Race issues (black & white) have recently come up. The first one was by Eric Holder, the new U.S. Attorney General appointed by President Obama who happens to be black.
In a recent speech, he called Americans “cowards” for not being able to discuss “race” with each other; I assume he was talking about both sides. He was defended, sort of, by Leonard Pitts (black), an excellent columnist who writes about race issues often.
I was perplexed by what exactly Holder was getting at. Discussing race issues at a mixed party is the same as bringing up religion or politics at ANY party; it’s just not the bright thing to do.
Leonard Pitts writes that people have a lot to say about race but only with people of one’s own race, never to the opposite side; true for both sides. He also mentions that the people most vocal about race are the “wrong” people to talk about race like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson who are just knee-jerk race-card players.
I am in a unique position of having my son married to a black woman and therefore, having her family as part of our family. We do not discuss race because we have no reason to discuss race. We treat each other as family members and not as two distinct races; we do not see color, we see family.
Can we discuss racial issues; in time, we probably can but do we see a need to do that right now – no. I think the election of Obama will lead to some discussions about race in general and I am looking forward to that but I don’t see a “need” to discuss racial issues between us and I don’t feel in any way “guilty” of cowardice for not doing so.
Here in the city of Detroit, race is a major issue as I have discussed previously in the “Black Detroit Culture” blogs. Recently, the black city council made it a major issue by saying the City of Detroit is black and will be run by blacks till its dying day which is imminent. Council President Monica Conyers (young wife of old, U.S. representative Conyers) made it perfectly clear that whites are not and will not be involved in the running of the city.
A few white columnists dared address the blatant racial motivation of the city council but I did not read much from the black columnists. Don’t get me wrong, they did address the incompetence and wrong headedness of the black city council but they did not bring up the raw racist behavior of the council members.
Yes, I do believe that race and racism should be addressed by the general public and I did see a little more courage (instead of cowardly behavior) by the white columnists but I still see hesitation on their part but I see no hesitation on the part of the black council to play the race card as they always have.
There have been a few black letter writers that have taken the black council to task for racist and incompetent actions, so I do see a glimmer of hope. Maybe, as more and more people feel comfortable with integration (at all levels) and stop seeing people in colors and only as people, will we make some progress at racial unity.
Maybe Holder is correct in saying that we are black and white cowards when it comes to race and that we need to bravely join together in removing race as a factor in our normal daily lives and in the life of our cities, states and in our country.
In a recent speech, he called Americans “cowards” for not being able to discuss “race” with each other; I assume he was talking about both sides. He was defended, sort of, by Leonard Pitts (black), an excellent columnist who writes about race issues often.
I was perplexed by what exactly Holder was getting at. Discussing race issues at a mixed party is the same as bringing up religion or politics at ANY party; it’s just not the bright thing to do.
Leonard Pitts writes that people have a lot to say about race but only with people of one’s own race, never to the opposite side; true for both sides. He also mentions that the people most vocal about race are the “wrong” people to talk about race like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson who are just knee-jerk race-card players.
I am in a unique position of having my son married to a black woman and therefore, having her family as part of our family. We do not discuss race because we have no reason to discuss race. We treat each other as family members and not as two distinct races; we do not see color, we see family.
Can we discuss racial issues; in time, we probably can but do we see a need to do that right now – no. I think the election of Obama will lead to some discussions about race in general and I am looking forward to that but I don’t see a “need” to discuss racial issues between us and I don’t feel in any way “guilty” of cowardice for not doing so.
Here in the city of Detroit, race is a major issue as I have discussed previously in the “Black Detroit Culture” blogs. Recently, the black city council made it a major issue by saying the City of Detroit is black and will be run by blacks till its dying day which is imminent. Council President Monica Conyers (young wife of old, U.S. representative Conyers) made it perfectly clear that whites are not and will not be involved in the running of the city.
A few white columnists dared address the blatant racial motivation of the city council but I did not read much from the black columnists. Don’t get me wrong, they did address the incompetence and wrong headedness of the black city council but they did not bring up the raw racist behavior of the council members.
Yes, I do believe that race and racism should be addressed by the general public and I did see a little more courage (instead of cowardly behavior) by the white columnists but I still see hesitation on their part but I see no hesitation on the part of the black council to play the race card as they always have.
There have been a few black letter writers that have taken the black council to task for racist and incompetent actions, so I do see a glimmer of hope. Maybe, as more and more people feel comfortable with integration (at all levels) and stop seeing people in colors and only as people, will we make some progress at racial unity.
Maybe Holder is correct in saying that we are black and white cowards when it comes to race and that we need to bravely join together in removing race as a factor in our normal daily lives and in the life of our cities, states and in our country.
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