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Digging into a Difficult Conversation

A few years ago, Don Rankin got a phone call inviting him to attend a ceremony honoring one of his ancestors, the Rev. John Rankin, who was about to be inducted into the The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro, New Hampshire.

Rankin readily agreed and he and his wife were getting to ready to go when, about a week before the event, he got another phone call. It was someone from the hall of fame again.

“They said, ‘Dr. Rankin, the gentleman who nominated the Rev. John Rankin is not able to come, would you be able to speak on his behalf?’” Rankin says.

The problem was that Rankin didn’t know that much about the good reverend. He had a book about him, but hadn’t had time to read it.

And, he said yes.

He had a whole week, he thought. “And it was just three minutes” of speaking, he says.

So he sat himself down and read the book, gave the talk, and one thing led to another. Now he’s engaged in a series of speaking engagements on slavery in America and the Underground Railroad. He’s been involved in several related book projects, and a movie is in the works. Along the way, he says, he’s learned how difficult it can be for some people to discuss race. He says his talks often turn into discussions about some of the reasons why it can be hard for white people to talk about race, and common mistakes that can make it even more difficult.

“So, one of the things I talk about is that white folks, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful of anybody, but some white folks aren’t even aware of the opportunity and privilege they have just by being white,” he says. “Most all of us are struggling to get through our day-to-day activities, pick the kids up from daycare, and put food on the table. And the truth of the matter is that just by being white, in this country, you are one jump ahead by having white skin. You are generally welcomed. People don’t look down upon you. You are not discriminated against because of your skin color.”

He says he runs across many people who claim to be “totally colorblind.”

“I understand that means they are trying to do their best. But then up come the expressions that we really don’t need,” he says.

He says phrases like “working towards racial acceptance,” and “racial tolerance,” can sound, even when it’s unintentional, disrespectful.

“Suppose someone said to you, ‘You folks have been challenged, but don’t worry, we’re going to learn to tolerate you. You know? We’re going to learn to accept you,’” he says. “I’m an Irish guy. Imagine if someone said to me, ‘We’re going to learn to tolerate the Irish. Don’t worry, we’re working to tolerate your heritage.’ I would be ballistic.”

Honoring and Celebrating Differences

Rankin says he that he’s more comfortable talking about “honoring and celebrating differences.” He says when he talks about it with friends and members of his family—people who are white, black, and biracial—that they are very aware of condescending language.

“In my family, we were taught to honor and celebrate differences. Don’t use terms that are condescending. People of color are aware of it,” he says. “And we need to work towards celebration. So this is the way I see it.”

Rankin has had a lot of experience talking and listening, working with different groups over the years. The Madison resident was trained as a surgeon in the Air Force during the Vietnam war, and has served as an assistant clinical professor of surgery at Yale, and the chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Park City Hospital in Bridgeport. In recent years, he’s also become well known for a wide variety of community activities, and his expertise in geology, Native American history, and archaeology, all of which have been subject of his talks and presentations.

Words matter, he says, particularly when it comes to sensitive issues like race.

Subtle and Not So Subtle

The recent discussions he’s held will focus on the origin and development of the Underground Railroad, and provide a forum “folks to share their thoughts about racism today and ideas to mitigate the subtle and not so subtle forms of its continuing expression in America.”

His next talk, at the Levi E. Coe Library, 414 Main Street, Middlefield on Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. will chronicle the development of slavery in America and the efforts of those who championed its abolishment including his ancestor, the Rev. John Rankin, and John P. Parker, an escaped slave who was the son of a white slave owner and a black slave. His own father sold him into slavery. Parker escaped, and went on to success as an industrialist and patented inventor, and became a noted abolitionist, helping slaves escape to freedom in Ripley, Ohio, where the Rev. Rankin also lived.

He says his upcoming talk will draw upon what he learned from the book he read, Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad, by Ann Hagedorn, along with other research he’s done since that first talk several years ago.

He said he learned from his research about the Rev. Rankin and others who were passionate advocates for the immediate abolition of slavery. “He influenced a ton of folks early on. William Lloyd Garrison. He was friends with Harriet Beecher Stowe. It’s very, very cool,” he says.

He says the Rev. Rankin originally had his church in Kentucky, but moved it across the river, to “a sleepy little town Ripley, Ohio, an hour south of Cincinnati.” In 1822, Rev. Rankin built a house on the river, and later, another house nearby up on a hill.

In 1838, “and this is true,” Rankin says, the Rev. Rankin became involved in the story of a black woman intent on escaping across the ice-filled Ohio River, a baby in her arms. A sympathizer on the Kentucky side of the river broke off a section of picket fence, and told her to use that, and the ice floes, to make it across the river. She was met by a 21 year-old slave catcher on the other side.

“But he was so moved by her bravery that instead of turning her back in for her reward, he sent her on up to the Rev. Rankin’s house, where she escaped through her passage through the Underground Railroad,” Rankin says. “And he later told that story to Harriet Beecher Stowe.”

Stowe then immortalized the tale in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The character of Eliza was based upon the Rev. Rankin’s account.

“The whole thing is just very, very cool,” Rankin says. “Nancy [his wife] and I had never been out to Ripley, so we went out there two years ago. Now it’s a national historic monument. And they just built a whole new visitor center.”

A Different Story Now

Rankin says there are times in his life when he stayed quiet when perhaps he should have spoken out against something that sounded racist, or was racist.

“You know, sometimes I would let it go. I probably should have spoken up. Now, it’s a different story. Now I want people to hear what I have to say,” he says.

Part of what he loves about the Rev. Rankin’s story is that “he was very hard and fast.” There was no equivocating for him, when it came to slavery or matters of race.

“The United States had almost four million people enslaved,” Rankin says. “People would say, ‘What about the economy? What about this? What about that?’ He didn’t care about any of that. He advocated immediate and total emancipation. He acknowledged there would be difficulties, that education would be needed, but he felt it was such an abomination for people to be held in bondage for the personal gain of others, that it had to be ended...Because, really, at the core of it, it’s about greed and gain, deriving gain off the backs of other people.”

Rankin says one of his earlier talks, at St. Andrew’s Church in Madison, was well received by the standing-room-only crowd. There were some uncomfortable moments during the discussion, he says. That’s OK, he adds. He says he’s used to talking about race.

“You know, we were raised to celebrate racial diversity and honor that from the get-go,” he says. “So I’ll speak a little about my viewpoints on race as a white person with biracial family ties. This is a story that resonates with me, and my family, and my friends.”

It goes without saying that he’s not happy with recent divisive racial rhetoric nationally. Nazis and white supremacists are marching in the streets, trying to gain new followers. Some are trying to repeat the lie that the masters were kind and the slaves happy with the care they received while enslaved. Rankin says he wants to push back against that kind of thing.

“I heard all of that divisive rhetoric and told myself, ‘I think I’m going to tell our story,’” he says.