Modern Racism

Modern racism is striking in it's subtlety. One sees the injustices but the people held down are so frequently asphyxiated by such invisible chains that they don't know how to express the inequity. This failure is common place in the black community. Everyone can see that the worst neighborhoods in American cities are littered with minorities, predominantly black and Hispanic. There aren't any lynchings taking place to promote this segregation. The schools take anybody that lives in those neighborhoods--black or white. So why is it that these segregations still exist naturally?

The capitalist mindset tells the ignorant and unexposed to attribute these problems to a failure on behalf of these ethnic communities. Look at 50 cent, Michael Jordan and Chris Rock after all, they're ethnic and they're millionaires. The modern racist manages to maintain his views not by action but by the opposite, inaction in the face of inefficacy in the government, insensitivity in society, and ignorance on the part of the "haves" against the "have nots."

The most clear example of the aforementioned mindset being the response to Hurricane Katrina, or more aptly put, the lack there-of. The previous administration's deplorable behavior and the lack of outrage that came as a result is the most representative piece of racism ever exhibited by this nation: worse than slavery, worse than the lynchings, worse than all before because they had no excuse. People weren't already ignoring millions of impoverished people in 2006 as a matter of policy, and people weren't already killing blacks outright to further their own absurdest views. We stopped those actions and had been promoting an American image of a people that "knew better," already, which is obviously not the case.

Is it any wonder that a justice system that provides two options, Guilty or not, is so easily manipulated for the sake of racism? As if any situation is as straightforward as guilty or innocent. Then, the equally inappropriate response to a guilty verdict manipulated out of a "jury of our peers" who are obviously readily manipulated by a high paid lawyer or a district attorney in the face of a poorly paid overworked public defender is to distribute any number of years in prison, as if some different amount of years in prison is the only difference between a murderer, and a rapist, a pedophile, a shoplifter, and a junkie. Clearly jail must be a miraculous place considering it's ability to rehabilitate any and all criminals with just a difference in amount of time served. Guess how many of each race are in prison? The numbers overwhelmingly side toward the black and Hispanic, surprising I'm sure.

The saddest part of all of this is that the leader's intending to vanquish this ignorance from our society are left with so little recourse with their own people. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have to reach an audience that doesn't understand the complexity of the blight that they are facing because the education necessary to do so has been taken from them. Any education system that allows the taxes of the people living in that community to fund the schools will inevitably lead to inequality, but furthermore, opportunity. Every school should share funding from a central federal pool otherwise inequality in information, the most powerful tool any human can possess, will wipe freedom from the board of possibilities that America aspires to as readily as a subtle unequal grading process can stave off a black child's chances at college while his white counterpart prevails.

America provokes the mind with it's claim to be the "land of opportunity," which, to be honest, it rightfully lives up to. The question then becomes, what is that opportunity? The opportunity to manipulate and steal from your neighbors? The opportunity to stab your brother in the back for the sake of your mother's inheritance? The opportunity to be racist by evading the taxes needed to fund the programs that will raise a people to have an opportunity to compete on an even playing field? Yes, the opportunity for success ekes it's way into the mix like the dash of salt that makes the dough rise properly after all the other ingredients, but a dash is not enough. I wish for America to finally reckon this ugly idea that opportunity, that the dash of salt, is what's worth holding on to, and finally realize that we, together, as a democracy, can change from the "land of opportunity," to the "land of brotherhood," to the land of helping thy neighbor, to the land of beauty.

The greatest tragedy a human being can face is the unnecessary separation from other human beings by arbitrary walls created by self-consciousness and ignorance. The greatness of humanity is our ability to communicate and exist as a whole, committing vows of assurance to one another, expanding on each other's ideas and merely being a helping hand when one's own is broken. The pursuit of capitalist freedom will never allow for this opportunity and, one way or another, racism will prevail until we change this system. I hope we find the strength to be honest with one another enough to one day give up our personal belongings for the sake of our collective excellence.

I believe in America because the policies that shape our government and our society are intentionally left malleable to the ideas of our revolutionaries. It doesn't have to be a violent uproar for improvements to take place, unlike most of the world. Unfortunately, our society has made some bad choices for a long time. Considering how much sanctity we place on the financially viable, it's a wonder that finance is never taught in public schools, but if we really wanted everyone to succeed, that probably wouldn't be necessary anyway. I just hope that when the leader comes along that's capable of drawing the greater good out of the souls of Americans, I'm still alive to see it as I dream about it and always will.