Jelani Cobb laughed when the phrase “racially charged” came out of his mouth.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I would like to create a voltage meter so that I could target exactly what the charge was. ‘Oh wow, it appears to be that there are five volts of racism in this.’”

The phrase is just one example of the unproductive ways politicians and journalists in America talk about race, Cobb said during a discussion in Hendricks Chapel on Tuesday night.

About 150 Syracuse University faculty and students attended the event, held as part of SU’s University Lectures series. Cobb, an award-winning journalist and Columbia University professor, answered questions about race, politics and the news industry for over an hour.

Much of Cobb’s talk focused on how better understanding history can equip Americans for the 2020 election and beyond.

“We have been taught, instinctively in this country, to accept a particular methodology, and that is that things started out pretty well and they’ve only gotten better since,” Cobb said. “If you really engage with history, you can’t tolerate that sort of myth anymore.”

Racism and divisive politics are not new, but the undermining of democratic structures is something America has less experience with, Cobb said. Americans are experiencing the delegitimization of institutions essential to democracy, he said.

American media outlets, especially cable news networks, have underestimated the gravity of the current political scene, Cobb said. Differentiating between what might be an ebb and flow seen before in American history and what is unprecedented is important, he said.

In the leadup to the 2016 presidential election, some media outlets downplayed the consequences the election would have on Americans, Cobb said. Budgetary concerns and poor diversity at many news organizations contributed to the problem, he said.

“American media is by and large run by people who will be OK no matter what kind of catastrophe befalls the rest of the population,” he said. “A number of bad habits have entered the field, the institution, and they’ve been allowed to proliferate over time.”

Journalists, like politicians, were often hesitant to call out racism when they saw it prior to election day in 2016, and the next election’s candidates have followed suit, Cobb said. There is an idea that pushing racial justice is going to turn off white voters, and the idea might be right, he said.

As much as decisiveness and hostility have defined current politics, the last few years have also given rise to historically large protest movements and activism, Cobb said. He mentioned Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March following President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration as examples.

Activism on college campuses has been particularly strong, but universities need to confront their histories to truly encourage civic engagement among their students, Cobb said.

“The first part of encouraging students to make those connections is to come clean in our own complicity,” he said.

Cobb also said that public officials and celebrities have been held to higher standards in recent years than they were in the past. If people say something inflammatory or ignorant, they will hear a response from others, even if only on social media, he said.

Despite these strides in social justice, Americans, especially voters and journalists, must be willing to confront the reality of the country’s situation, Cobb said. Cobb does not think there will be another civil war anytime soon, but he warned against voters letting their guard down.

“I do think it’s reasonable to anticipate that the constituent elements are coming together for us to see significant political violence in this country,” Cobb said. “And I think it’s responsible to say that so we can wake up and make sure it doesn’t happen.”

Published on February 11, 2020 at 11:45 pm

Contact Michael: msessa@syr.edu | @MichaelSessa3