Have you noticed that Race in America is prevalent in our daily discourse?
Like back pain that is temporarily masked by therapy or medication, the topic of race is always just beneath the surface, lurking.
A sudden movement, twist or turn can act as a catalyst thrusting it forward.
While I am fully aware of the recent remarks by Laura Schlessinger, I chose to not ‘weigh in’ because I felt that I had nothing ‘new’ to add to the conversation.
Inappropriate behavior is simply that, inappropriate.
It is neither a ‘pass’ for the offender or a justification for the offended to wear the badge of victim.
I attended a client meeting at an ‘old world’ resort in the Virginia Mountains not too long ago. By old world, I mean it first opened its doors a decade before the American Revolution.
Another guest, an elderly White gentleman, made the assumption that I was at the front desk, not to check in, but to assist with his luggage.
His assumption was based on what? Certainly not the clothing that I wore because the standard uniform for employees was topped off with a split pea green vest with a small gold-like name tag.
I’ve always found green a difficult color to pull off.
When the news of a horrific crime is reported, I hold my breath and wait for the description of the suspect.
My mind automatically shifts into ‘auto drive’ and think, “thank God it wasn’t someone Black” or “I hope it wasn’t someone Black.”
These circumstantial examples, along with a handful of other current events, caused Bob Herbert’s Op-Ed column in last Saturday’s New York Times, Too Long Ignored, to touch a nerve. He said,
Terrible injustices have been visited on black people in the United States, but there is never a good reason to collaborate in one’s own destruction. Blacks in America have a long and proud history of overcoming hardship and injustice. It’s time to do it again.
We are in need of an intervention and for all of the reasons outlined in Too Long Ignored, Black America is at a crucial point where the fix must come sooner rather than later.
This fix is one that we have to take responsibility for and implement. Our survival is dependent upon it.
I encourage you to read the full piece and join me in fueling the conversation.
This sentiment is not new, but one that requires igniting…again.
Like the lyrics from the Gamble-Huff song, Wake Up Everybody say:
The world won’t get no better if we just let it be
The world won’t get no better we gotta change it yeah, just you and me.
For the full Herbert column full text click here
