This past week, Attorney General Eric Holder said , “though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.” He went on to say that even though in schools and at work we are integrated, we are still segregated in our personal lives. Of course, this brought a bunch of feigned outrage from both the left and right and all of them white-as-white can be. “Eric Holder, our President is BLAAA-CK!!! We are living in post-racial America! You don’t know what you’re talking about”
Um, sorry wrong.
Case in point, the New York Post put out a political cartoon which shows police officers looking over the dead chimp they shot with a caption that reads “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” Many African-Americans saw that as racist. You see, there is history of African-Americans being depicted as monkeys and really it’s not cool. And the Post basically responded to the criticism by saying, “Sorry if you were offended, but this wasn’t supposed to depict the President, now go screw off”.
Sure, we live in a free country with free speech. This political cartoon is well within those rights. But words have consequences. And no matter what the true intention of the message, the perception was “Barack Obama is a chimp with three bullet holes in his chest”. THAT has consequences.
Racism still exists. Just because more than half of America voted for a black man for the job of president, doesn’t mean that racism is over. What’s more is that even though many Americans will work side by side with a person of another race and smile and say “racism is dead,” would also say having that person over for dinner is out of the question when no one else is around. We don’t talk about that reality.
Why? Cause we’re a nation of cowards.
The sword cuts both ways. He wasn’t addressing just those of us with the fairer complexions. He was talking to all of us. Sure, you can pout and say it’s not nice to be called a coward. But if the shoe fits, wear it.
Categories: life..., MouthyGirl, Opinion, Politics, Progress, Wendy's Weekly Take |
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