Politics and Racism…
OK, let me preface this post with this. I will not allow disrespectful commenting in this post, but I do want your honesty…
I was reading this article yesterday and It got me thinking. The article speaks to the road that a Black American needs to travel to make it in politics. The article speaks to the history of the Black politician and also a bit to the future. Obviously this is big discussion right now with Obama possibly being the next President. The article points out that there is still a battle ahead for the Black politician.
Here is where my thoughts went. I am sure there is discrimination in this country. Of course, it is not just against a Black American but also against other ethnicities, religious stances and lifestyles. There is racism and it is evident around our country and our world.
I am curious what this looks like to you. I grew up mostly in Southern California. I was surrounded by ethnicity and I had parents that welcomed the various cultures into our home. So I grew up respecting and accepting of what God has created. So, I have to say, that my take on racism and discrimination is biased. Because it was not a part of my upbringing. But I know it is there and it happens daily.
I now live in an area that is predominantly white. I would say a good 85%. So, if there is racism within people here, it doesn’t play out often because there is not a lot of diversity here that would cause that tension.
But, I say again, what does this look like to you? Is it evident in your past or place of residence? How does race play into our politics? Obama is obviously getting a lot of attention and support, but will his ethnicity play into people’s vote?
Let me hear your thoughts…
Wow, I think this is a really great question. There is racism where we are in PA (rural, very white… probably around 95%), although it is better than when I was young. I grew up here, but we lived the last 3 years in a very diverse area in NC. Race doesn’t play into politics for me at all, but I’ve heard some very racist comments about Obama, and it makes me very angry. Not just for him… but our daughter is black. She is Ethiopian, and has been with us for 2 years now. She has not experienced any racism that she is aware of, but we get a lot of stares, and sometimes I notice sometimes people walk a wide berth around us.
Funny enough though, a lot of women come up and compliment her hair/skin and say how beautiful she is. I think they want us to know that they are not racist, and they are trying.
Anyway… we have our own personal little struggles with it, but some of my friends in different areas of the country who have adopted from Ethiopia have much more blatant racism to deal with.
I so seriously wish all of it would stop.
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We live in the Balt/Wash metro area, in a very affluent county (which is a mistake of us) that we grew up in. Being raised in Howard County there were almost no blacks (or any other ethnicity) present and that is one reason why our families moved there. What few black people lived here could almost always be found in a couple of very small “poor” areas and a narrow low income/industrial corridor on the extreme edge of the oounty. That being said, I don’t remember hearing anything racist among my peers, although it was quite common for my parents generation and their parenst to speak derogatorily of “colored” people and Jews. I was raised to be suspicious of trouble makers like MLK Jr.
My son’s best friend up until middle school was black. Eric was a year older than may son and once he began attending middle school he was told that he was to hang out with his ‘own people’. Although still friendly, the boys never really associated again. Such a shame, because I am convinced that until that time neither one even noticed the difference between them.
Since mmy youth the ethinicity of the middle class had become much more diverse and my children have friends who are black, asian, arabic, african, indian. A couple of their best friennds are black and the funny thing is none of them try to assimilate – they still display some very distinct cultural differences. There has been such an influx of multi-cultural families with small children that our neighborhood looks like the “It’s a Small World” exhibit at Disney Land. This is the main reason we have not moved to a more affordable, but less diverse, community.
That being said, in this affluent, well educated and fairly tolerant community, there is no institutionalized racism, but there is plenty of racist and bigoted thought and unfortunately it is not confined to the older generation. We have a burgeoning Korean population at this time so it is becoming more and more interesting to see how people interact.
I see a backlash from the black community if Obama is elected. Would he really be the first black president? Nope, he would be the first biracial president. It’s a silly argument, but a large enough one to frustrate Al Sharpton. I love it when Al Sharpton gets frustrated.
Here’s Time’s article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1584736,00.html
and CNN’s perspective too: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/09/btsc.obama.race/
I live on the Georgia coast and, though I know plenty of racist rednecks (even some family), please don’t count me in that group. Our city (Brunswick) has a split population of black, Hispanic and white. I just see people, I don’t see race.
There’s a local commissioner that I would vote for if he ran for president. Sure, he’s black, but he’s also an honest man that I trust to make decisions that honor God and people of other faiths. I am hoping that if Obama is elected, we’d be one step closer to seeing past skin color.
Hola Brent;) Its Angie. I thought I would bug Tam and you today:)
I grew up 10 min from Philly, PA. So racism, it was always an issue, and within the family it is.
Its all in how you were raised I suppose. I mean I am not racist, but I was brought up to date only white guys. I would be forbidden to date any other nationality. And if I did, believe me I heard it…
So anyway, I only encountered racism once in Philly.
A black guy smashed a white guys boom box with a bat as we were walking by on 4th of July.
So yea…
When I was a kid we lived in East Texas for several years, and the black community that lived near us was very poor. But really, so were we for that matter. My stepdad and his section of people that he knew were prejudiced to some degree. They were always making racial slurs and would’ve died if I’d ever gotten together with one (had I been old enough). Come to think of it, they were always slamming hispanics also.
Now we live in the midwest and while I haven’t seen that behavior outright, I have to admit that a black kid from high school that was from Africa asked me out and my dad wouldn’t let me. And my brother in law and his friends make racial slurs amongst themselves from time to time.
These are isolated examples, but it is a problem in certain pockets of people.It depends on where you live and the mindset of specific groups of people.
That’s my take on it anyway. Of course I don’t agree with the behavior of the people I mentioned. I married a hispanic, so obviously we’re not into all that hoopla.
carrie-the gremlin wrangler’s last blog post…Sometimes You Have to Regress
I grew up in a racist home, in a racist community. It’s been tough. One of my earliest memories was of me arguing with my great aunt and uncle about not loving all people. I’ve never understood the hatred yet I’m surrounded by it. Same for my husband.
His roommate in college was from Jamaica and his parents never understood how he could live with a black man. Ridiculous, ugly racism…yeah, it still exists…
Oh…and I live just north of Farmers Branch, TX…have you heard about it in the news over the past year?
We have much work to do in this country and throughout the world.
Michelle’s last blog post…You Can’t Help Me
I spent a couple years as a minority when I lived in Hawaii. It was a cool experience.
The fight to end racism keeps getting lengthened as leaders and government continue to put energy into supporting collectivist ideas and programs.
Vince’s last blog post…Baraka
I can only speak from personal experience, since I’ve not educated myself sufficiently on the subject. I grew up in a rural Connecticut town, and my parents are still racist. When my youngest brother married a girl of Indian descent, my grandmother told me she was “1/2 black”. My mom accepted and love his wife to be from the start, but my dad opposed the marriage right up until the week of the wedding, when he suddenly became best buds with her family. My mom, I and the rest of my siblings wanted to throttle him for being so difficult for so long, but we left it alone, and now everything appears to be hunky dory. I digress…
I keep getting email forwards from my mom about Obama being Muslim, yada yada yada. I ignore them. She forwards me emails about stereotypical black inner city people, promoting the idea that we should have “White History Month” and all that. Yes – I have a point to all this…
I’m not racist in the least, and neither are my sister and two brothers. Praise God that cycle was broken, don’t ask me how. But a LOT of people in Connecticut suburbs are. A lot of people at my church are. We are 15 minutes from Hartford…one of the most dangerous and seemingly godless places to live in the US. Much of what we see on local TV news is violent crimes committed by blacks and hispanics…literally in our own back yards. Every day. Every single day. I guess it’s not uncommon, and it might even be understandable in some sense be racist in my area.
However, I believe it’s mainly the media that makes race an issue. The media, and ignorance. I also think that the NAACP will most likely be implying in the coming months that anyone who doesn’t vote for Obama is probably a racist. All’s fair in love and politics, I suppose.
Just my thoughts
Thank you for your responses! This is truly the discussion I’d hoped for.
A couple of thoughts…
#1 HW brought up the idea of people trying hard to prove that they are not racist. Do you think this works? Do people try too hard? Should they try at all? Should they just be real?
#2 Christian brought up the thought of assimilation. This to me is a form of discrimination as well. Should people of different cultures become more “American” like? Or should they keep and celebrate their true cultural diversities?
#3 Kim brought up the media. It seems that the loudest voice in our lives is often what shapes our way of thinking. This is a Biblical principle, “God in…God out”. But how does the media play into this? In my opinion, they seem to have a racist bias.
I think when you grow up in a racist environment, however slight, and you know it is wrong, you will “try too hard” to avoid being racist. I guess for me, there is always this thing in the back of my mind that I want to go out of my way to be friendly and nice to blacks or other ethnic groups because I would never want to be accused of what I grew up with.
And I truly hate the idea of people becoming more American like. What does that mean? I think people are already pushing for that and what it looks like is tolerance as long as you look, think and act like “us.” We see that mentality as Christians and it’s not pretty.
Guess I’ve got some opinions today. Not trying to hog the comment box!
Carrie, good thoughts. The idea of making everyone the same is something that the church can really screw up. God says that He will make us like His Son in spirit and character, but not in culture.
I grew up in a military family and served almost 30 years myself. I was sheltered from experiencing racism just because of the multi-cultural nature of military life. My wife, whose ethnicity goes back to Zulu warriors and includes traces of Cherokee blood was raised in E. St Louis and did experience racism. We met in the military and she was accused of stepping back into slavery by dating a white man. Well, next December we will have 33 years together.
My Dad hit me because I did not ask anyone’s permission to marry a black woman. Mom, while she was alive, always loved my Dee and was able to hold her grandson by our daughter Rebekah and her husband Rick.
Concerning this election (or any other) it would be sad if someone was elected merely because of having broken some sort of ceiling or reached a certain pinnacle never reached before because of skin color (or sex, as would be the case if Hillary was the Dem nominee).
Funny thing though, about the article, did I miss the references to Colin Powell or Condi Rice?
Dan Carwright’s last blog post…What Does it Matter, Who Chooses Whom, as Long as We Get to Heaven?
Dan, you are correct. We should not vote someone in for statement purposes. We need to have integrity in our vote. Also, I think you’ve brought up that little media bias again. I think this article had a sense of shock value to it. And Powell and Rice definitely have no shock value
What, media bias? You’ve got to be kidding!!!
Dan Carwright’s last blog post…What Does it Matter, Who Chooses Whom, as Long as We Get to Heaven?
Exactly
I grew in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. I went to integrated schools, played with black kids, even thought of some as my friends, but we never went to each other’s homes. That there clear differences between blacks and whites was accepted. I never considered a black girl as being attractive, and if I ever brought a black girl home as a date my family would have had heart attacks.
The 1960’s and 70’s were a revolutionary time in American. Blacks were getting the legal rights they were entitled to and American society became more integrated. However even at the end of the 1970’s it was still rare to see as a black man as a supervisor or manager. There was more equality in the voting booth, but not in business world.
In 2008 I think there are still some geographic pockets of racism in America, in every state.
I think the discrimination that exists is more economic than racial, against the poor of every skin color. I doubt race will be a factor in this years election. McCain’s age may be more of a factor than Obama’s skin color. If I am allowed a dig, I think there are more people who will vote for a black man, or a women, than will vote for an Atheist.
I still have some residue of the racist world I was born into. If I am watching a sporting event and I don’t know anything about the participants, I will tend to root for the white guy. However I now lust after women of all colors.
Ed’s last blog post…Living Flowers
Ed, I can always count on you to come through with something to smile about…Haha!!
Media bias?
I fear that will be the deciding factor.
scott’s last blog post…Left to my vices
No doubt…