Ruffin’s Theory of Cultural Current
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By Quincy K. Ruffin
“I don’t see color…” This seemingly harmless phrase tends to rub a lot of black people the wrong way. It triggers a sort of invisibility in the moment and dismisses the pain they and people like them have felt for generations as a result of racism in America. I’ve heard this phrase used by police officers, store clerks, sales representatives and teachers. I’ve heard it from people I knew personally and that I know harbor no ill will toward black people in general. While I would like to say that I respectfully and convincingly corrected them and moved on with other, less confrontational conversation, the truth is that I am a pretty confrontational guy when it comes to the issue of race in America. Not that I am a troublemaker, I just tend to speak up and speak out when it comes to the subject I am so passionate about. I usually respond with something like, “How do you not see color, it’s literally in your face!” Of course I know what they really mean is that they don’t focus on the race of the person when deciding how to treat them. What I always want to convey to them is the fact that they must see color and they must take it into consideration when dealing with people who must grapple with that feature in every part of their lives. Those who decide they don’t see color or that choose to ignore color are simply supporting the racist narrative whether they are aware of it or not.
I know it sounds extreme but bear with me. I believe I can make the point without sounding too confrontational.
I recently took my children on an RV trip through northern California, Oregon and Washington. Our itinerary took us through several RV parks, tourist spots and visits with old friends from yesteryear. About halfway through our trip, we made a stop at the Rogue River RV park intending to drop the trailer and drive 45 minutes east to crater lake. When we arrived, the kids could not wait to get out of the truck and run around the park exploring the property and surrounding areas. I was impressed by the beauty of the park with its very well-kept RV spaces, mature trees and most impressive, the Rogue River steps away from our RV spot. Before unhooking the RV from the truck, I took a short walk across the driveway to breath the clean river air. Even though it was rushing by, the water was transparent and offered a clear view of the rocks that lined the riverbed. My son discovered quickly they were all perfect for skipping across the river. As we enjoyed the tranquil surroundings, we heard people laughing in the distance. They were river rafters having a great time floating by on what I later found out was the calmest part of the river. As they passed by, I asked where they got the rafts from. One of them pointed behind me and said there was a rental place just across the street. Two hours later my kids and I were on a raft of our own floating down stream.
With no training, we had to figure out how to navigate the river ourselves. One thing we learned quite quickly was that the river had a strong current which took the raft where it wanted unless we worked together to control the direction. We had to fight the current because it was leading us to the edge of the river where there were dangerous piles of rocks and overhanging trees. We wanted to go toward the middle of the river where the bottom of the boat was clear of any obstructions. As we paddled our way down the center of the river, the raft suddenly started heading toward the edge. We gained momentum and started moving dangerously toward the low hanging trees which occupied the river shore. I looked back and noticed my son had stopped paddling. He was tired and had even taken his oar out of the water. Son, I said, we need help here or we are going to hit the rocks! He looked at where the raft was headed put his oar in the water and started to paddle again. After a few well coordinated swipes of the oar, we started to move back toward the safety of mid-river. As small as my son was, his contribution made a huge difference, so did his absence when he stopped working. That is where Ruffin’s Theory of Cultural Current was born.
Ruffin’s Theory of Cultural Current says that like the river current, every society has a Cultural Current. Every member of a society is either working for or against that society’s cultural current and they are complicit in the outcomes. There is no neutral. The US has, for longer than it has not, been a society whose cultural current moved toward racism against blacks. In her book Caste, Wilkerson states, “2022 marks the first year that the United States will have been an independent nation for as long as slavery lasted on its soil. No current-day adult will be alive in the year in which African-Americans as a group will have been free for as long as they had been enslaved. That will not come until the year 2111.”
It is true that the paradigm has shifted from the racism of old where the norm was explicit hatred towards blacks and overt acts of that racism was perpetrated by some and accepted by others as a matter of social conformity. Now racism hides behind the masks of implicit bias, stereotype threat and exclusion. Some make the mistake of reducing racism to its explicit form of hate focused on a group of people based on their race. With that belief, it is understandable that some in our society believe we are living in a post racist era. But that belief is flawed. Racism is not just the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, it’s calling the police because of loud laughing (NBC Bay Area, 2016). It’s not just refusing to allow blacks to attend school with whites, it’s suspending black boys for the same behavior accepted from white boys (Travis Riddle, 2019). It’s not just refusing to treat blacks in the hospital, it’s giving them less pain medications because of a belief that they can take pain better than whites (Kelly M. Hoffman, 2016). Working against a racist Cultural Current is not just excluding the use of racial slurs, it’s actively acknowledging color and the lived experiences that come with it. It’s learning about implicit bias, stereotype threat and microaggressions. It’s listening, learning and never believing you know it all. It’s actively pushing the entire society to be more inclusive, compassionate and understanding starting with one oar in the water at a time, the only one you really control, yours.
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References
Adam M. Chekroud, J. A. (2014). A review of neuroimaging studies of race-related prejudice: does amygdala response reflect threat? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Kelly M. Hoffman, S. T. (2016). Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites. Proceedings of the Natinoal Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113, (16).
NBC Bay Area. (2016, April 19). Retrieved from nbcbayarea.com: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/11-women-kicked-off-napa-valley-wine-train-file-11m-racial-discrimination-suit/1996630/
Travis Riddle, S. S. (2019). Racial Disparities in School-Based disciplinary actions are associated with county-level rates of racial bias. Proceedings of the Natinoal Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116,17.
