Much has been said lately about Barrack Obama’s speech on race in America. Yet, while the pundits and prognosticators ponder the meanings and implications of the Obama speech, the status quo remains. The ugly truth is that America is unwilling, or unable, to deal with the issue of race. America is in denial and in need of some serious therapy. Fifty four years after Brown vs. Board of Education, there are still two Americas: separate and unequal.
Only in America, the richest country in the world, can a man like Barrack Obama exist, and even prosper, despite the gross injustices racism has and continues to breed. Unfortunately, the only time we have a dialogue about race or racism is when something bad happens. Take for example the controversy surrounding the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Sen. Obama’s former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ.
Wright spoke out in his church about America’s past transgressions with regard to violence perpetrated against other countries. His words caused a firestorm when the media aired clips from YouTube that depicted Wright as an anti-American racist.
Obama, being a friend and member of Wright’s church, was widely criticized for not disowning the minister and disassociating himself with the church. Obama eventually succumbed to the criticism and disowned Wright’s words, but not the minister himself. Of course, this has not satisfied the critics.
Why does it take something like a controversial statement from an individual for America to have a conversation about race? Why can’t we just have the conversation on an ongoing basis?
Our so-called leaders, elected officials and community and business leaders need to have the courage and conviction to address the race issue head on. It’s time for America to look into the mirror and see itself the way the world see’s it; as a hypocrite.
Rev. Wright was right. He didn’t say what he said because he hates America; to the contrary, he said it because he loves America. America needed a wakeup call and I hope this was it. We have swept the race issue under the rug for too long.
Since our leaders won’t address the race issue, I guess the people must. We the people, white, black, brown and yellow, need to begin to discuss the 800-pound gorilla in the room-race. Our children only get a cursory treatment of the race issue in school. They’re taught about Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln, but not in the proper context. We must not only depend on our schools to teach racial harmony, it must be taught at home as well.
Racial prejudice is pervasive in our society. It controls where we live, work, go to school, socialize, eat, worship, etc., and it’s about time that we did something about that.
What can we do, you ask?
It starts from within. We must police ourselves and our own racial prejudices before we can police others. We must deprogram the virulent racial biases that we’ve internalized from childhood. Then, we must demand that those around us do the same, including our elected officials.
Finally, we have to communicate constructively. We must stop pretending that we don’t have a problem in this great country of ours and come to the realization that if we don’t recognize that we have a serious problem and address it, we won’t need to worry about any external threat, because we are fast becoming our own worst internal enemy.