Let me start with this disclaimer: I am so tired of talking about race in America. I am tired of talking about it, and I am tired of hearing others talk about. Race has been talked about in America for centuries, when will we stop talking about it? When will we view each other outside of race, when will we just be? Not Black, not White, not Latino, just American, or at least - just a person, removed from your complexion and the other characteristics that we use to define and deliniate each other?
I already know the answer, and hence this diary, even in the face of my disclaimer: The answer is Never. America, and to be frank the rest of the world - although America is especially burdened with this issue, will never be free of race (and class).
In his 1903 autobiography The Souls of Black Folks, civil rights giant W.E.B DuBois famously stated that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line..."
Were he alive today, he could have well said that it is the problem of the twenty first century as well, as exemplified in the case of the recently released Scott Sisters of Mississippi.
In 1994, the Scott sisters (ages 19 and 21 at the time) were convicted for their planning and involvement in an armed robbery that netted $11 dollars. They were sentenced to life in prison until being released this week on the generous condition that one sister provide the other with a needed kidney. Their case typifies the judicial system's treatment of the poor and people of color, and sadly shows that more than 70 years after the notorious Scottsboro trials, race and class still permeate throughout our society.
In the 1930's, the case of the Scottsboro boys, falsely accused of raping 2 white women on a freight train and facing the death penalty, garnered international attention and highlighted the injustices of Alabama's judicial system.
The case was first heard in Scottsboro, Alabama in three rushed trials, where the defendants received poor legal representation. All but the twelve-year-old Roy Wright were convicted of rape and all but him were sentenced to death, the common sentence in accusations of rape by white women against black men in Alabama at the time... During the retrials, one of the alleged victims admitted fabricating the rape story and asserted that none of the Scottsboro Boys ever touched either of the white women. The jury found them guilty, but the judge set aside the verdict and granted a new trial. After a new series of trials the verdict was the same: guilty. The cases were ultimately tried three times. For the third time a jury—now with one black member—returned a third guilty verdict. Charges were finally dropped for 4 of the 9 defendants. Sentences for the rest ranged from 75 years to death. All but 2 served prison sentences... .
Of course, in drawing a comparison between the injustice that the Scottsboro boys suffered for crimes that were never committed, I'm not suggesting that armed robbery isn't a serious, punishable offense. It is all of that, yet becomes a miscarriage of justice when the American judicial system repeatedly allows white-collar criminals to walk away or escape punishment for egregious, sometimes billion-dollar scandals. One only has to mention the 1980's S&L scandal as a case in point. Or Enron.
Race and class are inextricably linked in this country. And how could could they not be, given America's inglorious past of the "peculiar institution" of slavery and its twin evils of segregation and racism. And so, even if I don't want to talk about it, I must, because frankly, not talking about something doesn't make it go away.
However my hope is to not just talk, but understand - why are we - Americans, in all of our various shades, politics, and intentions - why is race always (if we are to be truly honest) with us? Sometimes expressed outright of course, as in blatant acts of violence and hatred, but often - just beneath the surface, expressed in a look or a lack of representation. I firmly believe that all of us want the same things - we all want, to quote the Constitution...life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And while the Constitution as ingrained equated Blacks as 3/5 of a person, Blacks have been made whole and so can now can claim these rights.
God given... but in America we needed amendments to a Constitution to remind us of this.