POLITICS AS USUAL
The Debate on Race
When I hear journalists, scholars, civil rights activists and television and radio personalities say the American people are afraid to talk about race, I wonder if they're watching television or listening to talk radio?
The issues of race have been debated daily since the Shirley Sherrod incident. This conversation is being discussed from both sides and the middle, and they're going back and forth based on their experiences, life's environment and racial encounters.
It's amazing in 2010, we find ourselves going down this road at this magnitude. Race is still a factor in America, but having heated over the counter shouting matches is non productive.
It's like the two or three wars America is involved in. I can't believe in the 21st century, with technology and the advancements made in practically ever area of civil, social and technical life, as well as, the most powerful country in the world, we're still sending young men and women into hand to hand combat. Unbelievable!
This is a very sensitive topic, not because it isn't relevant, but because we have a present generation, whose two generations removed from the civil rights movement and their dealings with racism has mainly been hidden.
Today, racism is not an overt practice, but one that is being manipulated behind closed doors by a few. But the mainstream of today's America doesn't function from the play book of prejudice, but from privilege and innate inheritance.
A white person 25 - 35 years of age, who parents didn't actively practice bigotry, but educated their kid to believe achievement and privilege is his right. And most importantly, he's expected to succeed and get what is owed to him as a tax paying citizen.
That's not a racist belief, but a feeling of privilege. The world owes you if you do what's expected and if you work, you get paid for your services. If you borrow, you pay back. If you sacrifice, you have every right to benefit from what your sacrifices brings. That should be a human and common belief.
And for white people, dating back from the days of western dominance and dictatorships, they have a full belief that wealth, power and influence should be transferred to each generation. You build the wealth by ANY means necessary, expand that wealth through transfer, which creates power and you combined the two into influence.
This privilege is learned from birth and that's where today's young white people minds are at. They don't really see racism at the level being discussed and debated today. They know what's been transferred and inherited, and they know their responsibility to continue the cycle. The question is where is everybody else's train of thought of breaking the cycle and building wealth, power and influence *where you live, work and play?
racism definition
The belief that some races are inherently superior (physically, intellectually, or culturally) to others and therefore have a right to dominate them. In the United States, racism, particularly by whites against blacks, has created profound racial tension and conflict in virtually all aspects of American society. Until the breakthroughs achieved by the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, white domination over blacks was institutionalized and supported in all branches and levels of government, by denying blacks their civil rights and opportunities to participate in political, economic, and social communities. Source: The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Correspondent: C. Dwayne West
(Read more of CDW works of words on chicagodefender.com & chicagonow.com/hiphopinc)
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