America is racist.
Whether measured by important national crises such as the federal government’s sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina and the riots in Toledo, or by less dangerous subjects like the new NBA dress code and William Bennett’s ramblings about aborting black babies to reduce crime rates, no other plausible conclusion exists.
When stripped down to its core, every major societal issue has a racial component. The challenge is that most people are unwilling to face the specter of racism (particularly their own racism) on an individual level.
The same person who opens his wallet to the Red Cross for Katrina relief laughs loudest when Chris Rock says the N-word in a standup comedy routine. Many intelligent people rationalize their feelings about race, by simply reassuring themselves: “I’m not racist. I have Black/Hispanic/Asian friends.”
People see racism as a defective character trait or overt stupidity. A more philosophical and historical view, however, reveals that the notion runs deeper, straight to the heart of the country’s national fabric. Racism is not a political issue, one that can be “fixed” through party affiliation. Racism is not even necessarily a moral concern. Simply being born an American, a person is infused with race and the legacy of slavery.
Criticism of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and other American heroes continues to mount based on the fraud that slave owning white aristocrats could talk so boldly about freedom, liberty, and equality, but tiptoe around the slavery question. The Founding Fathers cemented racism into the country’s value system by not addressing the issue with the same resolve and willpower that they tackled the formation of a new republic.
From their perspective, race equaled slavery. That perception endures more than two centuries later. One doesn’t have to dig deep to find examples of racism’s hold on America. The news is filled with hate crime incidents everyday.
I live in a Florida county that is quickly growing into a commuter suburb of Tampa. One would imagine, based on a flourishing economy and emergent suburban population, that such an area would be filled with the kind of upper middle-class, progressive, individuals taking root in suburbs all across the nation. Right?
Wrong. A statue of a Confederate soldier looms over the front lawn of the courthouse. The county seal features a more menacing Confederate flag, which adorns every county work vehicle. The offensive logo is not a carryover from the Civil War era. The city adopted it in 1986.
In this part of Florida, the Confederate Flag is constantly on display. Seeing just one a day would be a challenge. Whether the rebel flag hangs from a pole, is on a tee shirt, or serves as a license plate holder on a jacked-up four wheel drive truck, the message is more than symbolic.
What astounds me is that in modern America, long after politically correct language has become the norm, people so proudly parade the ultimate representation of racism. If a person is willing to flaunt the Confederate Flag, then they might as well complete the uniform and get a white hooded robe out too.
The fiftieth anniversary of Rosa Parks’ valiant act of civil disobedience in Montgomery, Alabama, and her death provided an opportunity to reexamine America’s failure to solve the race problem. However the challenge is addressed, the real examination must begin on an intimate personal level, like Parks’ lone response to an illogical request to give up her seat after a tiring workday.
No public opinion poll is ever going to reveal the depths of racism in the United States. Respondents tell pollsters what they believe is socially acceptable.
Clues to the depths of racism in the United States are littered in mainstream popular culture. Adult-themed cartoons are insightful, because their creators skirt societal norms by putting dialogue in animated characters. For example, “The Simpson’s” features Arab convenience store clerk Apu, while the African-American student (ironically from the town’s wealthiest family) on “South Park” is named Token Black.
In a society that has confronted its racist past and dealt with it accordingly, we wouldn’t need satires like these to remind us of the dirty thoughts we harbor beneath the shine of education, social acceptability, and humanity. Like Rosa Parks, each person should confront racism individually. It is the only way to live up to the principles that guide this nation.
2 comments:
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are more crowded than Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to "assimilate," i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I'm not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn't object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
this is anti-american.
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