The Whole Race Conversation 2010
January 24th 2010 13:42
In today’s conversation we’re taking a long and hard look at a problem that has been plaguing the United States of America and every other nation in the world from the beginning of time.
A problem that did not begin when the decision was made to devalue human life for the price of commerce but dates back to the first time a group of people encountered another and noticed that they had a different outward appearance than the one they were used to seeing on a daily basis.
The conversation of race begins with the fact that each and every person on this planet is different from any other.
It is these differences that have started wars in the name of ethnic cleansing and has been used as political markers by men and women throughout history to excuse the worst atrocities this planet has ever known.
When we break down this conversation to the things that have happened on the land known as the United States of America we have to come to the understanding that the fruits of our discontent all stemmed from problems that occurred long before the Constitution and Bill of Rights were ever conceptualized.
Documents that gave us the building blocks for Civil Rights and Women’s Rights legislation.
Documents that enforced the strength behind the words that serve as the backbone of a nation built on truth and justice for all.
It was this truth and justice that Civil Rights leaders like Malcolm X and Dr Martin Luther King Jr. fought for but each leader came to the table with a different ideal of how we would reach the end game and what it would look like.
It is this conversation of their differences that are missing from casual discussions of race.
Discussions of race that are saved for single race conversations in our homes, neighborhoods and gathering places…
Single race conversations filled with black and white folklore passed down from generation to generation to build on stereotypes of everything we have been engrained to believe about race.
Stereotypes that build false expectations of how a person should walk, talk, listen to music and act based on the color of the pigmentations of their skin.
Backroom conversations that transformed an era of economic slavery into a racial agenda have become part of our way of life with the use of social terms like “Acting Black” or “Acting White” to keep us in our shells.
Shells created as a form of social code in the slavery era to prevent revolts.
The men and women who did not fit in the mold of speaking improperly or dressing in the expected wardrobe were castigated as acting white in what began as an offensive to protect property and prevent revolt.
What began as something as simple as keeping salves ignorant to enhance productivity and keep them from learning about an outside world became a rallying cry for ignorance in the belief that one race was inferior to the other through social codes of separate but unequal that continued long after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Before we can celebrate any historical milestones of race in the election of the first American President of African descent we must take a look at ourselves in terms of everything we have been engrained to believe in a diverse world.
A diverse world that all descended down into the melting pot known as the United States of America.
In order for us to achieve the status of an open society and get beyond race we must open up our minds to things we do not understand.
It’s easy to simply say that we are all Americans and race does not matter but at this point in our history the problem has grown too large to not talk about it.
Not talking about it only compounds on an already volatile situation that creeps out of the closet every time a man or woman breaks the mold of expectations.
The mold that tells us a glass ceiling will never break because of a racist society or the lack of a qualified candidate who can relate to people of all races.
When the time comes for a conversation of race to take place we must not look at the issue in terms of political affiliation but must embrace the chance to move forward as a nation and get everything we do not understand out in the open.
Moving forward into a world where minds are open to hearing the whole conversation from the hearts and minds of people of all races.
There can never be any spokesperson for all of Black America just as there can never be a spokesperson for all of White America or Asian America.
It is this thought that clouds the issue whenever political or social leaders are deemed as subject matter experts.
When it comes down to it we are all individuals who think, walk, talk and act for ourselves and not a race.
With this thought in mind and an open dialogue for people of the world to see it for themselves we can truly begin moving forward into a Post Race America and World.
To get more of the story join me on my Social Networking Sites and Facebook Fan Page by following the links below...
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Click here
Friend me on Facebook
Click here
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A problem that did not begin when the decision was made to devalue human life for the price of commerce but dates back to the first time a group of people encountered another and noticed that they had a different outward appearance than the one they were used to seeing on a daily basis.
The conversation of race begins with the fact that each and every person on this planet is different from any other.
It is these differences that have started wars in the name of ethnic cleansing and has been used as political markers by men and women throughout history to excuse the worst atrocities this planet has ever known.
When we break down this conversation to the things that have happened on the land known as the United States of America we have to come to the understanding that the fruits of our discontent all stemmed from problems that occurred long before the Constitution and Bill of Rights were ever conceptualized.
Documents that gave us the building blocks for Civil Rights and Women’s Rights legislation.
Documents that enforced the strength behind the words that serve as the backbone of a nation built on truth and justice for all.
It was this truth and justice that Civil Rights leaders like Malcolm X and Dr Martin Luther King Jr. fought for but each leader came to the table with a different ideal of how we would reach the end game and what it would look like.
It is this conversation of their differences that are missing from casual discussions of race.
Discussions of race that are saved for single race conversations in our homes, neighborhoods and gathering places…
Single race conversations filled with black and white folklore passed down from generation to generation to build on stereotypes of everything we have been engrained to believe about race.
Stereotypes that build false expectations of how a person should walk, talk, listen to music and act based on the color of the pigmentations of their skin.
Backroom conversations that transformed an era of economic slavery into a racial agenda have become part of our way of life with the use of social terms like “Acting Black” or “Acting White” to keep us in our shells.
Shells created as a form of social code in the slavery era to prevent revolts.
The men and women who did not fit in the mold of speaking improperly or dressing in the expected wardrobe were castigated as acting white in what began as an offensive to protect property and prevent revolt.
What began as something as simple as keeping salves ignorant to enhance productivity and keep them from learning about an outside world became a rallying cry for ignorance in the belief that one race was inferior to the other through social codes of separate but unequal that continued long after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Before we can celebrate any historical milestones of race in the election of the first American President of African descent we must take a look at ourselves in terms of everything we have been engrained to believe in a diverse world.
A diverse world that all descended down into the melting pot known as the United States of America.
In order for us to achieve the status of an open society and get beyond race we must open up our minds to things we do not understand.
It’s easy to simply say that we are all Americans and race does not matter but at this point in our history the problem has grown too large to not talk about it.
Not talking about it only compounds on an already volatile situation that creeps out of the closet every time a man or woman breaks the mold of expectations.
The mold that tells us a glass ceiling will never break because of a racist society or the lack of a qualified candidate who can relate to people of all races.
When the time comes for a conversation of race to take place we must not look at the issue in terms of political affiliation but must embrace the chance to move forward as a nation and get everything we do not understand out in the open.
Moving forward into a world where minds are open to hearing the whole conversation from the hearts and minds of people of all races.
There can never be any spokesperson for all of Black America just as there can never be a spokesperson for all of White America or Asian America.
It is this thought that clouds the issue whenever political or social leaders are deemed as subject matter experts.
When it comes down to it we are all individuals who think, walk, talk and act for ourselves and not a race.
With this thought in mind and an open dialogue for people of the world to see it for themselves we can truly begin moving forward into a Post Race America and World.
To get more of the story join me on my Social Networking Sites and Facebook Fan Page by following the links below...
Facebook Fan Page
Click here
Friend me on Facebook
Click here
Friend me on Myspace
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