C. Victor Lander, the lead judge of Dallas’ municipal courts, has come under fire for a comment he recently made in The Dallas Weekly, an independent black publication. I have pasted an article from the Dallas Weekly below and you can also check out a related piece in the Dallas Morning News.
Here’s the offending remark: “But as recent articles in the Dallas Morning News have shown, it is clear that the more mess that has been made by
others, the more it is up to us to clean it up. But black folks have been cleaning up white folks’ messes for hundreds of years, so why should we expect any different now?”
Remember now, this was written for a black audience who could be expected to take Judge Lander’s words in their proper context. The “black folks have been cleaning up white folks’ messes for hundreds of years” remark is familiar to anyone raised in the black community and it doesn’t take a PhD in English for a white guy to get the gist. Black people have traditionally worked as maids, waiters and garbagemen so they are used to cleaning up after white people.
As black politicians are gradually absorbed into the mainstream (think Barack Obama) they are frequently asked to resolve problems they didn’t create.
Judge Landers is being called a racist, a familiar flip-the-script ploy used by racially insensitive white conservatives who think history started this morning.
Can Landers’ remark be considered racist if it is given the most literal interpretation possible?
Is saying that white people are screw-ups a racist claim?
We are dealing with the old what’s-good-for-the-goose argument favored by outraged whites, as in: “If it had been six white boys kicking a black kid in Jena the media wouldn’t have given it a second thought.” (Readers of this blog will remember Judge Landers for the guest columns he wrote on the Jena 6 story before it became a national phenomenon.)
The alleged offense is multiplied when Landers’ comment is interpreted personally, as in, “the Judge is calling me a screw-up just because I’m white!”
That is precisely the way Dallas City Councilman Mitchell Rasansky is reading Landers’ statement. Refusing to accept an apology, Rasansky is calling for Judge Landers to resign.
The strategy is obvious. If one black Dallas official can be shamed into silence white folks will be free to live as if the account owed to black Americans has been paid with interest.
Here’s the real issue: Rasansky is calling for a strictly ahistorical reading of history. With issues touching on race, most white people can’t think systemically and we can’t think historically. The idea that white Americans generated an enormous mess by forcing African men, women and children into slavery is unacceptable to most white folks. The notion that this enormous mess has the slightest bearing on contemporary conditions is considered outlandish.
But it isn’t. As a matter of simple historical fact, white Americans enslaved African blacks, then forced them to live as second-class citizens under Jim Crow Apartheid. Should black people be considered racist whenever they make reference to this tragic history?
When black people call for reparations they aren’t asking for a handout; they are asking the dominant white community to engage with history.
White people who think they have nothing to apologize for are in the same class as Holocaust deniers.
Even if you take his comment in the most literal and offensive sense, Landers is right. Black people are being forced to clean up a mess they did not create. If the history textbooks used in American schools told the truth, men like Mitchell Rasansky would know better.
If Rasansky stated that white people have historically been forced to clean up after black people he wouldn’t be a racist, he would just be wrong. C. Victor Lander’s big sin is giving the white residents of Dallas a belated history lesson.
Dallas administrative judge comes under fire for column
By Patrice J. Holmes
editorial@dallasweekly.com
Dallas administrative judge C. Victor Lander is being called
a racist for a recent column written in the Dallas Weekly
where he made a statement that has resulted in him being asked
to resign from his position.
In the March 4 edition of the paper, Judge Lander writes:
“But as recent articles in the Dallas Morning News have
shown, it is clear that the more mess that has been made by
others, the more it is up to us to clean it up. But black folks have been cleaning up white folks’ messes
for hundreds of years, so why should we expect any different now?”
Judge Lander was subsequently asked, in a letter by Dallas City Councilman Mitchell
Rasansky, to step down from the post where he oversees all of
Dallas municipal court judges. Councilman Rasansky said
Judge Lander’s actions were unbecoming of a man in his position.
“I think he’s wrong and we should not have someone like
this on the bench, Mr. Rasanky said, “I didn’t appreciate it at
all.”
In the Dallas City Hall Blog on the Dallas Morning News
website, contributors are posting mixed reviews of Judge
Lander’s column.While some call him”fair, kind, and respectful to all regardless
of race,” some are calling him a flat out “racist” and comparing
him to radio shock jock Don Imus.
No matter the sentiments of the Dallas public, Judge Lander
said he regrets his statements if they offended anyone.
“I shouldn’t have used those words with respect to the city,
and that comparison shouldn’t have been made,” Judge Lander
said. “We have worked and done a lot to keep the justice and
court system working and I’d hate to see something like this
happen to undo our efforts.”
The badge of “racist” is one label Judge Lander said he will not wear.
“Anyone can call anyone else a racist but it doesn’t have to be true.”
Fellow Dallas Weekly columnist Vincent Hall said Mr. Lander’s comments were well founded.
“The way he is being lambasted for pointing out a legitimate flaw in a relatively kind way is ridiculous,” Mr. Hall said. “Look at Ron Kirk, look at Lupe Valdez and the jail system, it was ugly the whole time her white predecessors had it.”
Mr. Hall continued, “Look at Henry Wade, Bill Hill and John Vance, they made a mockery of the justice system. And President Obama-he inherited the greatest mess known to the U.S.!”
Blacks and whites alike are asking if the same consequences would have befallen a white person if put in the same situation.
Mr. Rasansky said no matter what race, statements such as these are completely out of line.
“If he were white I would ask of him the same thing,” the councilman said, “I would still go after him.”
James Washington, publisher of the Dallas Weekly weighed in on the
issue, saying the reaction from the public was overblown.
“It was a knee jerk reaction to a linguistic misunderstanding,” Mr.Washington said. “Take what he said
and then take what he meant as Blacks have been cleaning white houses,
keeping white kids and the like for centuries.”
Mr. Washington continued, “This is a colloquialism in our community and when put
into context, most African American people understood what the judge meant. But if you
take it verbatim and out of context, it seems like a radical statement. Some see it as racist, I do not.”
Judge Lander said he will continue his weekly column in the paper but in the future it will be
purely for educational purposes. “I enjoy writing for Dallas Weekly. It will be a little
more boring, but it will not be as controversial as this.”
Friends of Justice 
Well, I guess I will have to resign from my job too, then, for I have said privately what the judge has said publicly. It was certainly an impolitic thing for a high-ranking judge to say, but that makes it no less accurate as an historical fact: Repeatedly throughout history, white people, who have a disproportionate share of power and control–especially over the economic levers of the country–have made colossal messes and have left those without power–who are disproportionately people of color–with the burden of dealing with the consequences and muscling what little political resources we have to right the ship, in coalition with those white people who see the systemic problems and moral failures that allowed the mess to happen to begin with. White people who are offended by that statement of historical fact should sit down with those of us who are African American and have a dialogue about how we move forward to a new reality, and a new level of mutual trust. Hurling charges of racism and calling for resignations — but not moving to a dialogue that leads to mutual understanding and respect — will just keep us mired in the same racist dynamic that white people never want to hear mentioned and black people will always feel overshadows them.
Calling the flap “a familiar flip-the-script ploy used by racially insensitive white conservatives” is far to kind. Insensitive? Try vicious. The white “conservatives” have jumped on what seemed an opportunity to bash, discredit and remove a prominent black person and make their own racism acceptable. They were not insensitive: they knew exactly what they were doing. Hopefully, they will end up looking foolish to most people in the area.
I actively agree with Myron Pulier’s coments.
You ask, “Should black people be considered racist whenever they make reference to this tragic history”? For goodness sake, absolutely not. How else to bear it, I wonder. Hopefully, as Mr. Pulier says, Mr. Rasansky’s comments will be understood by most as ignorant and absurd.
Well, Pat Buchanan would agree with Mitchell Rasansky. I think it is a “flip the script” ploy. But, with Mr. Pulier, I think Rasanasky knows exactly what he’s doing. I’m not sure Judge Lander should even apologize. I got it immediately that he was calling to mind the generations of maid, busboy, etc. And I think it’s admirable that some black folks are now willing and able to at least help clean up some of the other messes us white folks have made.
Alan: Rasansky is way off base, and his concerns are total bullshit! I’m not sure what Landers was referring to, but clearly blacks over history have been cleaning up white messes, but literally and figuratively–clearly literally, since black domestics have cleaned up after whites in the south for a hundred or more years. But Landers does not lose his First Amendment right to free speech just because he’s elected judge! He has the right to make any kind of non-libelous statement he wants to, regardless of how controversial. Jim Barber.
The judge should not resign because he is right. The judge only quoted history.
He should not resign. He should stand by what he said, and make no apology.
Dr. Bean’s post is right on target. I add the following. There’s a deliberate tendency among some white people to believe that if the dark pages of our nation’s history are not talked about then it never happened. This state of denial has perpetuated from generation to geneation. That in itself is problematic.
Racism happens when a group with all the power lords it over a vulnerable group, including calling them names, keeping them poor, etc. If blacks now had all the power and were using it in viciously discriminating ways, then maybe the comment might be racist, mainly if it were untrue. No, the judge shouldn’t even apologize If Mr. Rasanky is so sensitive, why didn’t he go after the people and judges in Tulia and Jena?
Alan Rasansky, FYI you need to sit down and read up on history.
You see people don’t like to be reminded about the truth, because the TRUTH HURTS…..
As for the Judge, he has done nothing wrong…
Alan Rasansky you are way off base.
Your problem is the basic idea is that white Americans are uncomfortable talking about black history because the subject hooks the distressing side of white history.
White Americans are ahistorical because they can’t face the hard truth.
If the White Americans would have not mistreated the African Americans like they did ! Then there would be no Black History.
So Councilman Rasansky, maybe you need to Resign from your position.
This is called History not RACISM!!!!!!!
Judge Lander’s remark made generalizations about both blacks and whites, and would unhesitatingly be called “racist” in the mouth of a white, especially a white Republican. I don’t think he should lose his job over it. A contrite explanation is enough. There is historical basis for his remark.
I’m sick and tired of the race card being played everytime a black man says a racial comment. I am so proud to be an American because the racial barriers are broken down now that young white America was so instrumental getting our 1st black President elected. Now if we can get rid of affurmative action which has held the black community to a much lower standard than our fellow American brothers and sisters. If we work real hard together as a strong black race we can get our 76% illegitimate birth rate down to a respectable number so we aren’t the “Bastard Race” of America any longer. Then we can concentrate on getting married and creating a strong family unit in which we can stop the soaring numbers of young black men killiing each other and a prison population of 70% throughout the Country. Then with all this equal ground we poor black folk won’t have to clean up after that white man that’s been feeding us,, educating us, and giving us every apology know in the universe for their failures and ignorance. Then we’ll all have no excuses and Black America can move on and take our wonderful African-American Title and go back to our mother land and clean up the genocide that our brothers have been committing to each other every since we kicked them darn white folks out of our country. Maybe we can all get it right and then we can leave this crapping old United States and go live in the mother land in a grass hut instead of a housing project that once was nice until we moved in and set up our drug labs and gang units. My brothers think about how stupid you sound before you speak. Learn your history; our great M.L.K. was a peacful man after one thing; equallity. We have that and much more compaired to the white man. Once we received equal rights then it was up to us to get out there and earn our way. Instead we let the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpten tell us we deserve more and made us into goverment slaves dependent on our well-fare checks and lack of dreams. Our own people keep us down and we have plenty of our own messes that we caused that we need to clean up without help. Then maybe we can behave like good citizens and earn some respect instead of thinking respect is a right and use a gun to get it. Fear isn’t respect and being ignorant isn’t an excuse; unless you choose to let it.
Thank you, Mr Bean, for bringing this to the attention of those of us who find out news from you that we wouldn’t know about otherwise. I am still waiting for Troy Davis’ outcome anxiously and hopefully.
Judge Lander is definitely in the right. I am glad Rasansky does not represent me in California. Let freedom of speech reign.
Frances Miller
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Mr. Bean. Your status in this life has taught you to understand the entire gamet of being black in America. You reached your status because of the many sacrifices you and the person that guided you on your path of accomplishments. Your status in life was awared to you because of hard work and making the necessary decisions that allowed you to grow and accomplish. You statement we truthful and honest because you have lived in America and you know the real rules
and understand the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are for you because you are and have been an American all of your life.
Vera Threatt
No, it’s not to be taken offensively; however, it might have rendered more positivism with a slightly different word choice. Such as, “White people for centuries have extrapolated the unjust plight of the black person. When will we allow dominant races to solve their own problems?!” Comments dealing with race should always be followed by a rhetorical question because only red-necks and hillbillies perceive others to think the same way as they. I think the Judge should think before speaking.