Posted by
Ion2012 on Saturday, November 15, 2008 3:57:18 PM
The commentators who are using Barack Obama's election as proof of how far America has come in its racial relations are the very same people who have ignored the proof of the last 20 years or more. Pardon me, if I did not view Obama's election with the same shock as did our vacuous commentators. Anyone who has been paying attention has noticed that the content of one's character has long been the most important factor by far in advancing in America.
I do not deny that racists exist and that people of color still encounter racists. But it is rare that they can stop an African American from reaching the level that his talents should take him. Race may still be an obstacle, but it is not a prison. Indeed, none of us is born to equal circumstances. That does not mean we cannot overcome our disadvantages, including the disadvantage of race. In fact, being a racist in the workplace is far more dangerous to your career than being an African American. The vast majority of Americans have been making decisions about others based on their character, not their skin color, for a long time.
If that is not true, how was Obama elected? Was there a sudden transformation of racist America? Of course not. America changed long ago, but this was an inconvenient fact for leaders, commentators and academics who owed their success to grievance mongering. Those of us who live in the real world, and have seen a diverse workplace for many years, are not stunned by the willingness of Americans to judge Obama based on his abilities. Indeed, I cannot count the times I have heard or read commentators saying that young people no longer feel the racial tensions of the past. Why, because they grew up in a diverse environment, unlike their parents and grandparents who have been taking diversity training in schools and at jobs in America for many years, all the while imbibing our culture of many hues, yet never learned a thing about race? Aren't youths smart compared to the hidebound racists that are older than they are?
The real truth is that commentators are the ones who have lived in an unreal universe where race is what stands in the way of African Americans who want jobs, want to live in the suburbs, want to go to college or even want to stroll down the street. Yet, the commentators do not say that they or their friends are the racists. It must be those guys in Pennsylvania in Murtha's district. I guess you know how much power they wield over African Americans in the U.S.
If Obama's election proved a point about racism, it was that those of us who have long denied that racism was preventing African Americans from rising in our society were right. The first thing that happens when the content of character, rather than skin color, becomes the most important part in the judgment of human beings is not the election of a black president.
Yes, celebrate the election of an African American president, but don't tell me that only now has America overcome its racist past. And, eating a little crow might be in order for our simple-minded commentators.