What happened to all of the racism in America?
Minorities in America faced hatred and intolerance every day in America just 70 years ago. Today that racism is nearly impossible to find and exists only in a small, voiceless minority.
How did America go from a nation where minorities were treated like chattel to a nation that embraces diversity? When did America become the nation where children are not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character?
A new era without the need for racism
The year 2013 saw Rosa Parks' 100th birthday and there is no better way to celebrate her ground-breaking act of civil disobedience than to cast a glance into the White House of the 21st century. The unthinkable of just 70 years ago is a reality today: the President of the United States and the Attorney General are both black men, the Vice President of the United States is a Jew and the Secretary of State is a woman.
This isn't a fluke or some strange anomaly; this administration is enjoying its second term. Not since the people of India elected Abdul Kalam as President of India in 2002 has a nation so embraced minority leadership and demonstrated a lack of bias toward minorities and women.
Segregation a thing of the past
In the time of Rosa Parks, segregation was alive and well. Her refusal to obey a bus driver and move to the colored section of the bus sparked a civil rights revolution and four generations later America is a different place.
Today all races live together in the same neighborhoods, work together doing the same jobs, drink from the same water fountains and serve side-by-side in our armed forces. Not in generations has any American been turned away by a "Whites Only" sign.
The difference between racial profiling and racism
Some Americans mistakenly believe that Arizona's new "Show me your papers" measure is racially-motivated and cite that as evidence of racism. In reality, the majority of undocumented aliens in that State are of Hispanic descent because Arizona boarders Mexico. If the same law were enacted in North Dakota then it would not seem like racism because the State boarders Canada where the population is mostly Caucasian.
The "Show me your papers" provision is part of a broader measure to crack down on illegal immigration. The Supreme Court has upheld the measure as legal because it is not targeted at any race.
Some Americans look to New York's "Stop and Frisk" policing procedure that disproportionally targets minorities as proof that the people of New York are intolerant of minorities. While policies that are based solely on race are reprehensible, ignoring race completely is foolish. A policy that allows for profiling based on police experience and not individual prejudice or racism strikes a balance that allows for effective policing and has significantly reduced violent crime in New York.
Fabricating racism for profit and political gain
In February of 2012 a black man named Trayvon Martin was tragically shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Because the circumstances of the shooting were reported with deliberate bias many leaders callously leveraged this tragedy for financial and political gain.
A jury concluded that Trayvon Martin was shot in self-defense and was not the victim of a racially-motivated hate crime. That didn't stop political leaders from trying to exploit the tragedy of Martin's death or prevent Martin's parents from collecting a 7-digit out-of-court settlement for the "wrongful death" of their son.
Oprah Winfrey, in an effort to publicize her new racially-charged film "The Butler", likened Trayvon Martin to Emmett Till, a black teenager who was beaten to death by a group of white men for the alleged crime of flirting with a white woman and was a clear victim of intolerance. Trayvon Martin was shot in self-defense and, except for being a black teenager, has nothing in common with Emmett Till.
Emmett Till was killed in 1955, the same year that Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. She later said of the incident, "I thought of Emmett Till and I just couldn't go back." Oprah Winfrey desecrates the memory of Emmett Till by using his name to pander her movie to those eager to see intolerance.
I thought of Emmett Till and I just couldn't go back.
Americans no longer opposed to mixed-race relationships
The intolerance that lead to the murder of Emmett Till faded away during the last four generations. In the current era, mixed race couples live happily-ever-after without fear of reprisal and without interference.
Mixed-race children go on to lead happy lives in modern America's era of tolerance. Without the stigma of intolerance and discrimination mixed-race children have wonderful careers in news, entertainment, business and even in politics. No dream is out-of-bounds, not even the dream of one day being the President of the United States.
Some Americans may confuse curiosity or jealousy with racism. In some regions, minorities are rare and they might invoke a double-take at first site. In the same way that Al Sharpton found racism in the death of Trayvon Martin, a person looking for evidence to validate an expectation of intolerance might mistake this additional attention as proof of racism.
Author's note: I am a Caucasian male who has experienced this very phenomenon in neighborhoods where whites are the minority. I have entered a restaurant only to have every eye turn to look at me--not eyes filled with hate, but with curiosity.
The "N" word
There's no way around this sad truth. The use of the word "nigger" has been perpetuated by popular culture and Americans continue to use the word every day. The word has many meanings, but the one that is the focus of this article is "a derogatory name for a Black person".
The derogatory connotation in the word is a sad throwback to an era when a majority of Americans considered blacks to be inferior to whites. Today that derogatory connotation has been so diluted that Americans of every race use the word to describe themselves and members of other races.
A very small percentage of Americans, primarily in the deep south, still use the word in an attempt to invoke its derogatory form. The word in this form has been so strongly associated with ignorance, hatred and intolerance that only the most brazen in this small, voiceless minority will attempt to use it in polite conversation or around strangers of any race.
In September of 2013, CNN ran a story about a boss who uses this word to describe his employee. The boss and the employee are both black and the boss explains that he is not using the word in a derogatory manner, but the employee is manages to leverage the incident for a $250,000 judgement.
The two black commentators in the video cast new light on the word and how it is perceived. One chooses to believe that it is always hate speech and the other says that the word is okay in the proper context.
The trend from intolerance to tolerance
Every generation of Americans since the beginning of the 20th century has been less inclined toward racism than the generation before. Racists have become the marginalized minority in America and the tactics that were used on minorities in the era before Rosa Parks are now being applied the racist minority.
Americans have been segregating themselves from racists for decades. Over the years fewer and fewer Americans were forced to live, work or serve in the military next to racists. With no motivation to keep intolerance and hatred alive, more and more Americans are simply allowing racism to die.
How to deliver the fatal blow to racism
The shameless exploitation of figures like Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till only manage to set the civil rights movement back and to perpetuate the intolerance that fuels racism. If we can bring ourselves to question what we hear on the television then we can take away the voices of those who trick us into being angry; we can stop them from using that anger to give themselves more power.
Americans can proactively speed the death of racism by continuing to marginalize those who promote hate and intolerance. By refusing to work with, live near, listen to or serve next to racists, Americans can finally put an end to racism.
Every time vitriolic hate speech is rebroadcast the lid on racism is opened a little more, but every time a racist is ignored by the mainstream media another nail is driven into racism's coffin. Malcolm X leaves us with the best advice on how to handle the likes of Al Sharpton and anybody else who would exploit the fear of racism for their own personal gain:
If you aren't careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.
