Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?

A few weeks ago on craigslist I saw a posting for an experiment at Pitt. For two hours of your time, you join a small group, discuss politics, and then receive a $25 Giant Eagle gift card. Sounded to me like pretty easy money.
The group I participated in met last night: amongst the college senior, recent college grad, and I was an older woman. I would guess her age to be in her late 50’s or early 60’s, but it was difficult to determine exactly because she wore huge, “Jackie-O” style sunglasses and a blonde, Pamela Anderson type wig, ripped jeans, and a black hoodie emblazoned with a silver cartoon voodoo doll stuck with pins.

The meeting facilitator passed out the questions we as a group were to discuss, which centered around race and the latest presidential election. The political and racial lines became quickly drawn between the three of us (college student, recent grad, and me) and this older woman.

I initially thought that because this was an experiment taking place in the Sociology Department of Pitt, this woman was a plant. The wig, the sunglasses, the nature of her remarks, it had to be a disguise, a jokey caricature of what people perceive a racist to be. Surely she was brought into the group only as a provocation to see what our reaction would be.

Then, as she went from one tangential, stream-of-consciousness rant to another, I realized that this was no plant at all, but a person who genuinely believed the venom that came out of her mouth. Her remarks included her belief that whites are the superior race; now that “that man” is in the white house, she fears that “those people will take over everything." She expressed her outrage towards a neighbor who has a black boyfriend. On and on it went, for nearly two hours, until the Facilitator finally stopped the experiment and escorted the woman out of the building.

While I thought the group showed an unbelievable amount of restraint, the Facilitator and the three of us were incredulous. For me, what initially began as amazement and amusement, quickly gave way to the sad realization that this was no joke: as demonstrated by this woman, racism is alive and well.

I and millions of Americans swelled with pride on inauguration day to witness an African-American man being sworn in as President, and for that moment thought we had come so far as a nation. We have come far, but as the woman brought home the point so dramatically, we still have such a long way to go.