When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask:
"When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?
Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."
Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood. We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.
But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama." Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?"
How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us?
How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color?
How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior?
How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin?
How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?
I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do? How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?
Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem.
But here's my three-point plan:
First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.
Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama.
Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice,
"We HAVE overcome."
Another interesting opinion article:
OPINION: Ron Paul Is A White Supremacist
By Casey Gane-McCalla February 24, 2010 3:13 pm
This email was sent to me: Let this be my Obituary
What I am about to say may endanger my life, or what little I have left. Because the Rich and Powerful and the Republicans and the Conservatives will not like one word of this.
I am A 68 years old WHITE MAN and have led a long life. One I have enjoyed, some regrets yes, but not many, more Joy and happiness.
I have lived through and can remember many of the injustices that have been perpetrated upon all of the Minorities in this Country by the Rich and Power White man. I have read books on the Revolutionary War and the Civil Wars, I have read books about the Black, Asian, Hispanic, Indians and European immigrants and what they Have endured under the Rich and Powerful White man in this Country. I have been all over the United States of America and seen for myself the Discrimination that goes on in every State perpetrated by the White Man. I also have seen what has been done to discriminate against White Women in this Country along with all the Rest of the what are now Protected Minorities.
I know for a Fact that we can not provide an Honest education to the children in this Country because we will not write the History of this Country Honestly and Fairly. We will never be able, in my Life time, to expose how the White Man has held himself in the place of God and ruled by the White Mans beliefs, wants and needs. How the White Man cloaks himself in Religion and then breaks every Commandment that was given to us to follow. Yes I am a Christian and I hope that I make it to Heaven when I die.
What I now see in this Country is the Rich and Powerful, The Republicans, The Tea Baggers and the Conservatives trying to do is take us back a hundred to two hundred years in time and making more of us slaves to them. If we allow them to do that then we deserve it to be done to us. If we join together and Fight them as a United representation of the Good this country stands for then we can not fail. Every Race, Creed and Sex must join together to prevent these people from accomplishing there Goals or agenda. They are going to do it in the Next election if they can gain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. They will succeed unless we become Vocal, Writing and Demonstrating against them and what they stand for. WE MUST NOT EVER USE VIOLENCE!!!!
It is not enough to sit around and complain and not to do anything. It is not enough to write to your Representatives and to your Senators. They no longer listen to us "The People." There are a few who do, but the Majority no longer do. They have joined the Rich and Powerful of this Country. Look at the Salaries that we pay our Representatives and Senators. Look at the Fact that they have made it the Law that they get a Pay Raise if they do not vote against it. They do not have to vote in favor of getting it.
I do not know when Corporation Executives, Companies Owners, Government Elected Officials and People lost their Character, Honesty, Compassion, Integrity and their Christian belief that they should look out for what is best for this Country that was founded on the belief that All are created Equal and that there should be Justice for all. Maybe our Educational Institutions no longer teach this Doctrine. When did the Almighty Dollar take over the Souls of these people? When did GREED dominate the World and this Country.
I was in Management with many of the Largest Corporations in this Country and was very successful because I never forgot that I did not produce anything that was product to sell and make a profit on. I understood that it was my job to make sure that everyone that reported to me had my full support in being successful at their jobs. I was the person who made sure that they had everything they needed to produce and succeed. That also meant that I provide then with a Safe and Enjoyable Work Environment.
The time once again is quickly coming upon us when "We the People" of the United States of America will have to UNITE and stand up against the Evil in this Country. Those who would return us to the Dark ages of Open Discrimination and Suppression. We will have to STRIKE and shut down every Corporation, Company and Institution to make our UNITED rage over what they are doing to us and this Country known. We will have to UNITED and make the Largest March on Washington D.C. that has ever been done in History. To demand that our Elected officials do the Will of the People. To Outlaw Lobbyists, To Outlaw PORK BARREL AMENDMENTS, To OUTLAW DISCRIMINATION of any kind, to REFORM the Justice System so that it is truly BLIND. To Outlaw Plea Bargaining, To require that every Prosecutor either prosecute or drop charges. To make every Corporation, Company, Institution and organization reflect the Ethnic make up of the community it exists in.
If we allow the Rich and Powerful and the Republicans and the Conservatives to make this a Country of only two classes (the have's and the have nots) this country is doomed. Government must be of the people, by the people, for the people
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