Race Matters

Cornel West, author of "Race Matters"

It is hard to believe that we have entered the Twenty-first Century and we still have the ignorant ghosts of racism still haunting us.  The attitude towards blacks by some white people around our country is amazing to me, sometimes.

Our country was founded on the belief that we are to be open-minded about all creeds from around the world, but yet our biggest flaw in our history has been the black issue.  Even our Founding Fathers owned slaves, which is hard to understand, coming from men who professed such open-minded beliefs about the citizens of a nation.  As a teacher, it is a question that is often asked – how could the creators of this great nation have been so short-sighted?  I can only answer that as progressive and intelligent as they were, they weren’t perfect.

Slavery has got to be America’s most immense skeleton in the proverbial closet.  Over a hundred and fifty years after Abraham Lincoln ‘freed’ the slaves, there is still this mentality in many parts of our country that the black race is inferior to the white one.  How can so many people feel this way?  Didn’t we just elect a black president?  Hell, there were enough open-minded people who overlooked the coincidental fact that Obama’s middle name was Hussein.

There is an air of paranoia and an addictive embrace to very primitive thinking processes in America now and I feel that it has not been well addressed.  As more and more people recognize the power of the internet, these ridiculous views are able to be shared to everyone who wants to hear them.  This has created an upsurge of conspiracy theories that include ridiculous Zionist plots to overthrow the government and the fictitious connections of black musicians to the Illuminati, of all things.  All one has to do is look these topics up on YouTube to see these idiotic beliefs posted to the world.

Although things have gotten better for blacks in America since the civil rights movements of the 1960s, there is still much work to do.  Cornel West mentions in his book Race Matters that one problem facing blacks today is the lack of community among themselves.  But West published these ideas in the 1990s and it’s another world now.  A world where more people claim to be open-minded, while those who still live in their racially-bias existence have become more intolerant as African Americans celebrate more success.

This lack of community that West discusses should not be for blacks to bear alone.  It should be a community of people regardless of race, creed, religion, sex, sexual preference, etc; all helping each other overcome the ignorance that exists in some circles today.  These issues need to be continually addressed and squashed down whenever possible, for whatever battle one minority faces today, another will face tomorrow.

“A fully functional multiracial society cannot be achieved without a sense of history and open, honest dialogue.” ~ Cornel West

Scott Dee

Preamble

We hold these truths to be self evident…

That’s how our Founders decided to set themselves apart from what they thought was unjust.  They had the knowledge, the creativity, and the guts to put together a nation that the world had not seen.  They used the philosophies of many great thinkers to create a brand new system of government from scratch, something that very few ever had the opportunity to do.  After a few lessons to learn of our own, we would eventually be a role model for the rest of the world.  It took a lot of hard work, blood, and sacrifice for many Americans to put together what we have now.

But it is falling apart.

It’s not hard to find comparisons between our nation and the fall of the Roman Empire.  Historians have been commenting on it for years.  The cracks are hard to see, they say, because we are too close to the picture.  We don’t see the whole picture.  We just go on with our lives because that’s what is normal.  It’s what we are used to.

Every generation thinks it’s the last.  So, naturally, the argument will arise that maybe, just maybe, my words are just a little too skeptical.  That maybe I am gathering the cans of food and duct tape a little too soon for a Y2K that will never happen.  I just don’t think that’s the case.

The world isn’t going to end just because of any failings on the fault of our country.  But it will change, no matter what we do.  We do have the chance to help guide the flow of change, though.  This isn’t about good guys versus bad guys.  It’s about keeping watch over the misdirection of those who may get a little tempted to do the wrong thing from time to time.

Our country is off track.  This isn’t about me bashing it, either.  I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but I do think it needs to be criticized in order to better it.  Thomas Jefferson is attributed with saying, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”  Instead of a dialogue of extremist language and political agendas, I want to engage in rational discourse.  Not the “Love it or leave it” kind of thinking.  Not the “I support it because my political affiliation supports it” kind of thinking.  Just plain blindness to ideologies, but yet an acute awareness of them.

This blog represents my adventures in trying to understand our nation and the world around us.  I don’t claim to know everything, but I do try to be informed about topics that I tackle.  If I’m not clear about something, or I have the wrong information, please leave comments.  I will try to differentiate between my opinion and something I have found to be fact.  It won’t be just about politics, either, so if one topic bores you, keep reading…

Scott Dee

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