Archive for the ‘Racism’ tag
In Spite of Obama, Blacks and Whites Still Don’t Like Each Other
There is a mode of thinking that Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign for president signifies a turning point in the history of American race relations.
Problem is, Americans do not agree.
80 percent of black folks recently polled by the New York Times said they had a favorable opinion of the Illinois Senator. 30 percent of white folks share that sentiment.
60 percent of black folks say that race relations are bad compared to 34 percent of white folks.
The 1.796 participants were asked other questions regarding racial perceptions, treatment by police, and social and cultural opportunities, but each followed the same trend of white people having more positive perceptions on racial equality and relations than black people.
So what does that tell us?
Nothing that we didn’t already know, and nothing that we shouldn’t expect for many years to come.
The realization is that this country has only had integration and semblance of equal opportunity for a little more than 40 years; this after hundreds of years of slavery, segregation and inequality that favored white citizens. There is no reasonable logic that could fashion positive and overwhelming change to combat historical and generational angst among these two cultures.
Sure, stuff like athletics, the arts and education have bridged the gap slightly, but there’s nothing that can be done to erase the deep rooted shame of descendants of slaves or slave owners. There is a legacy that’s still close enough to touch, breathe and live by, and this legacy is made worse because we keep trying to fix it.
There is no fixing, only living.
We can only be pessimistic about our condition, because we are still close relatives of separatist thinking and behavior. However, there is room for optimism in future generations, as our grand and great-grandchildren will reap the benefits of desired peace between the races.
They won’t know what it’s like to have more educated family members than uneducated. They won’t look in history books and see tales of marches, demonstrations and rallies, see the year when they took place and think to themselves, “my mom and dad were six years old when that happened.”
They will have more heroes of varying hues to look up to. News about “the first black woman to….” or “the first Hispanic man to…..” will become more of the norm and less of a surprise.
White people will begin to realize that we don’t look at racism as a crutch or some kind of sick benefit to make white America give us more than what we’ve long deserved. Black people will begin to realize that opportunities are no longer attached to our skin color or nationality, but our working and moral code of ethics.
And we’ll all be jolly friends forever more.
But until then…
You keep clutching your purse when you see me coming on the street, and I’ll keep cursing you out (under my breath) when I see you do it.