We have to all be activists.
We're all Malcolm X now.
Let me backtrack a bit. I was born in 1963, Dallas Texas. I was literally there when JFK was assassinated. My mother took infant me to the parade in downtown Dallas. She waved to the president, then went to pick up her check. Mom was a registered nurse at Parkland Hospital, where the nurses station was at the emergency room door.
As they wheeled in a fatally wounded JFK, she nearly fainted, and I was taken from her arms for safety.
I am connected deeply to this country, even that dark side of our history.
I am a woman of color.
I am adopted. Years ago I found my birth mother, she had passed on. But I discovered that she gave me up because a single black woman in a 1963 south, would never have been able to become what she dreamed of becoming, a school teacher. My entire life experience is a result of that sadly necessary choice, because of racism.
I am as American as they come. I'm proud of our country. Proud we elected & reelected a brilliantly imperfect compassionate African-American to the White House.
Then there's this:
Stay with me for a minute....
When I look at this truth. I'm not surprised. This is information I know. But seeing it like this, I'm pained to my core. Why? I'm asking.
Does this not make it clear, that we are absolutely totally divided by racial matters. Yes, sure there are other issues that come between us. But these lines have not changed in ??? years. That is fact. We like facts.
My father, a proud man, who worked his way up from field work, installing telephone lines on poles, to being the 1st black supervisor of his department. My dad never thought he would see the first person of color elected to the WH, hell I didn't think I'd see it in my own life. But we have. What's next, I believe must be at least blurring these stubborn racial lines on this map. Racism shouldn't even be allowed in the form of dog whistles. Chris Matthews was the only talking head I saw during this cycle that consistently called that out. Most of them, and us, were reticent, not wanting to disturb that beehive. When can it be disturbed, I want to know?
When and how do we demand that people own up to what comes out of their mouths? Hence my opening statement.
We have to all be activists.
We're all Malcolm X now.
I'm not suggesting I have the answers, but I'm asking us, imploring us, here at Daliy Kos to at least broach the subject.
I submit an example of how to push back. Although these kids may not all be reprimanded, we may never know.
These teens were called out by the website Jezebel for inflammatory racist tweets:
The Nigger President
Our friends on the other side seem to be much more comfortable expressing their true feelings since 2008. I have neither the time nor inclination to re hash the myriad examples from these last four years that come to mind. But just recently, Bill O'Reilly's comments on the election were pretty straight ahead racist. Classist, sexist and every other ist of course. But the basic gist was racially nasty. He said, "things are changing, its not a traditional America anymore... the white establishment is now the minority"
In this NYT article, Robert P. Jones was crystal clear as well saying this:
“This election signaled the last where a white Christian strategy is workable,” said Robert P. Jones, chief executive of the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization based in Washington.
Listen. We've got the most fabulous Nuns On The Bus, out and about, pushing back on the Catholic Establishment in favor of economic equality.
We need some kind of organized pushback against 21st Century racism.
I know a lot of us thought that electing an African-American president surely meant America was entering into a post racial society.
Instead it is rapidly becoming apparent, that this period is most definitely most racial.