It's one thing to claim to be a victim....
an entirely different thing to actually be one... Which is it that people have a problem with?
Racism is undeniable and every one of us suffers from its stink, whether institutional or blatant. It’s something we will deal with until the day we die.
The difference between now and the past is that in previous generations, when we really had it hard, our victimhood became the source of our power. Today, forty years after the civil rights movement and the MLK imprint, it’s become the underbelly of our anger and we’ve fully adopted it as the only reason for the state of our affairs.
I see good people that really want things to change, but I also see race hustlers who get rich and gain power over time by keeping our victimhood the center of our narrative. These people don't want to see racism come to an end anymore than an auto-mechanic wants to see an end to automobile troubles. It would put them out of work and out of power.
That’s why a Black presidency will definitely change the landscape in ways which we might not expect.
Kitty, believe me, I know what you mean about racism affecting grades, jobs, etc.
Ten years ago I interviewed for a promotion in a newly created department that was all white, at the Fortune 10 company at which I worked. I was fully qualified so I was confident going into the interview.
A couple of weeks later I was told I didn’t get the job. Instead they hired five white, outsiders who didn’t have my experience and two that didn’t even have a Bachelor’s degree.
That was the wrong thing to do. I told them I was suing. They didn't ask under what grounds. They knew. And they knew I knew. Two days later the CEO called me in his office and they offered me the job. My victimhood fueled me. It didn't make me want to curl up and declare all lost.
But even in college before graduation a white professor tried to stop me from graduating because he thought my final Public Policy paper was written at a level that couldn’t have possibly been my own work. What he meant as a lodged insult to degrade me, I actually took as a compliment and testament to my work.
I’ve experienced racism many times and still do today, even moreso. It’s just part of our story, not the end of it and we just can’t give to those that want to hold us back the satisfaction of holding us down.
The beauty is that not only are we free to vote, but we're free to vote however we want.
What exactly are our issues? That’s what some people don’t really want to explore. I mean explore it honestly like our lives depended on it -- because it does. It seems that our issues are exactly the same today as they were 70 years ago. There is something wrong, especially in light of the fact that we’ve casted hundreds of millions of votes in the hope that things will get better and for the most part, they haven't.
If who I’m listening to doesn’t inspire and galvanize me to move, then I’m listening to the wrong person. I suspect that 1) we are not listening to the right messages (or people) and 2) the panacea we’re counting on when we vote doesn’t address our real issues, hence why it hasn’t improved our overall conditions.
My point is our dialogue has to change first before our conditions will. We can’t be afraid of the dialogue and we have to face our monsters as if God didn't equip us with the spirit of fear, because He didn't.
