Phil,
I don't think you always appreciate things from the perspective of imagining you were in someone else's shoes.
I can agree that some things are probably unecessary today, but even still, it is a white male dominated country. It is IMPORTANT to recognize advancements in that situation. For one, it allows us to recognize that changes ARE being made, and to remember that there is a long way to go. For another, it provides role models for other minorities, to aspire to.
When former Mayor, Marion Barry was busted in a sting, for using crack cocaine, there was outrage from the black community there (I was living in D.C. at the time) that he was TARGETTED through a STING operation. Simultaneously, we were also around the time of the Oliver North episode, and callers into radio stations were incensed that this guy, North, received little more than a hand slap, in exchange for his testimony, and he seemed to have escaped the episode unscathed.
The people of D.C. determined his crime, to be far superior to Barry's.
But I locked onto the comments of one older black woman who called into the station I was listening to in my car.
She said...
"I don't care about Oliver North. What I care about, is that in a country with so few black role models for our children, Mayor Barry, has robbed our youth, of yet another role model, and for what?"
In an abusive relationship, men often degrade women, to rob them of their sense of self worth, in order to dominate and control them.
Similarly, it is exceedingly difficult, for ANY minority (even those with handicaps as opposed to issues of racism) to truly BELIEVE what they have not seen an example of. It is easy for a child to think... "A black man will never be President, why should I even try?"
The reaction of THE WORLD, to the election of Obama, PROVES, the abundance of LACK OF FAITH in thise country truly being colorblind.
You are RIGHT, that in an IDEAL WORLD, it should be about accomplishments with no thought of a person's color or handicap. But that goal is only reached through a PROCESS!
And for a while now, part of the process has been for minorities to create THEIR OWN economic, and educational spheres, which they can succeed in. It was not very long ago, that blacks were not even allowed in Ivy League schools, hence the creation of universities, like Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Obama being elected President has certainly HELPED open the way for many others, but there is a ways to go Phil. For CENTURIES now, white males, have pulled the economic and political strings, of our nation. Don't for a minute, think, that degree of power, over that length of time, is turned into a level playing field over night, or from the election of ONE black President!
How much wealth and power do you think can be accumulated over CENTURIES of uninterrupted history? It's been a slow painful process to change even a SMALL PART of that reality.
It won't be undone by individuals shouting the mantra... "We are all equal now... just go about your business, and stop thinking about color or gender!"
It's a nice sentiment.
But the wealthy and powerful do not concede ground to others THAT easily.
