A rally was held at the University of Massachusetts in support of a black biology student charged with attempted murder.
Jason Vassell is accused of stabbing two white men, both non-students, after they allegedly smashed his dorm room window and broke his nose and taunted him with racial epithets. A family friend disciplined their young son after he got into a fight at school after a classmate called him the N-word – this was the second time.
One of the white men in the Massachusettes case has been charged with civil rights violations, disorderly conduct and assault and battery. The white child in the N-word case was also disciplined by the school. And so it goes.
I wonder if and when my sons will have to deal with racism or self-hatred by boys who look just like them. I believe we are preparing them by giving them a sense of responsibility and raising them to know who they are and by creating a home life that makes them feel safe and loved.
I know, still, that what I do for my sons won’t stop what others have not done for theirs.
Race and ethnic identity are never far from the surface in the United States of America. Our history is just too ugly. And while we have survived, many continue to struggle.
You would think that a black man with a viable chance to become president of the very country that once deemed his ancestors “chattel” would create in all of us an incredible sense of success, urgency and hope. But like our elders, even Barack Obama continues to battle the email smeer campaign that he is a radical Muslim bent on the destruction of America – and the notion from his competitors that the only reason he’s in this position is because he’s a black man.
How crazy is that? How sad is that? How insulting is that?
Then 7-year-old video of Obama’s now-retired pastor ranting and raving about America resurfaces. In my view, it’s distasteful and unsettling to watch, but I don’t find it to be hate speech as some have said. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright sounds more like an angry black man than anything else.
We all know how the U.S. feels about angry black men: Be more like former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell, who wrote in his book that he knew he was “a safe Negro.”
And worse, to me: the Rev. Wright was espousing the kind of anger from the pulpit that seems completely inappropriate and drives people away from developing a real relationship with Jesus.
Obama has tried to keep this campaign about the voters and the issues, not about his ethnic identity. But race is never really far from the surface. As a caller once told me, “You black people just complain. Haven’t we given you enough?”
Nope. Obama can’t complain about what some suspect was a purposeful Clinton campaign re-release of his retired pastor’s old comments. Obama can’t really complain about Geraldine Ferraro’s ridiculous comments because if he complains too loudly or too long, he’s just another one of “those people.”