When will we acknowledge that we have a long way to go with race in America?

I have been noticing many internet articles recently about “reverse racism” and such; funny term since there is no such thing. Racism is racism.

What the folks who are writing and spreading these articles are trying to say is that black people (and that is who is being targeted specifically in these articles) have racists as well. Of course they do! Every culture does, what kind of deep insight is that? That is called being human.

We in America like to think that we are post racial when we are not even close. We forget that slavery is still within living memory of many families. The last known living slave died in 1971 and that is within my lifetime, not to mention that the last known children of slaves died as recently as 2011, so that means there are many people around right now whose grandparents where slaves. This is what I am mean by living memory.

The struggle of African Americans has two main parts to it, with poverty being the number one factor and lingering racism number two.

Poverty is difficult to dig out no matter what your skin color, but it is even more difficult when you are starting with a deficit. Notice I did not say impossible, just difficult.

I personally cannot remember a time when I have seen so much political racial hate spewed across society (social media has been helping this as well), and mostly it seems directed towards a president who has not looked like any other in history. We know the reason why, but very few will say it out aloud but instead they will use code words, dissemble, and make life miserable for many because of this. This is coming from our so-called leaders of the country. Great example eh?

We have not had an honest conversation about race, and most are not interested. I once overheard a conversation that I was not supposed to hear it (one of the benefits of lip reading) that seemed to sum up the feelings of quite a few people: “there is a reason why we call them minorities, because they are minor in this country and should remain so. If we let things go the way they are they will just take care of themselves like a self-cleaning oven”. “In my opinion we should just neuter the whole race and be done with them”. This as a conversation between people who I thought I respected.



America, we have a long way to go and the first step is to admit it that we have a problem.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam