The fact that we whites have privilege like no other human of color is telling. Instead of welcoming all comers on merit we choose to cheat, lie and steal to get an advantage. How utterly contemptible of us. If the system we live in is such that fear is the basis for it's functioning then the system needs to be adjusted. The injustices of the past in the racial differences department have not been corrected so that we all can move forward and until they are corrected the underlying seed of discontent will continue with hatred and brutality as the normal. It is a mindset for many of us that there is no color line if we are truly a democracy. What we as a nation have done in the past needs to be addressed and corrected so that human behavior for all can have the same starting point.
There is a way to put the past in the past and that is to examine the present and eliminate that which continues to offer privilege and advantage based upon factors other than merit. A system to allow for a "catching up" for those who are disadvantaged needs to continue until the "catching up" has been achieved. We must also not lose progress on those who would be affected by programs like Affirmative Action. Increasing opportunities is the solution so that none are left behind. This is the least we owe to generations of non whites who have not been allowed to move forward based upon merit, and a way not to adversely affect this generation of whites who should not have to suffer for the hatred and brutality of their parents.
The fear we whites cling to is unfounded. We as this generation have not been the oppressors of the past like our ancestors. We are the product of enlightenment and know our history is not our present or our future. Yet if we don't correct the lingering racial and social disadvantages inherent within our society we make ourselves culpable through omission as opposed to commission like our forebears. Either way, commission or omission, guilt is still founded until the problem has it's solution. I find it despicable that there are still elements within our white society that work hard to keep a color line drawn. If the rest of us whites do not end the practice of advantage and privilege we will be letting that small group of haters defeat the vast majority of the rest of us who know that democracy demands us to stand up for all of us not just some of us!
There is a way to put the past in the past and that is to examine the present and eliminate that which continues to offer privilege and advantage based upon factors other than merit. A system to allow for a "catching up" for those who are disadvantaged needs to continue until the "catching up" has been achieved. We must also not lose progress on those who would be affected by programs like Affirmative Action. Increasing opportunities is the solution so that none are left behind. This is the least we owe to generations of non whites who have not been allowed to move forward based upon merit, and a way not to adversely affect this generation of whites who should not have to suffer for the hatred and brutality of their parents.
The fear we whites cling to is unfounded. We as this generation have not been the oppressors of the past like our ancestors. We are the product of enlightenment and know our history is not our present or our future. Yet if we don't correct the lingering racial and social disadvantages inherent within our society we make ourselves culpable through omission as opposed to commission like our forebears. Either way, commission or omission, guilt is still founded until the problem has it's solution. I find it despicable that there are still elements within our white society that work hard to keep a color line drawn. If the rest of us whites do not end the practice of advantage and privilege we will be letting that small group of haters defeat the vast majority of the rest of us who know that democracy demands us to stand up for all of us not just some of us!
No comments:
Post a Comment