Racism in America

Here we are, nearly 150 years from the abolition of slavery, 40 years from the civil rights movement, and is racism gone? No. In fact there are those doing there level best to keep it alive. No matter how many people in the country are striving to set the issue behind us, there are still those who define themselves by the color of their skin and do their best to force the rest of us to see it too.

I know many people will object to what I'm writing. And you are absolutely free to do so and I welcome your comments. But this is how I see it. These are the socially accepted organizations and ideals that I believe are contributing to the problem.

The ACLU - The IDEA of the ACLU is a great one. Uphold the civil liberties of all Americans. And if the ACLU was living up to that ideal they would not be on this list. It is absolutely right to stand up for anybody whose civil liberties are being violated no matter the color of their skin. However, the ACLU is quick to assume that any man or woman of any race other than white is being violated based on the color of their skin. Whether or not this is actually the case is totally irrelevant. I ask you this, in the case of the firefighters denied their promotion because not enough members of other ethnic groups qualified, where was the ACLU? Wouldn't this have been a perfect civil liberties case for them? But they weren't in the least bit interested. The ACLU will take up a case which includes all Americans against the government, but if it is a single white man, or a small group of them, whose rights are violated then it's not worth their time. This begs the question of whether the ACLU believes that the white man, because he's white, can't be discriminated against based on the color of his skin. If so, then the ACLU has a racist stance. One, unfortunately, shared by many.

The NAACP - Again, the idea and original ideals of the NAACP was excellent and desperately needed at the time. And they still do some really good work such as the fight to save Troy Davis from execution as the evidence that convicted him falls apart. However, the NAACP is also prone to cry racism where it doesn't actually exist. They tend to assume racism based on the color of the person's skin. Here is a clip from an NAACP blog - "But we must go beyond the civil rights guaranteed in the Constitution and advocate for the human rights that will assure that America’s promise is realized for all. While our Constitution mandates equality, for example, there is no constitutional guarantee for an education, let alone a good education. The fight for good schools is a struggle for our human rights." I'm not sure where they're going with this one. I know that the state of the schools in poor, and especially inner city areas is deplorable. But it affects every student, of every race and ethnic background that attends those schools. Is that really a "black" issue? And are they saying that the black students attending good schools in affluent areas don't have the same educational opportunities at the other kids in those schools? Before you start screaming at me I'll ask you to please read the whole blog because I will explain how this pertains.

Awards Shows - Included in these are the NAACP Image awards, The Ebony awards and the Miss Black America pageant. These awards shows promote a separation between the races. Any person eligible in these contests and awards are also eligible in their non-race based counterpart. As long as we have awards and contests limited to people of a specific race or ethnic background the differences between the races are at the forefront. The same goes for the television channels dedicated to specific races.

African American Colleges - This is segregation. Period. I understand that students of other races can attend, but identifying a college as "traditionally black" is a segregationalist stance. How, for example, would the ACLU and the NAACP react if Harvard listed itself as "traditionally white"? It wouldn't look pretty.

Hyphenation - This is one of the worst possible things for race relations. An insistence that somebody describes you as a hyphenated American again only results in a focus of our differences. We are not African-American, Latin-American, Asian-American, Indian-American or European-American. We are American. I understand that there was an objection to being referred to as "black" but the problem is that the African-American description does not work for all black people. Not all are American so how can they be African-AMERICAN then? They can't. Making people focus on how to describe you, and therefore fear offending you, makes them treat you differently based on your race. As long as it's not a racial slur, should it really matter how our basic physical appearance is described?

Hyper-sensitivity - We appear to have become a people seeking offense where none is intended. We project discrimination where it doesn't exist and appear to actively seek it. It appears we can no longer be disliked by somebody based on our personality or our behavior. Instead it must be attributed to our race, gender or sexual orientation. This is an effort to avoid personal responsibility. It's so easy for me to say "It's not that I'm a big old bitch and all around asshole, they just don't like me because I'm a woman and I'm white." This lifts all personal responsibility from my shoulders for my own bad behavior. We have to stop looking for trouble.

Do I believe that racism no longer exists in this country. I absolutely do not. I know there are still many cases of it. My point in writing this (I know it took me forever to get to it) is that rushing to claim racism where it doesn't exist, diminishes the importance of the cases where it really does. After listening to claims from Reverend Wright that the AIDS virus was created by the government to wipe out the black community, is it any wonder that people roll their eyes a bit when racism or discrimination is claimed. How can we ever focus on the real issue and the real problem when the manufactured issue gets way more press?

Racism is a horrible and disgusting issue and we must all work together to eliminate it forever. In order to do this we must stop focusing on how we are different and focus instead on how we are alike. We must stop making decisions about issues based on race. We must stop assuming that if a member of one race attacks a member of another that race was the issue. Could it be, yes. Should we assume it is without any supporting evidence other than the race of the attacker vs the race of the attacked, no. The case that comes to mind for me on this one is the Duke Rape case. There were blogs and cries against "elitism and white skin privilege" because the accuser was black and the accused were white. It was generally accepted and expounded by some that those white boys thought they had a right to rape her because she was black. And let's not forget that the accused ended up being the victims in this case. So was that a case of racism as well? Did she accuse them because they were white? I don't think so.

We have varying degrees of real racism in this country and that's where we need to focus. On everything from the tragic and appalling murder of James Byrd, Jr by members of a white supremacist organization, down to my friend, Tony, who is pulled over by the police for "routine checks" at a severely disproportionate rate simply because he is a black man in a $40,000 car. So I guess in all of my rambling, what I am really trying to say is that when it comes to racism we've been crying wolf. The cry is given when no wolf is there which has resulted in us ignoring the wolf that is here lurking. How can we ever solve the real issues when we are constantly distracted by those that are invented?