First Diary
The race issue has for too long been politely ignored, without the underlying wound(s) being treated.
Therefore:
The pastor controversy bedevilling presidential aspirant barack obama, and the preceding race baiting of the disgusting billary, have between them torn off the flimsy scar tissue hiding the deeper wound of race relations in america. whilst most sensible people of all colours are able to interact and survive with each other in affable circumstance, the wider discussion about "healing" has been dominated by activists keen to leverage the status ante, and yet more people keen to assume, fallaciously, that without true INTEGRATION there can be a true peace.
as someone (black) who, generationally, suffered far more than the black kids of today (who enjoy the benefits of ’black being cool’ without any attendant responsibility to make that count for something), i can tell you that even today, i hear things of frightening racial insensitivity and ignorance, from friends and inconsequential acquaintances alike of all races and religious inclination.
it occurs to me, as someone who has undergone a fairly lengthy period of physical and spiritual rehabilitation, that there can be no growth without pain. after the 60s, where there was massive pain, and massive progress, i see little effort to take that extant paradigm and run with it. i am not going to speak to the hate that obama may or may not have heard or osmotically ingested at his now widely vilified church, but at least he recognised some things in his following speech that no-one at his level has had the courage to talk about in a generation.
the great dr cosby, a hero of mine, has spoken to the need for the black community to reposition itself (not just in america btw). others also, have spoken of a falling away from the dream of dr king - another personal hero. but obama may be the first, certainly the first that i have heard of that spoke to the fact that while black comedians have been out roasting whites at every turn, while poor black students have correctly received assistance to make the jump from ghetto to office, poor white children have been left behind. white people cannot talk about black proclivity without incensing the masses of the PC brigade and yet the reverse is deemed intolerable.
what's good for the goose...
[NB: and that doesnt even countenance the many and deeply horrifying racial and mysoginist prejudices of some, repeat, some, of our immigrant friends from asia, india, the middle east.]
two things need to happen, the one i salute obama for trying - having an adult discussion about the problem as seen from ALL angles. the other being a personal crusade of mine - the ERADICATION OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.
this latter, nothing more than an attempt to circumscribe freedom of expression and foment a culture of slavish obedience to the norm (as set out by the government), is a CANCER that systematically erodes any chance at meaningful social progress through the painful process of UNDERSTANDING differences.
ironic since most "scripture" would purport to teach the necessity of such an outreach.
with oil running out fast, the social fabric of the western nations having been destroyed by flimsy PC attempts to restructure educative and moral norms, we may soon be at a reckoning - brother to brother, black to white to yellow to brown (these last two being revolting common usages for asian, indian and mexican) we will all be the cliffside facing eschatological doom, borne thereover by the LEMMING of failure to communicate - honestly, forthrightly and without precondition save that of civility and genuine desire to see progress.
whither we?