There is a strong desire to absolve ourselves of that judgment.
A strong tendency to want to spare ourselves.
There is no other group that has suffered like African Americans have throughout the years.Except for American Indians who were decimated.
Emancipation came in 1863 but it would take another 100 years — 1964 — before Lyndon Johnson pushed through, against great resistance, the Civil Rights Act prohibiting racial discrimination. Not surprisingly, discrimination against blacks persisted in both overt and covert ways.
Is America racist?
We have been. And we still are in some ways.
What to do about it?
Put it on the table so we can examine such belief each and every day.
Not to do so retards both our personal and national growth.
Not to do so diminishes us.
Each one of us has to keep looking squarely at who we are, day in and day out
And ask,
‘Do I think myself better than African Americans?
Do I think they are inferior? Do I think they don’t try hard enough?
Do I think they are more violent? Do I think they are less intelligent?’
Am I racist?
If I share any of the above, even as a passing thought, then I have to work on it.
Because African Americans are neither inferior, nor lazy, nor more violent nor less intelligent. But they have been marginalized for a long time. Impoverished for a long time. Undereducated for a long time.
All of which warps the essence of a person.
It is okay to say to ourselves, ‘I am racist… and I am committing to overcome it.’
It is not an unforgivable flaw to have racist thoughts.
And we don’t have to tell anyone.
We don’t have to confess.
So long as we keep working on it.
But we all have to do it.
Is America racist?
Yes, we are.
We are because we have gone along with policies that segregated African Americans. Because we have not objected loudly enough to their having poor educational and work opportunities. Because we have colluded, consciously or unconsciously, actively or passively, to keeping them down.
And what about our guilt?
If we have personally injured an African American acting from a racist belief — call it harm in the concrete — then we must apologize. And it will be up to them to forgive us or not.
If we have injured African Americans by not favoring measures that would assist their development — call it harm in the abstract — then we can work to reduce our guilt on our own, by questioning ourselves daily about our attitudes toward them and aiming to resolve them.
Forgiveness will be up to us and our consciences.
Advancement for African Americans has been happening gradually, over the years, thanks to the commitment of many of our more enlightened fellow citizens.
But opportunities need to grow faster.
As they do, we will see African Americans rise in every field of human endeavor, showing that they are just as capable as any other group on earth.
Their numbers in the higher ranks of science and academia and industry and technology and business and all professions will swell.
And their numbers in jails and prisons will decrease.
And we will feel proud of our civic and emotional growth.
Gradually, we will cease to be racist as a nation.
And we will be at peace,
And we will be one,
For we will have conquered ourselves.
But we have to keep working on it. Day in and day out.
Is America racist?
Yes, it is.
Am I racist?
Answer the above questions and make your judgment.
You may not be.
You may be one of our more evolved and mature citizens.
Each person has to square with their truth.
And so long as each one of us does, each one of us will be ceasing to be racist every single day.
As for me,
I will not confess,
But I will keep doing the work every day,
Day in and day out,
And feel damn good about the progress I’m making.
Oscar Valdes. Oscarvaldes.net
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