The Hudson Institute had a
forum last week entitled "A Post Racial America?" and one of the speakers was Robert Woodson of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, who made an interesting point:
In Cincinnati, Ohio, you had a thug who was shot to death by a white police officer, and there was a boycott of the whole city by black middle-class people. And then there was police nullification; the white police said, well, since we’re going to get accused of racism, we're not going to make any more arrests in that community. The murder rate went up 800 percent in that community. But it was not the sons and daughters of those pastors or those civil rights leaders who were killed, because they don’t live there. And this is what we have to be able to confront if we're going to change the rules of the game and move toward a post-racial America. We should not allow people to come in and build their careers on mobilizing people to protest when the perpetrator of evil wears a white face. It redounds against the interests of poor people -- and that's what I hope Obama’s election will help us move beyond -- race.
The grievance-mongering approach of self-serving "leaders" who swoop in, make headlines, then fly off to the next "incident" tends to destroy the basic foundation of society: good will.
Posts
This whole Republican = WASP is wrong. We are a lot more diverse than the Democrats think. They are dividing this country or trying to by polarizing every incident.
ReplyDeleteObama's AmeriKKKa.
ReplyDeleteLord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest,
and in the joy of a new beginning,
we ask you to help us work for that day
when black will not be asked to get in back,
when brown can stick around,
when yellow will be mellow,
when the red man can get ahead, man;
and when white will embrace what is right.
That all those who do justice and love mercy
say Amen.
I know he didn't speak these words, but it was an invited pastor.