Race in Politics

Race stills plays a role in everyday life in America including politics and with the nomination of Senator Barack Obama it seems to be making the headlines on a regular basis. I am going to address a few aspects where race plays a role in today's politic but first a quick history lessons. The United States is a relatively new country. This new nation inherited a commerce that was highly depended upon slave labor. In a short period time this nation went to war against itself for one of several reasons, to abolish slavery. Americans today owe nothing to the descendants of slaves for their ancestors were the ones who risked their life to secure the slaves freedom.

Every person is prejudged by their appearance, the way they carry themselves and the way they speak. A beautiful person has advantages over a less attractive person. A wealthy person has many advantages over a poor person. Tall men have an advantage over short men. A white man in America has advantages over a minority. This is just human nature but it does not mean you cannot succeed. Your path to success may just be filled with a few more hurdles. You can fight it or you can accept it and work within the system. You cannot expect to change anyone's mind by continually demand more and more. You need to conform to the rules of the successful. Keep your underwear in your pants, put your hat on straight, walk like you are proud and with a purpose and for the love of God speak properly and respectful. Picture this in your mind:

A kid is walking down the street towards you. He has pants 3 sizes too big for him and they are pulled up just under his rear showing his boxers. He walks with a certain rhythm in his step and his head bobs from side to side. He wears a white tank undershirt known as a "wife beater" and has gold jewelry around his neck as well as in his mouth. He has a baseball cap on with a flat bill and turned to the side. What do you do? Do you fear nervous as he approaches?........What race did you depict the kid in your mind?

Bill Cosby has it right. The only way minorities are going to reduce prejudices and racism is by changing their stereotype. Take care of your own house before you expect to be treated differently. Take responsibility for your own actions and make those actions respectful to others and others will judge you differently. But what you cannot expect is to act antisocial and expect people to change how they treat you. Change must come from your own actions first and society will follow.

The black community has several self proclaimed leader, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Reverend Al Sharpton, and Louis Farrakhon all derive their power from claiming they speak for the black community. If there is a situation with an apparent racial bias these men are quick to the news media to condemn the so called perpetrator of the injustice and sometimes followed by investigating the actual facts of the case. If the offender happens to be the police these leaders are even more enthusiastic about their representation. The problem with this profession is they are actually holding down the people and issues they are trying to promote. You cannot continually tell people they are getting cheated and expect them not to hold the powers to be with contempt. You cannot tell people they cannot succeed because they are being held down and expect them to play within the system which is the only way to succeed. Terrorists find sanctuary in failed or failing states, they thrive in poor communities and they prey on endemic poverty and despair. To a degree, many of the black leaders use the same strategy to derive their power. I look at it this way, if my kid thought they were getting an unfair chance at something, how would I advice them. Would I tell them to protest and keep yelling for equality or would I tell them to try harder and make it harder for the powers to exclude you?

Now Barack Obama and his quest for the Presidency of the U.S: Many think he has to overcome prejudices to succeed and this puts him at a disadvantage. I say this is huge advantage for him. Yes there are people who would never vote for an African American but there are more people voting for him BECAUSE of his race. The black community is almost unanimously in his corner just like there is a large contingent of white Americans who support him because they believe electing a black president will be a huge step in solving racial equalities in America. Being black may cause some to pull the opposite lever but more are pulling his lever because of his color and that is just as wrong.