Improvement in Race Relations in the U.S.?
The Washington Post has published yet another of those polls that are obviously meant to be authoritative beyond all doubt, even though they are also lightweight in the extreme, having been taken by telephone from only 1,083 "adults" at random. Thus what slightly over a thousand people think is supposed to indicate exactly the views of a population of over 300 million, not excluding the "non-adults," whose views, however, might very well merge seamlessly into those of the "adults."
Anyway these poll-takers conclude that fewer Americans think that the B. Obama Presidency has improved race relations in the U.S. --Fewer than when he was elected, that is.
So what else is new?
Anyone who expected or hoped that his election would improve race relations here or anywhere else in the world hadn't thought much about it, or weren't old enough to know, or hadn't read that part of their history well enough, or just didn't have their thinking caps on straight, though the tip-off that it wouldn't was plain to see, during the campaign, and that sure sign was the reaction of all "good Americans" toward some remarks uttered some time ago by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. A supposed mentor of then candidate B. Obama, he was quoted as applying some perjorative words to the U.S., and because of this the collective electorate is thought to have risen up in a gigantic rage and told Obama that either he would sever all connections with Wright forthwith, or he, Obama himself, would be disconnected, permanently, and B. Obama, having by then achieved a surprisingly good shot at taking it all, complied without hesitation.
I don't know when Rev. Wright made his utterances in which he cursed the U.S., but being of his generation I'm pretty certain of the context in which they were made. And I also noticed something that none of the eager-beaver journalists, pundits, and politicians who were so hot on Wright's trail ever did, and that was that no mention was ever made that the said horrible malefactor, Rev. Wright, ever tried to start a Marcus Garvey-like "Back to Africa" movement or in other wise showed the first sign of ever wanting to shake his feet free of the sands of these "benighted" shores forever.
That was because actually he was in no wise wishing ill upon America and calling for God's wrath upon it, in spite of all the ill-meaners of so many stripes who without an instant's thought took that to be exactly what he was doing. Instead, like a frustrated lover in a domestic argument, he was expressing his extreme dismay at the country's persistent failure to act decently toward the people brought over from Africa and their descendants, by a large variety of means up to and including today, when demonizing them whenever the chance offers itself or one of the carefully maintained "guards" slips, as shown by how often it happens among those just in the public eye.
If then, instead of roundly condemning Wright, people had instead given what he said some thought and had asked themselves why he said it, there would have been grounds for hope that some improvement in race relationships in the U.S. would indeed offer themselves with the election of B. Obama. But they didn't do that, and instead they came down on J. Wright with the full force of their capacious rumps and voted for Obama with the implicit understanding that he would not ask much from them in that respect, and he hasn't, not least because it would fall on a spectacularly large mass of deaf ears, if not worse.
In race relationships, since there is always one party that is bigger and stronger than the other, improvement is always more the responsibility of the stronger party than it is of the weaker, and if that stronger party feels no impetus to change things, conditions either remain the same or they get worse, sometimes ending in the obliteration of the weaker. Things never seem to go any other way, which must explain why there is today only one branch of the human species left, for all its extravagant numbers.
But, short of the more drastic measures, in today's more humane world, the stronger party likes to fall back on insisting that the two parties have equal responsibility in the matter and therefore power to improve things, which is complete hogwash.
Anyway these poll-takers conclude that fewer Americans think that the B. Obama Presidency has improved race relations in the U.S. --Fewer than when he was elected, that is.
So what else is new?
Anyone who expected or hoped that his election would improve race relations here or anywhere else in the world hadn't thought much about it, or weren't old enough to know, or hadn't read that part of their history well enough, or just didn't have their thinking caps on straight, though the tip-off that it wouldn't was plain to see, during the campaign, and that sure sign was the reaction of all "good Americans" toward some remarks uttered some time ago by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. A supposed mentor of then candidate B. Obama, he was quoted as applying some perjorative words to the U.S., and because of this the collective electorate is thought to have risen up in a gigantic rage and told Obama that either he would sever all connections with Wright forthwith, or he, Obama himself, would be disconnected, permanently, and B. Obama, having by then achieved a surprisingly good shot at taking it all, complied without hesitation.
I don't know when Rev. Wright made his utterances in which he cursed the U.S., but being of his generation I'm pretty certain of the context in which they were made. And I also noticed something that none of the eager-beaver journalists, pundits, and politicians who were so hot on Wright's trail ever did, and that was that no mention was ever made that the said horrible malefactor, Rev. Wright, ever tried to start a Marcus Garvey-like "Back to Africa" movement or in other wise showed the first sign of ever wanting to shake his feet free of the sands of these "benighted" shores forever.
That was because actually he was in no wise wishing ill upon America and calling for God's wrath upon it, in spite of all the ill-meaners of so many stripes who without an instant's thought took that to be exactly what he was doing. Instead, like a frustrated lover in a domestic argument, he was expressing his extreme dismay at the country's persistent failure to act decently toward the people brought over from Africa and their descendants, by a large variety of means up to and including today, when demonizing them whenever the chance offers itself or one of the carefully maintained "guards" slips, as shown by how often it happens among those just in the public eye.
If then, instead of roundly condemning Wright, people had instead given what he said some thought and had asked themselves why he said it, there would have been grounds for hope that some improvement in race relationships in the U.S. would indeed offer themselves with the election of B. Obama. But they didn't do that, and instead they came down on J. Wright with the full force of their capacious rumps and voted for Obama with the implicit understanding that he would not ask much from them in that respect, and he hasn't, not least because it would fall on a spectacularly large mass of deaf ears, if not worse.
In race relationships, since there is always one party that is bigger and stronger than the other, improvement is always more the responsibility of the stronger party than it is of the weaker, and if that stronger party feels no impetus to change things, conditions either remain the same or they get worse, sometimes ending in the obliteration of the weaker. Things never seem to go any other way, which must explain why there is today only one branch of the human species left, for all its extravagant numbers.
But, short of the more drastic measures, in today's more humane world, the stronger party likes to fall back on insisting that the two parties have equal responsibility in the matter and therefore power to improve things, which is complete hogwash.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 6:24 AM
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