Thursday, July 30, 2009

"Racialized" America

America is known to be diverse in her cultural roots. This is what has made America great, because we have understood tolerance, for the most part. I know our history has contained a "dark" period where slaves were bought and sold, but we have overcome that time, or have we?

We know that America has its "passionate" differences, as otherwise, we would not believe in "free speech". The Klu Klux Klan and the Black Panthers have all "had some voice" in our public square.

This is what has baffled me in regards to the recent "racialization" incidence in Cambridge MA.

I had turned the news on to hear the woman who made the call to the police apologize for any "community upset" that might have occurred due to her call. What? All she did was call the police about a possible burgulary of a neighbor's property! And she was apologizing!!! I thought that we were to "be about community service", and yet, hers was not "approved".

The President responded by demonizing the police officier and the next day apologizing and announcing a meeting with the police officier and the professor involved. Why was the neighbor not called to the meeting? Was she, then considered the culprit? Was she the one being blamed, because she was "white" and her suspect was black?

I know when one has been victimized over a long period that it is hard to build trust. And when the experiences are continually affirmed and conditioned as justification for entitlement, then one wonders where the victim will become the victor. I am weary of this discussion. And it has led many, I believe, to not care.

Minority rights have reverse discrimination as far as I am concerned. The world we live in discriminates. That is how we make judgments and decisions, which are not always because of racial profiling, but because of necessity. The atmosphere has become so violatile that one is "gun shy" for fear of mis-stepping. Who will be offended, and what will be the "costs"?

Although I am glad that we are diverse in our culture, there is a price to pay and the one we have just seen played out before our eyes happens many times everyday around the country. I hope that in trying to rectify the wrongs of the past, we do not oversteer our "balance' and become intolerant to the Caucasions among us..

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