaged in looting." Perhaps
> that's why they are not reporting incidents like the one James describes:
"
> See, there are still a lot of stores in the disaster area that have broken
> windows and at night some of these areas are without lights. So it's a
> thieves paradise except there aren't supposed to be any thieves out there,
> and it would be nearly impossible for them to get off the site with there
> loot. But the other night I saw six white cops get busted with several
Rolex
> wristwatches that they had stolen from an expensive shop in the financial
> district. I saw this happen but I have not seen a word of it on
television!"
>
> Having gone into the Navy right out of high school, where he was a
basketball
> star with college scholarship offers, James has recently returned to
civilian
> life and is resuming his education. Since his college is located in the
> disaster area, he is not falling behind in his classes. A sensitive and
> intelligent young man who is barely twenty, James is highly conscious of
the
> role misguided American foreign policy has contributed to the rise of
> militant Islam.
>
> The aircraft carrier on which he was assigned once steamed to the Persian
> Gulf and participated in an action against Iraq. At the time he didn't
> understand the purpose of the mission but as a flight director on deck "I
saw
> the weapons director load the planes with weapons and they came back
empty."
> This experience has made him skeptical of what the media or government
tells
> us about what's going on in the world, and he is far less hawkish than the
> politicians calling for the invasion of Afghanistan.
>
> After spending many hours digging through the rubble James believes that
the
> final toll may exceed the present estimate of around 6,400 casualties. As
the
> stench of death grows more pronounced with each passing day at the site,
> James finds that his military training helps him to cope with the
grotesque
> reality that now consumes twelve hours of his day. "The smell of rotting
> bodies is getting so bad that they may eventually have to evacuate some
parts
> of this city," he says. "Right now some of the guys I'm working with are
> getting sick because they can't eat their lunch after smelling the stench.
> But the military trained me to cope with a situation where mass killing
was
> taking place."