There is no question that a blemish on the history of the United States was our nation’s mistreatment of blacks. Slavery became an institution in American culture and long-standing institutions are difficult to tear down. It took generations to overcome the after-effects of slavery, but I believe today we have been successful. There is no greater indicator than the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States.
Few would argue that President Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were the most prominent figures in reversing the civil rights abuses that plagued our country for over a century and a half. Lincoln abolished slavery and in fighting the Civil War, prohibited the South from perpetuating the institutional and cultural abuses. As everyone knows, however, saying it’s so doesn’t make it so, so it took another nearly hundred years for Dr. King to come on the scene. He brought the abuses and injustices to light and forced those who accepted them or looked the other way to take notice. Dr. King tried to lift up the black man, give him hope and drive to carve his own place. His most famous quote reveals his mindset and goals; “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” He also said, “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
I don’t believe Dr. King’s message was about color. It was about character and excellence. He believed that if the black man could get the chance, that if the civil rights barriers were removed, he could achieve great things.
Unfortunately, those who followed Dr. King didn’t have the same mindset. Theirs was more selfish. Take Jesse Jackson for instance. He has created an entire industry of victimization. Unlike Dr. King, who encouraged blacks to overcome their circumstances and reach great heights, Reverend Jackson has encouraged them to fight for what is rightfully theirs from the government. He tells them they are discriminated against, they are victims of racial injustices, they can’t reach great heights because society won’t let them, and only he can speak out on their behalf because he is a black man and the rightful successor to Dr. King because they marched together. As long as Jesse Jackson can keep the black man down, convinced society won’t give him a chance, then there will always be a place for Jesse Jackson to speak out against the injustices he himself has helped create.
New generations have grown up not believing in themselves or that they create their own opportunities. They have been brainwashed to believe the deck is stacked against them, that they will die an early and violent death trying to survive on the streets of America, or become a part of the disproportionate black prison population, both of which are cited by Jesse Jackson as proof of societal injustices. The vicious circle continues to play itself out all across America. Just as it was black men who originally enslaved the black man and sold him as a slave, today it is the black man who perpetuates racism and gives it its permanence.
Although racism persists, evidence abounds that civil rights barriers have come down. The prominence of many black men today clearly demonstrates, as Dr. King believed, that character and excellence can carry men of any color to greatness. Bill Cosby, Michael Jordan, Denzel Washington, Tiger Woods, Barack Obama; these are but a few names of those who have reached the pinnacle of their chosen fields. They have international fame by virtue of their hard work and the opportunities made available to them in America.
The sad reality again here is that the great achievement of Barack Obama’s election to the presidency is being used to further perpetuate racism. Ironically, he uses the same style of argument as Jesse Jackson in pushing his agenda. He says the country is in such bad shape and everything from the economy to health care to unemployment to energy to CEO salaries can only be fixed through implementation of his proposals. He warns that bankruptcy looms for the nation if we don’t pass his agenda, while he spends us into the greatest deficit our nation has ever known. He says his policies are the only way to create new jobs while he threatens employers with higher health care costs and increased taxes, essentially scaring them away from hiring new employees. To disagree with him or oppose his agenda is to be a racist. So says former President Carter and a whole host of administration members, all people who know better, but who unwittingly give racism a longer life by using it as a tool, or a prop, toward achieving some other social agenda.
Mainstream America has moved beyond racism. Racism’s permanence rests solely with those minority leaders and their cohorts who don’t want to let go of the crutch they have grown so accustomed to.