I have been waiting to write my first diary and am disappointed that it has to be on the issue of race. I am black. I went to college and law school in the south. I lived in Columbus Ohio and now live in California. I have experienced racism in all areas of this country. I have been called a nigger in Florida. When I interviewed for a job as an attorney at a big firm in Silicon Valley, without asking any questions after I introduced myself and said I was there to meet with so and so, the receptionist presumed that I was interviewing for a support staff position and gave me an application. She turned red when I said I was interviewing for an attorney position. I've been followed around in stores. So yes, I am well aware that racism exists.
But....
what has been disturbing for me is the fact that for the previous three weeks much of the discussion for why we should elect Obama from most of the blogs, Andrew Sullivan, Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and others is that it will send a message that America has changed because it has elected an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama. It seemed as a PR move so that the world will "like us" again. Isn't that what corporations do when they are caught being racist or behaving badly to some constituent group? Instead of really changing things from the ground up, they put a figurehead out there as a short cut to real change.
Given that the media has told us too many times how "mold-shattering" it would be to elect the first black president, is it any wonder that his critics would be charged as racists for any criticism of him? In fact, Lawrence O'Donnell's blog stated in no uncertain terms that Obama needed to have a fight with Hillary one on one because the days of white men ruling the democratic party are over. Yet, Mr. Oddenell does not see that as a racist and sexist comment in and of itself.
Which brings us to John Edwards. Edwards has traveled the world since the 2004 election was stolen. He has also studied poverty and went to work at a hedge-fund for six months to understand how these people who bleed this country dry operate. He is talking about economic injustice, which was the next stage of MLK's fight. MLK believed that entrenched money interests were responsible for the inequalities in this country. He believed that capitalism caused the dire circumstances not only blacks faced but many whites as well. This was the next frontier of his fight, and this is why he was killed, in my opinion. Remember he was killed the day before he was supposed to lead the strike of the sanitation workers in Memphis. (yes, I am a conspiracy theorist).
If we put blindfolds on and actually listen to the words that are coming out of the mouths of Clinton, Obama, and Edwards, it would become apparent that the only one continuing the fight for economic justice MLK started is Edwards. While Barack has the same skin color and has coopted MLK's speaking style, his words are far from MLK's agenda. The fact that Obama would keep our troops in Iraq so that an oil law that would give 75% of Iraqi the oil revenue to three oil companies can be passed makes that distinction clear. Review the the transcript from the last debate to read what I am talking about. In order to fix the war we also have to get rid of the economic imperialism aspects of our policies. We should not be the military arm for corporations. And in Iraq that is what we are and why the Iraqis want us out.
So almost forty years after MLK died his dream has not been realized, that is that we judge people by the content of their character, or what they stand for instead of by the color of their skin. If we actually did what MLK said, and not judge people based on the color of their skin, we will see that in this election cycle, the only person who is continuing MLK's fight is the skinny white guy from South Carolina, not the eloquent black man.