Greetings, Colorado Progressive Coalition Members & Friends:
CPC Co-Director Bill Vandenberg wrote this provocative and disturbing opinion piece that The Denver Post published on Friday, August 17, 2006. He spotlights the hidden racism that often lurks in our our midst, this time by a taxi driver responsible for transporting visitors around our community and creating first - and lasting - impressions of Colorado.
Since our founding in 1996, CPC has aggressively confronted racism and discrimination in Colorado. We've taken on white supremecist leafleting in our communities, led the charge to pass a strong state law against racial profiling, been an active leader in the coalition to stop attacks on affirmative action, organized against Black and Latina/ o youth overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system, played a key ally role in advancing gay and lesbian equality and immigrant justice, and offered support to Cortez, CO Native American leaders working to stop racist beatings against their sisters and brothers.
Fighting discrimination is not something that CPC does when it's convenient, it is who we are as an organization. CPC and our diverse staff and members are committed to creating the society we wish to see.
So, read through Bill's op-ed piece and let us know what you think. Thank you for your ongoing support of our work for a better, more progressive Colorado.
In peace, |
Max (all first names in this article are pseudonyms) is a cheerful and proud grandfather, a religious conservative and traditional family man, a hard worker, and someone who, when annoyed, calls his African co-workers "niggers" and "monkeys."
Max's job - he's a taxi-cab driver who makes frequent airport trips to DIA - makes him one of our city's true ambassadors, welcoming business and pleasure travelers to our home.
With the Democratic National Convention approaching, Max and his fellow cab drivers will be responsible for many visitors' first and lasting impressions of Colorado. That can be a frightening thing. Colorado may not have the legacy of overt racism of some other states but we're not immune to it either. Much here passes beneath the surface.
Don't get me wrong. Max smiled in the rearview mirror for our 30-minute conversation en route to DIA and was very courteous and hospitable to me, a white guy in my 30s who has lived in Denver for 16 years.
It all started when I asked him how long he's been driving in Denver. An enthusiastic Denverite who moved here from the Pacific Northwest four years ago, he volunteered that he liked it here because it was a city with more white people, not like Detroit, Atlanta, or Chicago, where the large African-American population equals - according to him - more drugs and crime. He added that he is proud that his home nation has denied immigration to people of African descent "because they bring too much trouble."
I asked Max how he worked with the large number of cabbies in town who are hard-working Africans, from Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Sudan, Somalia, and across the continent. He cheerfully replied that he did OK most of the time, that the African immigrants were definitely better than African-Americans in his eyes. But when they did something to anger him, he would still call them "niggers" or "monkeys."
This was coming from a man who was driving for a taxi company owned by an African family.
I asked him whether he ever has black customers in his cab and he shook his head. Rarely, he said, and pointed out his opinion that "black and Mexican passengers often don't pay" and most of the time don't leave tips. The only blacks that were OK to him were "those who were adopted by white people."
I know that taxi drivers work long hours for little pay and have to put up with impatient travelers and late-night drunks, risking their safety every day. Most of the drivers I've met are decent people and many come here with college degrees that don't transfer to the American job market.
Some drivers, like Abdul (also a pseudonym), humbly face the xenophobia against immigrants and Muslims. Others, like one I'll call James, a former police officer, are Denver natives respectfully transporting travelers and the carless (like me) across the metro area.
But some are like the older, white female driver for a major cab company who drove through Five Points, with me captive in the back seat, while she launched a 25-minute, unsolicited rant against Denver's black community and the city's history of desegregation. Her words - and her anger when I shared that I was a Denverite who disagreed with her tirade - made me sick and prompted me, a generous tipper, to leave her no tip for our ride to DIA.
And then there was Max. His cheerful racism was so casual, so matter of fact. So disturbing.
As we approached DIA, he shared that there were many great Russian nightclubs and restaurants in town where I could surely find a great woman and go dancing. He offered that he'd be happy to show me around Russian Denver, home to tens of thousands.
As I left the cab and paid the fare, he shook my hand and asked when I was returning to Denver.
If I didn't already live here and have a return flight, his racism might have made me pause before answering his question.
Like I said, first impressions can be lasting ones.
Bill Vandenberg is the co-executive director for the Colorado Progressive Coalition (www.progressivecoalition.org), a statewide civil rights and social justice organization, and a downtown Denver resident who regularly takes taxis.
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