It wasn’t until I got older that my mixed heritage became an issue. I thought everyone had a white mom and a black dad. Even when my parents separated and I attended a predominately white school, race wasn’t an issue. My question to you is why we can’t get over this issue?
Once Obama was elected president democrats and republican alike claimed racism was now over. However i membership in hate groups sky rocketed and one need only look at the comment section on yahoo, Craig’s list and others to find posters spewing racist vitriol.
Moreover, throughout the 2012 campaign you had Newt Gingrich call Obama
the food stamp president and then went on to say urban people don’t have a work ethic and that kids in inner city schools should work as janitors.
Sorry Newt, but coming from North West Detroit I know how hard the people there work. My dad had multiple jobs so he could afford a car and place for us to stay. Yes, we were on food stamps until he got hired at the Wood Haven Stamping Plant and made a decent wedge.
As for us kids we’d scoured the neighborhood collecting empty soda cans and beer bottles until we had enough to get what we wanted at the corner story. As we grew older we racked leaves and shoveled snow. So no we weren’t lazy by any means.
It wasn’t just this dog whistle stuff. You had Trump and others calling for Obama’s birth certificate and college records. All this served to delegitimize President Obama and make him the other. We saw this when the republican candidates perpetuated the myth of Obama being a socialist (he’s not, he’s governed like a centrist republican).
When the Trayvon Martin shooting happened racism was brought front and center. You had people on both sides of the issue rush to judgment which led to a trial by popular opinion. You also had people who claimed it was racist to bring up race in this case. Reverse racism is now the only racism many deem exists.
The problem is they’re wrong. Obama becoming president didn’t magically get rid of racism. You still have institutional racism.
There’s the selective application and enforcement of laws(drug laws, Stop and Frisk, Stand Your Ground, and the death penalty), and racial profiling And there‘s still the issue of police brutality.
A white felon is more likely to be hired over equally qualified non felon black applicants. During the sub prime mortgage fiasco it was revealed that blacks and other minorities were steered to these toxic mortgages even when they qualified for a standard ARM.
We still have work to do on race relations. The problem is no one wants to start a dialogue for fear of being branded a racist or race traitor. Until we address these issues the problem of the twentieth century will continue to be the color line.