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E-mail a friendYOUNG VOICES
5 Signs We're Not Post-Racial
I figured the weekend before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and the inauguration of the nation's first African American president would be the perfect time to address this notion of a "post-racial era" that has been talked about since President-elect Obama came on the scene.
Actually, all I want to say is that we are not, I repeat, not, post-racial. And if you don't believe me, I created a little list for you.
5. On New Year's Day, Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old unarmed Black man was fatally shot in the back by a White transit police officer as Grant lay face down on the BART subway platform in Oakland, CA. Subway passengers captured the shooting on cell phone cameras, and protesters have taken to the streets of Oakland to express their outrage. The officer has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
4. As the murder rate among young Whites has not grown or declined in some parts of the country, the murder rate among Black teenagers is on the rise.
3. Our melting pot of a nation is still trying to figure out “what to do” with its fastest-growing segment—the Latino population. The idea that we need to do something with a segment of our society is baffling. Further, the country has been so concerned with building a fence to keep out all of those “illegal immigrants” from Mexico, that, in the process, we've caused significant environmental damage along the U.S.-Mexico border.
2. A new report shows that Black and Latino drivers are eight times more likely than White drivers to be stopped by the NYPD.
1. And my favorite: During the holiday season, Chip Saltsman, a candidate for the RNC chair, sent committee members a CD that included a song called “Barack, the Magic Negro.” The “Magic Negro” song, which was originally played on Rush Limbaugh's show, includes writer Paul Shanklin pretending to be Al Sharpton in an Amos & Andy-type voice chastising guilty Whites for supporting Obama. If it sounds stupid, well, that's because it is.
And just for fun, here is 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan's take on our post-racial society.