This is a country in which a black man can become president and being a black man no longer needs to be about being angry with the country. This is a country that has lived up to its promise of opportunity for all
Honestly, I find that absurd. I agree with the person who said that while something has changed, much remains to be done. Claiming that just because an African-American has been elected President means that blacks are no longer victims of the American past is like Republicans claiming to be inclusive because they nominate a Clarence Thomas for SC and Colin Powell for Secretary of State. Sure, those are milestones of a sort. But the statistics about poverty, unemployment, broken families and communities, life expectancy, finishing high school or college, who is in prison, etc remain. It isn't simply racism. In fact, racism is in a way a distraction from the real issue. The real issue is that we as a society tolerate wide disparities in opportunity and in living standards. In fact, we not only tolerate it, many of us think it is "right," that it reflects the virtue or the competence or the abilities of individuals. |
