Opinion

Playing the race card

Saturday, March 10, 2007

I was involved in a process this past week that left me saddened and concerned. I can't report the details of my experience because of the confidential nature of the proceedings but I can report some overarching perspectives that were painfully obvious.

 

The fact that we don't have a lot of racial diversity in Southwest Nebraska is obvious to anyone who lives here or visits here. According to the City of McCook Web site, we have a white non-Hispanic population of 96.1 percent, a Hispanic population of 2.5 percent, and 0.9 percent of the population is comprised of  "other" races. I realize those numbers come up a little short of 100 percent but I'm just quoting from the Web site and, besides, you get the idea.

 

I fell in love with McCook when I moved here over 12 years ago. This is the longest I've lived anywhere except for my growing-up days in Arkansas. The small town I grew up in wasn't racially diverse either because of segregation policies firmly entrenched in the South. Amazingly, however, my family didn't have a racist bone in their bodies and taught me to be fair and equitable with everyone I came into contact with, regardless of their race, creed, nationality or social status. This was fairly rare in the South but it was a lesson I learned early on in life and a lesson that stuck for life.

 

It has been tough for the rest of the country to follow suit. It has been 140 plus years since the Civil War, 50 plus years since Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, and 40 plus years since the Civil Rights movement of the '60s and yet we live in a society that continues to be steeped in racism, prejudice and discrimination. Unfortunately, McCook mirrors that trend. I hear racial slurs practically everywhere I go and they come from people from all walks of life, from all social classes, and from all educational levels.

 

So I suppose it's a knee-jerk reaction to assume that in matters of black and white, if you are black, you will always get the short end of the stick, not because of what you did but because of what you look like. While I'm sure that's still true in some cases, it by no means is true in all cases and people who are trying to render a just and fair decision, based on the evidence, should not be accused of racism or prejudice or discrimination simply because a decision doesn't turn out the way someone wants it to.

 

I wonder how we're ever going to be able to overcome race as a factor when race is constantly brought up and used as the one and only reason for people being held accountable for their behavior. How is this society ever going to become color-blind if the people who have been harmed because of their color for so long continue to inject their color into the mix in every situation that doesn't turn out to their liking? It's a slap in the face to all people who are trying to be fair and equitable and to render decisions based on the facts rather than a deep-seated bias or prejudice to be accused of such.

 

People have become so sensitive to this "tactic" that they bend over backwards trying not to be perceived as racist or prejudiced in any way, shape, or form to the point that justice often does not get served and, as a result, we make no progress at all in becoming a color-blind society.

When the race card is played in reverse, one wonders whether we are any closer at all to achieving what Martin Luther King Jr. pondered in his "I Have A Dream" speech delivered in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963 when he said, "I have a dream that one day my four little children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

 

Races of people are and have always been culturally diverse. We don't fully understand each other and perhaps we never will. But I was always taught to look for similarities in people rather than differences; to find a common ground with people who had backgrounds and experiences I didn't have because it stood to reason that I had a background and experiences that they didn't have either. When the two are put together, lives become much richer and much more complete as a result.

 

Another disturbing trend among our young people today is to disrespect women. We hear it in a lot of the music and movies produced by and for the younger generation where women are degraded, dehumanized, and denigrated by the males in our society. And those of you who believe this is just a passing fad on the way to becoming a mature adult are sadly mistaken. We are what we learn.

If we disrespect and objectify women when we're young, we will carry those attitudes with us into adulthood. Last year, there were over 1,500 calls made to the Domestic Abuse hotline in McCook and that, according to the experts, is only the tip of the iceberg. Most women who are being abused don't call at all.  I asked my male students in class the other day whether or not they give their girlfriends compliments and when was the last time they did and some of them snickered and guffawed at the suggestion, their response indicating to me that I was "out of touch" with the way men treat women today.

 

If I am out of touch, I am saddened and concerned for our future.

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