Yesterday I attended a Coming Together Racine meeting/movie/discussion on racism at the Racine Public Library.
Attendees were five activist white liberals and myself. We watched a movie on the Freedom Riders who courageously confronted the segregation in the deep south. While the film was a bit manipulative at times -example, splicing in scenes of white bus passengers merrily singing, juxtaposed with vicious racism - there is no mistaking the horrific violence and racism perpetrated by southern segregationists.
I wondered to myself what relevance that blatant, state sponsored racism of fifty years ago has to claims of racism today. Indeed one participant noted that we don't have such problems today. The problem of course is now subtle and rooted in each of us, according to one participant. That might be the case for liberals I suppose but I am not accepting the guilt. It just leads to more problems, like electing an unqualified man as President of the United States, among others.
Over the course of the discussion I made a few points. I wish now I had tied my comments into the consequences of white guilt but I did not. However, I noted that the tendency to expect lower outcomes or worse behavior from blacks is not in the end very helpful to them. Also I noted that the City of Racine, one of Coming Together Racine's sponsors, has thrown up roadblocks (conditional use permit) for businesses which has had the greatest negative impact on minority business owners and or those wishing to serve alcohol to black customers. This revelation seemed to make an impact on the group.
I enjoyed the discussion very much and I will try to attend future meetings. If nothing else, there is no point in ceding the high ground on race to liberals.
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4 comments:
So an actor with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and economics from Eureka College who was a Governor is qualified to be president.
But a community organizer with a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Columbia U. and a Juris Doctor of law from Harvard (Magna Cum Laude) who was a professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago, a state senator and a U.S. Senator is "unqualified" to be President?
Excuse me Denis, but your fly is undone and your hypocrisy is totally hanging out!
Sean, it was not Obama's educational pedigree that I considered disqualifying. Rather it was a lifetime full of AntiAmerican friends, mentors, reverends etc.... that should have done the trick.
Did Sean say something about Obama's education? I heard from our good friends in the media that he went to good schools but those schools have not officially confirmed or denied that he attended. We certainly have not seen transcripts and it is possible that his grades were worse than John Kerry's, whose grades were in turn worse than George W. Bush's. I do know that he claims to have been a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago, which a spokesperson there confirmed, yet records clearly show that he was an adjunct. The difference between a tenure track faculty position and an adjunct position is as profound as night from day. It is wonderful that the U of C supports Obama's heavily massaged claim - perhaps they did it out of joy that their guy was now president, maybe it supports their diversity program, or maybe they are afraid that there will be some sort of punitive action from our president who always wants to know "whose ass to kick".
Pure BS Denis. I at least expected better of you.
And here with the Ano-one we see the racism rear it's head. Have you ever heard a request to see the transcripts of any other presiident? No, just the black one. Graduation was always good enough for the white guys.
Furthermore, Ano's conspratorial ascertion that Obama could claim to have attended Harvard (where he PUBLISHED the fricken Harvard Law Review for crying out loud) without that being debunked, just illustrated the minimal mentality at work here!
SHEESH, What a bunch of hateful maroons.
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