The Race Is On

Electing the first black man in history to the highest office in the land was an enormous step towards healing race relations in this country. Since he's been in office however, we have been spiraling in racial retrograde instead of making any progress forward. By putting so much emphasis on his race, people have managed to bring out their basest of human qualities and put on a display of intolerance that we should be well beyond, both as a country and a people.

To even take up this subject on a little-read blog is an invitation for conflict and criticism. But my reasoning is that racism and intolerance in our society has come to represent a growing component in the overall madness of our world. It's completely ridiculous to be curtailed of progress in handling the severe problems that confront our country because folks can't get past the President's ethnicity. If a heart surgeon saves your life after you suffer a heart attack, then does it really matter what race he happens to be? (Let me solve racism and then I'll tackle religion, gender gaps, and other concerns.)

It's impossible to point out the views of one side versus the other since it's a completely multi-faceted issue with varying beliefs and attitudes prevalent even within individual families. This narrow-mindedness exists across political party lines, in all occupations, in all geographical locations, and even without regard to one's own race. Oh and yes, like everyone else, even I have prejudices that are a product of my upbringing and individual life experiences.

So how do we fix it? My suggestion is to start by introducing the notion in people's mentality of how stupid the whole racism issue is. Does it make any sense to root for a sports team depending on what color the athletes are? Can you tell yourself that "all white people are racist" when the reality is the majority of voters are white and a black man was elected President? Michael Jackson didn't become the biggest pop icon in history because he was black, despite being black, or by trying to be white. He was just who he was, albeit a little strange and everybody liked him. Stop contributing to the madness and start looking at how idiotic it is to let a racial based grudge contribute to the person you are or impede what you would otherwise be able to achieve.

sacatk