Correcting a problem always needs to start with a dose of reality–even if painful. And so we address the racial divide in America. Ever since slaves were imported as “free” labor by colonists white America has viewed black America as inferiors. Fact: this ingrained attitude is rarely admitted but almost always present. As an example: President Thomas Jefferson, long regarded as one of the greatest US presidents was a racist. Imagine how many State dinners he conducted while celebrating the freedoms declared in our Constitution—all the while being served dinner by slaves. Even a man with his intellect could not see the hypocrisy of such a scene.
From that era it became common place to reserve all vital society roles to whites. Sometimes ethnicity was at issue like Germans, Irish, Italians, or Jews duking out their spot on the pecking order; but always the black race was never even part of the disputes–the ultimate shun.
Even when the Civil War threatened to divide the country and Americans killed thousands of Americans for four years, white Americans savaged one another over the right to enslave blacks. Eventually the Emancipation Proclamation stated the case for black freedom clearly and a President was killed for it. Then in 1964 President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law with sweeping changes. Look around you today; have we made much progress?
Today we see a continuing trend to disparity in the average white toward blacks. The Rodney King incident, several police abuse events and even the COVID vaccine distribution process all point to a “second class citizen” treatment for blacks.
The reality is you can’t legislate morality. As a popular “protest” song of the 1960’s said “legislation can’t bring integration”. And as I said at the beginning, reality is essential if we are to remedy the situation. More on this in future posts…
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