Over the last couple of weeks events concerning the Shirley Sherrod incident have really got my bald head in a shine. Racism has existed since the beginning of mankind, is it justified? Not in any instance i can think of. Will it continue to exist? yes. I believe we as human beings have a natural resistance to anything that is different from us, we judge people and object based on perception whether taught or to us or learned on our own. Im not saying anything profound here by the way. Im speaking from my experience, I grew up in a house where my father was not too fond of black people and some of my friends were black growing up but hey were school friends. We even had neighbors who were black that we went to school with and my father was furious that my sisters and I invited them over to play. In 1975 my father was shot and wounded by a black man (the odds of him being another color in a black community were slim indeed) who attempted to rob him at his place of business. He ended up killing this man himself in the return fire. My father own his business in a deep part of Detroit, that predominately was populated by blacks who also happened to be poor by most standards. He dealt with petty theft and numerous other accounts that he deemed "a problem with that race". He referred to them in general, as thieves. Three decades later he was shot and killed in California from someone trying to rob him in his place of business. go figure.
My father felt he spoke about black people from experience, and in some strange way he might have been right about a few things, but he never took into account of all the black customers who didn't try to take from him and were friendly and kind.I know this because working with my father as a young boy that's ALL I ever saw.I was conflicted about race as a youth.
The Civil Rights Movement gave many minorities hope 30 years ago and important man( we all know who he is :)sacrificed everything to speak out for his culture and demand what the rest of us take for granted most of the time. Today I feel Mr. King and those who hoped to dream would be ashamed of what has transpired. Racism is alive and well, but concealed, and both sides have found ways to use it to their advantage. Im sure most have heard the silly phrase" God helps those who help themselves." I believe we just have to help ourselves. Minorities have gotten used to Government assistance and it seems they have lost a drive to pursue a better life for themselves even IF society keeps putting up walls. I don't think Mr. King would quit, would you? Many in the black community perpetuate the myth about their culture and Im sure that does not help them in any way. I feel the black community will continue to suffer from their own misgivings as much as the "have and have-nots" battle in their cause.
I feel most of the black community's dreams seem to be lost in material objects giving them prestige in their communities but nothing beyond that. I feel whites and many immigrants as well, have those dreams too, but also look beyond those for something more (that silly American Dream, whatever that is now.) I wish the black community would act on the goals and hopes that Mr. King wanted for his people but I just don't ever see that happening.
I voted for the current President because I believed what he was preaching (im an idiot) not because he was black, which I'm sure the black community voted for him just because he was(another folly). President Obama is showing he is the same old politician that I was hoping he wouldn't be whether he was white, black, blue, yellow, or green. Racism is here to stay. Though it finds ways to hide, it will always be there. The black community find ways to use it for any slight and the white community finds ways to conceal fears not matter if its justified or not. Good luck America. Good luck mankind. The Neanderthals could't stop Cro-magnon man. Inequality cannot stop those who must have it all.
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