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I grew up in the 60s. My father was prejudice, my Grandfather was too. My generation was going to change all that.We wanted equallity for everyone. What the hell happened? Sure we elected a black president, and have tried to make sure the constitution, (ALL MEN CREATED EQUAL). It seems that if your black, it is all right to be a racist. Have you ever seen Al Sharpton defend a white man? He sure is quick to attack someone if he feels they are a racist. Right now a hispanic man is being accused of murder in Florida. I believe the man was wrong for the way he tried to protect his neighborhood, but a hate crime, give me a break. The police chief quit because black people are making the state charge him. Have you ever heard of a black being charged with a hate crime? Is Bill Cosby the only black man not a racist? When is this going to change? I call this reverse racism. I had nothing to do with slavery yet my generation has to put up with this. When I moved back to the town I grew up in, same block, same street, a man came up to my son and told him not to play with his kids and stay off his property. The reason he gave my 12 year old, "This is a black neighborhood"! I was born in the house next door. Will racism ever stop?
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Democrat
Colorado Springs, CO
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Very good discussion points by all. Some of it reminded me of one of President Obama's best speeches that he ever made:
A More Perfect Union, “The Race Speech,” Philadelphia, PA, March 18, 2008
YouTube: A More Perfect Union, Senator Barack Obama, March 18. 2008
People should go back and reread it, or better yet listen to it in his own inspiring words on YouTube. I'll extract a few relevant paragraphs:
Senator Obama:
"The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
"Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow....
"For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.
"And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
"In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time....
"It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
"Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time."
End
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Democrat
Fredericksburg, VA
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