Can We End Racism in America?

The short answer to this question is very, very easy... NO!

But, should we end racism? YES!

However, let me suggest that if we are going to attempt to end racism, then we should end all of the inequality that currently exists in America, which is:

• Racism
• Sex
• Age
• Origin
• Religion
• Education
• Wealth
• Political Affiliation
• Height
• Weight
• Intelligence
• Mental Health

Still, let's not abandon our real intent to discuss the potential ending of racism here in American and the fact that it is going to be a lot more difficult that gaining our independence from Great Britain, abolishing slavery, controlling Legionnaires Disease, AIDS, and even Ebola; yet, it is something that a “civilized” nation should never let happen.

Let me also state that I am a liberal minded individual which does not necessarily make me a Democrat in my political beliefs; although, more Democrats share my opinions than do Republicans... I'm just saying...

There is a Center for African American studies that is located on the grounds and sponsored by an Ivy League school, and a graduate from that school became very wealthy and made a huge donation to that charitable organization to the tune of several millions of dollars. And, each year when this Center honors African Americans for their accomplishments against the TYRANNY of the White Man, this wealthy white man is invited and introduces one of the award recipients.

And, if you were to ask this wealthy white man which I did, if he thought racism was improving in America since the death of Martin Luther King Jr., he would tell you which he told me that it was improving... at least among the well-to-do African Americans.

And, I agree that we now have more African Americans, both male and females, who are:

• Lawyers
• Doctors
• Dentists
• CPAs
• Engineers
• Scientists
• Professors
• Athletes

than ever before... but do they have both white and black patients/clients or just black?

And, I also wonder if these African Americans are simply using this wealthy white man for his money or because they truly want to end racism on both sides of the fence? Obviously, this is a rhetorical question and concern because it can never be resolved to any type of real satisfaction outside of a belief.

During my first marriage (right or wrong), I had an affair with an African American poet for about 10 years and no matter where we went whether it was a predominately white place or predominately black place we were ostracized and I recall being asked to leave once we were inside this black restaurant. These events took place during the 1980's and 1990's so one might think that race relations is better but from what I have seen, heard, and read about they are getting worse.

Interracial marriages are more accepted these days than they were 20 years ago but their children are still not that accepted in public school by other whites or African Americans. And when interracial couples attend church services at a Southern Baptist Church they are treated with polite dis-courteousness.

But, what is really interesting to me is the fact that inside the overall African American Communities there is another type of racism going on which pertains to whether your color is light, medium, or dark and it appears that there is more discrimination in a negative way towards African Americans who are dark or darker than other around them.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate and if they can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” Nelson Mandela

Who is it that teaches us and them this hate? And, I do agree that if it can be taught and learned then it can be taught and unlearned... but, that also requires taking responsibility for our actions and no one wants to admit that they are doing anything wrong... and, the easiest way to see that concept played out is to observe your own marriage or the marriage of someone else.

Additionally, just about all African Americans treat Hispanics like whites have been treating them and neither side wants to improve relationships as is the case with African Americans and white and this may come as quite a shock to both African Americans and whites but by 2050 there will be more Asians and Hispanics in America that African Americans and white... so, who might you think will take control one day?

Sometimes, I think that neither side wants to improve racism and both sides seem to be feeding off of their animosities towards each other. Another reason why I do not think that we will ever end racism is because we are building African American Centers all across the country to honor and perpetuate the fact that blacks and white are different.

For instance, my ancestry traces back to Scot/Irish and I am sure there are many more like me around but we are not wanting to build a Scot/Irish American Center to celebrate our difference. It may sound a little silly when you think about it but it is more similar than not.

If African Americans wanted to end racism in America, I would think that a great place to start would be to stop wanting to be called African Americans and be satisfied and content with the fact that black or white or in between, we are all Americans.

But are we really... just all Americans?

More than 500 years after Christopher Columbus' encounter with the natives of the Americas, any enduring uneasiness between Indians and mainstream society is exemplified by the controversy over the Washington Redskins name, which took a new turn last week when President Obama spoke of "legitimate concerns" that the mascot is racist, some Indian leaders say.

Team owners strongly dispute any racism behind the mascot and won't change it, saying the Redskins name honors "where we came from, who we are."

But many Native Americans contend it's incredulous that a major sports team in the nation's capital fails to see the word's offensiveness, especially in a game Sunday whose rival mascots conjure up the bygone real bloodshed between cowboys and Indians. Some news outlets and sports writers agree and aren't printing "Redskin" in their stories about the NFL team.

"After 500 years, it's pretty unbelievable that this issue is at the forefront right now," said Jason Begay, a Navajo who's an assistant professor and director of the Native American Journalism Project at the University of Montana. "Even in the last 50 years (of the civil rights movement), we learned so much. It's just ridiculous that this is an issue."


When will it ever end?

Down Under Racism

…It’s All Over the World…

Police in Australia have charged a woman after a video was uploaded to YouTube showing her hurling racist abuse at passengers on a train near Sydney.

Racially offensive gestures, mocking of accents, referring to a woman as a "gook". The three-and-a-half minute video is packed with racist abuse. It was uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday by one of the passengers who filmed it on the train. 

The video begins with the woman expressing her anger that some children have not given up their seats to let her sit down.

She then starts abusing a woman she calls an "Asian", and a man she assumes is the woman's boyfriend. "Look at this bogan here," she says, using an Australian slang term similar to "white trash". "He can only get a gook, he can't even get a regular girlfriend. 

It's so sad." "Gook" is a derogatory term which came to prominence when used by American soldiers in the Vietnam war.

The video has been watched more than 280,000 times and prompted more than 1,000 comments on YouTube - as well as discussion on Twitter and Facebook. "Good on those train passengers for filming that incident,"tweeted Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane. 

"It's one way we can hold people accountable for racist abuse." In the video, several of the passengers are seen to challenge the woman directly for her behaviour.

Under Australia's Racial Discrimination Act, it is against the law to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate" someone because of their ethnicity or race. But the government is currently debating whether to repeal this section of the act. The plan is controversial, and some made reference to the proposal while discussing the video.

On YouTube, some defended the woman. "Can't blame her... migrants come here and think they own the place," was one comment. But many Australians apologized for her actions. "This woman does not represent the views of MOST Australians," wrote one. "Sorry for anyone offended, she is an entire nation's shame."

Racism Abounds

Rima and Michael Lynch (above) thought they and their children would be safe from racial abuse when they moved to a Catholic working-class area close to central Belfast.

But the mixed-race couple's experience over six years puts a human face on the rise of race-hate crimes in the city, beyond Protestant/loyalist areas with a reputation for xenophobia.

Rima, a Christian-Israeli Arab, has been branded a Roma, Romanian, "Jew whore" and "dirty Arab" by a family who have subjected her family to a slew of racist abuse and intimidation.

The Guardian has learned there have been 13 arrests linked to race-hate attacks in Greater Belfast since the start of last month. But the Lynch family say the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in south Belfast has failed to act against local people who have terrorised them in the nationalist Lower Ormeau area.

PSNI statistics show a sharp increase in race crimes and racist incidents in the past two years. In 2012/2013 the PSNI recorded 470 racial hate crimes but that figure rose to 691 to the year ending March 2014. In the same period incidents of racial abuse and intimidation rose from 750 to 982.

When Michael Lynch, who met his wife in Israel, moved back to his native Belfast he decided it would be safer to live in the Catholic Lower Ormeau Road area than in a loyalist area. The Lynches say they and their three children were targeted by a local woman, her husband and children, who objected to the presence of immigrants in their midst.

"At first they said I was Roma and then later Romanian," Rima said. "When I finally spoke to this woman I told her I was an Arab-Israeli, born in Galilee. At first I was called a 'Jew whore' for being Israeli and later when I reminded neighbours that I was an Arab-Christian I was branded a 'dirty Arab'.

"At first it was low-level intimidation with our windows being rapped violently at night when we were watching television in the front room, or our plant pots turned over in the street, or local kids banging the door. Later they targeted my two sons on social networks, repeating the racist slurs and later the real bullying began against the boys," Rima said.

Her husband said the racist bullying of one son got so bad he had to take him out of a local Catholic secondary school. 

"I couldn't believe this was happening in a Catholic area where I wanted the family to settle. It was near to work, close to the city centre, not far from the university district and some good schools. But after all we have been put through we are seriously considering moving out to another part of Belfast," he said.

His wife said the children of the family behind most of the intimidation called her sons and daughter "monkeys" and told them to go back to Israel. 

"They bullied a single Polish mother and her children out of the same area and I know for a fact they are putting pressure on an African lady who lives in the same street. Yet the police up until very recently were not prepared to take action against these people," she said.

Rima stressed she had "many, many good friends" among the locally born population in the Lower Ormeau but believed neighbors were terrified of their tormentors. She added: "In a strange way I could cope with this better if it was happening in a loyalist, Protestant area.

At least they are upfront and open about the way some of them in that community treat foreigners. In this area, among people of the same faith, it is more a case of being smiled at to your face and then stabbed in the back."

Racist Police Dogs

In the first six months of this year, every single victim of a bite by a LASD dog was African-American or Latino…

A new report focusing on the Canine Special Detail of the LA Sherriff’s Department (LASD) has uncovered a vast increase in the number of minority individuals bitten by police dogs since 2004.

And in the first six months of this year, every single victim of a bite by a LASD dog was African-American or Latino. 

The data was published in a new report by the Police Assessment Resource Centre (Parc), a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization, devoted to “advancing effective and accountable policing”.

According to Parc records, the number of Latino individuals bitten by LASD canines went up 30 per cent between 2004 and 2012, from 30 to 39 bites. The number of African-Americans bitten increased by 33 per cent over the same period.

Meanwhile, police dog bites caused injuries at a much higher rate than alternative deterrents such as batons, tear gas and even guns. “Large swathes of LASD’s jurisdiction, encompassing generally affluent areas with smaller minority populations, had few [canine] deployments or bites,” the Parc report states.

“Crime rates are lower in these areas, but the stark disparity leads us to wonder why canine deployments seem to occur disproportionately in less affluent areas with larger minority populations.” 

During the period covered in the report, the largely black or Latino areas of Century, City of Industry, Compton, Lakewood and South LA/Lennox suffered more dog bites than all of LASD’s other 21 districts combined.

A recent investigation by the US Department of Justice also found that in areas policed by the LASD, “African Americans, and to a lesser extent Latinos, are more likely to be stopped and/or searched than whites, even when controlling for factors other than race, such as crime rates.”

The authors of the Parc report recommended that the LASD work on improving its canine-deployment policies, and keep track of the enforcement activities of individual dogs and their handlers. In 2004, a Pennsylvania police dog named Dolpho was suspended from duty, after the German Shepherd displayed a propensity for biting black children.

During the 1980s, some Los Angeles police officers would allegedly refer to black youths as “dog biscuits”.

Not Just In America

Oprah Winfrey

She is one of the richest and most famous women on the planet.

So when Oprah Winfrey popped in to an upmarket boutique for a new designer handbag she was taken aback when the shop assistant refused to show her a bag. 

She said the £24,460 crocodile skin item was ‘too expensive’.

Instead of making a scene, the billionaire TV magnate calmly left the Swiss store. 

But she has now hit back at her treatment in a furious interview on US television, claiming she was a victim of ‘racism’.

Miss Winfrey, 59, said: ‘I was in Zurich the other day, in a store whose name I will not mention. I didn’t have my eyelashes on, but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear.

'I had my little Donna Karan skirt and my little sandals. But obviously The Oprah Winfrey Show is not shown in Zurich.

‘I go into a store and I say to the woman ‘‘Excuse me, could I see the bag right above your head?” and she says to me “No. It’s too expensive.”’ Miss Winfrey asked a second time to see the bag, which was locked in a cabinet to deter shoplifters.

Trudie Gotz

But oblivious to her fame and fortune, the shop assistant allegedly replied: ‘No, no, you don’t want to see that one, you want to see this one because that one will cost too much. You will not be able to afford that.’ 

It may have been beyond the salaries of ordinary mortals, but  £24,460 is small change to a celebrity worth about £1.8billion.

Miss Winfrey added: ‘I could have had the big blow-up thing and thrown down the black card and all that stuff.

‘But why do that? But it [racism] still exists, of course it does.’ 

‘I left the store but it proves that racism is still an issue,’ she added.

Referring to a famous movie scene in which Richard Gere tells a snobbish boutique salesman that he wants to spend an obscene amount of money she added: ‘I wanted to create a Pretty Woman moment and come back and buy everything and say ‘‘Big mistake!’’. But then I thought she’d get a commission, so let’s not do that,’ she added 

Miss Winfrey was in Zurich for the wedding of her friend Tina Turner to Erwin Bach last month. She was staying in the five-star Dolder Grand Hotel at the time.

The incident happened in a branch of the chic Trois Pommes chain of boutiques. Ironically, its owner Trudie Goetz was also a guest at Miss Turner’s nuptials.

Miss Goetz apologised for the incident, blaming it on a ‘misunderstanding’.

‘Everyone wants to sell a crocodile bag,’ Ms Goetz said. ‘It’s a misunderstanding. She insisted her saleswomen put customers first and try to be ‘kind’.

However, Zurich trade president Markus Hunig condemned the snub saying: ‘It’s totally unacceptable. I’ve never heard of anything like it.’              Read more: 

Born American, Died Black

 

Trayvon Martin (left), George Zimmerman (right)

By now, most everyone has heard of the senseless killing of a boy, Trayvon Martin, by a man, George Zimmerman, and the subsequent trial in Florida where a jury of 6 females found George Zimmerman not guilty of the charges of which he was accused, because of the "stand your ground" law on the Florida legal books; although, all the jurists did make the claim that they struggled with their deliberations to the point of tears.  And, while this writer does not deny this took place in their hearts and minds, it seems rather pointless to admit unless they are trying to absolve their guilty feelings, and if they are, that too seems equally pointless since they rendered a verdict that they thought was correct given these unique sets of circumstances.

But, these comments are not about the jury, the killing, the trial, the law, or the right to bear arms Constitutional amendment...  no, not at all; it is about the polarization of Americans that took place in the aftermath of the trial's conclusion.

This writer expects (unfortunately) assholes to exist in our 2 major political parties, but not among the rank and file of middle class Americans.  I seriously thought we were beyond all of that.

The African American community thinks and communicates that this trial is another perfect example of "white" American justice; while, the rest of us (whites, Hispanics, and other) believe that justice, according to the letter of the law (but perhaps not the spirit) was ultimately served.

As an aside and with sincere respect to all cultures, I, for the life of me, do not understand why we have to insert adjectives in front of American, to create a unique and distinct sub group

This, to me, creates a separation that could influence and perpetuate discrimination.  But again, this is only my opinion.  And, if we were to extrapolate a little I could eventually see Asian Americans who are not just Southern Asian Americans and not just Georgia Asian Americans but Northern Georgia Asian Americans...  so, I am sure you can see where I am going with this.

We are all Americans,

regardless from where

our ancestors originated and

regardless of the culture

that forms the

foundation of who we are... 

or,

so I thought.