Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Why, Oh Why Am I A Racist?

Why is it that I should feel like a racist when I find out the president has issued an Executive Order entitled "White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans"? <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/26/executive-order-white-house-initiative-educational-excellence-african-am> Why should I feel like a racist for being angry that there is a special carve-out for almost every group but mine?  Is it because I'm really just a closet racist?  Is it because I'm selfish and want other people to loose while I prosper?  Is it really just because I want to put everybody back in chains so that I can hold the whip?  Why should I have to feel like a racist for believing that these kinds of things damage society in the long run by pigeon-holing and stereotyping entire classes of people?  Why should I feel like a racist for believing that every time the government has tried to do this kind of thing it has made people's lives worse instead of better?  Why should I feel like a racist for believing, naively, that the president--MY president--should be working on behalf of ALL Americans, not just a conglomeration of subsets?  Maybe I feel like a racist because I am one.  In this modern America, listening to MSNBC, et al, I am told I am one simply because I was born a white male, own my own home, and went into debts that I am still paying on in order to go to college.  Maybe I am because all the "authorities" are telling me I am.  But there is still that stubborn little voice inside that says "the emperor has no clothes"--that all the arguments used to prove and validate my racism are empty and hollow and shallow and ultimately reveal only the dark and corrupted lens of those who make them.  But then, I guess that just means my little voice is racist too.

So much for "unity" and a "post-racial America."  Divided we stand.

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