The Lie of A Post Racial America…
September 30, 2009 by Staff
Filed under News, Weekly Columns
(Akiit.com) President Barack Obama did not speak it first nor proclaim it to be in place.
There has been talk of a “Post-Racial†society, but simply put, it is not yet here.
And it can not be here when racist groups are sprouting all over the nation to oppose President Obama’s very existence as President and when the right wing extremists go out of their way to oppose the President in ways that have simply never been seen before.
We are not talking about opposition to the President’s platform, but opposition to things that the President, frankly, has not even presented.
Are the times really different from when dumb ass Georgie was President? No! Is the job of President different? No! Has the structure of the government been changed? No! Is Obama acting without the support of the Legislative branch of government? No!
So, if there are no real changes in the job of President or in the structure of government, we have to ask the question: “Why so much opposition to President Obama?â€
The answer is simple: He is a Black President.
While it is beautiful that he was elected by a cross-cultural constituency, it is ugly that there remains a vigilant element in our society that will not allow anyone to move beyond race.
I believe that same element employed the “Post-Racial†argument to avoid having to deal with the persistent inequities in both the public and private sectors and to avoid the fact that we are perhaps more focused on race now than we have been in a long time. And we are focused so, simply because many nutty whites in America can not accept that the leader of the free world is a Black man.
But the propaganda of the “Post-Racial†lie has been pervasive—so much so, that many nutty African Americans believe in the illusion of inclusion, accepting the false premise that the rise of one man has erased four hundred years of racial preferences and racism, the vestiges of which can still be found in every corner of a society that is hardly “Post Racial.â€
The biggest problem is that some of us who believe that we have “arrived,†have merely bought into the empty promise of America—the illusion of the melting pot and the reward for pretending that there are no racial barriers and that hard work and education are always rewarded for everyone.
The belief in this illusion is the intrinsic barrier between open and honest communication with the youth, because they are still wise enough to know that there is a problem. Some of them embrace that problem as a reason to work twice as hard, while some of them embrace that problem as a reason to give up.
We do the youth a disservice by lying to them about America being “Post Racial.â€
Some of us lie to them by claiming that there is no real struggle based on the color of our skin.
We lie by telling them that the color of our skin never held us back and never really made a difference at all.
We lie and tell them that we excelled because we were simply hearty and smart individuals who embraced the American dream.
You see, by embracing the illusion of inclusion in America and the “Post Racial†lie, we set up a roadblock to understanding. Without the illusion and the lie, we could understand ourselves and others better.
Without the illusion and the lie, we would all be forced to admit that schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods remain severely underfunded.
Without the illusion of inclusion and the “Post Racial†lie, we would have to admit that the preparation for a better life is less sturdy than in other neighborhoods.
And by making these admissions, we would have to say honestly to our white counterparts over lunch, or golf, or cosmopolitans, that America is a dirty bitch, which would make us stand out, God forbid, and have to carry that damned “troublemaker†badge that our forefathers and foremothers carried, but that many of us so timidly shy away from.
You see, Negroes who promote the “Post Racial†lie are unwilling to admit that their benefits in life are the direct result of compromise, which has little to do with those people on the bottom who face welfare, gang warfare, drugs, alcohol, racial profiling and hatred from some of those above them.
The problem is that after the Civil Rights movement, some frightened Negroes were deathly afraid of having to do any real work for the race, having become comfortable with taking the benefits earned on the backs of many, while pretending that their progress is all about the individual.
What we are dealing with is the same attitude felt by the country Blacks when intermingling with the city Blacks, which isn’t really a Black thing, but cuts across all color lines, as city whites neither have any real desire to interact with their rural brethren who they view as less civilized. Part of the inheritance of integration is that now, many citified Negroes take on that same attitude about their brethren in impoverished areas of the same cities.
Because finally, for the first time since our arrival from slavery with the empty promise of freedom, a generation of Negroes has abdicated their responsibility of breaking through and going back to pull up others.
This abdication of responsibility is why we see gangs swell, even following concerted efforts to abate their activity, as if breathing—in with a breath of swelled membership, and out with the deflated exhalation of unsustainable efforts from those around them, but not many above them.
And, with such an abandonment of those at the bottom, why wouldn’t the newly arrived Black intelligentsia feel uncomfortable dealing with the truth about the first Black President’s existence?
The truth is that we have the potential to be harmed as much as healed.
And, we can be harmed if we continue to lie about being “Post Racial†instead of working to actually become “Post Racial.â€
Honestly, we have a great deal to lose if we fail to act properly while we have a Black President.
With the lie of a “Post Racial†America, it is easy for rabid racists to advocate for the ignoring of need in impoverished communities.
And with that Post Racial†lie, it is easy for silly Negroes to speak for the Black impoverished, claiming that they are just too lazy, or too weak, or that they only want ipods and sneakers—using these claims as excuses for refusing to assist or to even send assistance, which would be a loud and ringing admission of the true connection that they are simply ignoring for the benefit of their white friends who are really unconcerned.
Rather than doing any real work, or really, rather than admitting that they are one generation and a few paltry decades away from such an existence, today’s disconnected Negroes would rather claim to be “Post Racial†than to do any real work.
But the lie of a “Post Racial†America is so damaging that it will actually prevent us from ever becoming anything but a nation which deals with much of its domestic affairs based on race.
Written By Darryl James