Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Post Racial?
Since the election President Obama there has been a lot of discussion on what "race" means in the US today. Has one presidential election moved us beyond our history of racial discrimination and prejudice, are we a post-racial nation? This subject is often tackled from an intellectual or public-opinion angle. What does it mean for the man/woman on the street, though? Information like this, from today's NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/opinion/02herbert.html serves a reminder that rationalized racism is still alive and well, at the levels of power where it matters the most.
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Herbert points out very fascinating statistics, more so coming from New York. I think the trend will not be different in other big cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston or Miami. Race - or the ugly face of it will always, quickly, rear its head in law enforcement, at the work place, sometimes at school or even just on the streets. But, that is not to suggest that "racism" resides in America's DNA.
ReplyDeleteAnd it is not easy to contain what amounts to racism. Over the years, racism - as relates to skin color has metamorphosed into private attitudes; where individuals based on what they see and feel will be quick to react in a manner that might be offensive to the other party and based on the party's understanding of race, might triger some connotations of racism. And, the election of Barack Obama, may not have launched a significant shift on this more so on the white and black fronts. Certainly, there's no group-think when it comes to race. I would personally, want to think of what amounts as racism as stemming from individual attitudes.
For, how would you define white people as hating towards black. Where is the conventional wisdom or the unwritten agreement that whites as a group will hate black folks or vice-versa. As of the statistics that still cast people of color as vulnerable to profiling, it may have to do with the nation's inability to publicly address issue of race. And absurdly so, people of color will also be quick to read racism because the national accent has not been able to disabuse of it. For instance Obama's Philadelphia speech on race was good in the content but what did it do in terms of shifting attitudes and sustaining the mew tempo? Nothing! We folded and went home...Now, in a country that claims to be liberal and where individual freedoms are well espoused, how would law enforcement officers desire a particular dress-code say for those guys from Uptown NY? I always loose my head in this debate because the issue of racism is one the government and the elite have considered delicate over the years and thus left it to the conscience of individuals many of whom are wallow in denial. Peace.