Will America do what is best or will racism fail us?

I am not ashamed to admit I am 41 years old and I am proud of it. Although to many I am still very young, I have witnessed a great deal in the ongoing saga of race in this county . My generation is the post civil rights generation, the generation that was supposed to manifest the “Dream of Dr. King” Personally I do not witness overt racism everyday but I have seen it somewhat hidden from time to time. My first introduction to racism was when I was five years old, it had to be on my first or second day in kindergarten and I asked three white girls could I play with them. One of them answered “ no blackies” allowed. “ At the age of five I did not know what a “blackie” was and have never been called such a name in my life but even in my five year old mind I knew the statement was said because I looked different. I bet if I asked one of the three of them about that incident today none of them could recall it, but I remember it like it was yesterday, that is the thing about racism, minorities know it and remember the pain they feel when it happens but I bet some whites can never recall if they have ever spewed racism. Funny one of my aforementioned classmates ended up having a baby by a black man and another is a community organizer in a minority community , strange how life works out.


In my naive mind I thought things would have changed 36 years late.r but after reading the Yahoo AP poll on racehttp://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-obama-race;_ylt=AlZbuKtbvLvCm65wld0PXq1p24cA I am not so sure. The poll sites at least 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view towards blacks, that includes many Democrats and independents-voters that Obama can’t win without. The poll also states many in this group are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don’t have such views. The poll also found a one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views towards blacks calling them “lazy” violent and responsible for their own troubles.



Many of my friends who I spoke to were not surprised or shocked by these statistics, in fact one told me “ I thought it would be much worse”. Although most of them are voting and supporting Senator Obama in their hearts they don’t think America is really ready for a Black President. Some of them have already conceded to a McCain victory on November 4, 2008.


Of course we live in America and people have the right to vote and support who they feel is best. However the question has to be asked are Americans voting what we feel or what is in the best interest of the country. In my humble opinion if Obama looses this election this country , all of us ,needs to take a really good look in the mirror and ask ourselves are we really trying to be the best county that we can be without letting our prejudices fail us. Are we leaving our children a country less greater than it can be because we fail to dig deep inside and pull out love, respect and grace that God has granted each of us.



The truth is the greatest failings of this country have been when we treated those who look differently in the worst way, whether it be Americans who were Indians, African, Japanese, Hispanic etc... But this country is at its greatest is when we realize our faults , correct them and work together towards making this country great even greater than it already is. We owe this to those who came before us this much and those who come after us we owe so much more.


"The Americans will always do the right thing.......... after they`ve exhausted all the alternatives". Winston Churchill