President Bush may not be racist. Dick Cheney may not be racist. Former FEMA head Brown, "Condi" and those photographers Chris Graythen and Dave Martin may not be racist at all.
There is no need for anyone to be actively or extrovertly racist today. Institutions from schools to government to corporations were originally designed over the course of centuries to hold back people of color. Since Jamestown, Africans and then African-Americans were not allowed to read, write, speak their native tongue and were debased of their cultural background. After the Civil War slavery turned into share-cropping and share-cropping has turned into bad credit and inadequate jobs. It took a hundred years after "slavery ended" before the Black person was allowed into the boiling stew that is America and it is only this last couple of generations that has started easing up on racial divisions. Still, the slack recent peoples have given to the color line has not been enough to lift the racial cloak that has covered this country. Only an active change can abolish the racist institutions left standing since the beginning of America.
It is not enough for the recent generations to be tolerant, color-blind or neutral in opinion. Neutrality will only allow racism's continued existence. Active destruction of racial barriers is the only way to create a level playign field.
http://pkarchive.org/column/091905.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1139640
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091900543.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-091905katrina_lat,0,7596816.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/050912/12simon.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1136969
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/19/134911/458
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