Homespun Symposium V
Yet another important and challenging question from the Homespun Bloggers for the weekly Symposium. The question(s) posed this week, by Marc at Hubs and Spokes, relates to racism in the United States. Here it is:
What do you believe is necessarry for true racial reconciliation to take place in American society? Does your solution involve coercive governmental remedies? Do you believe that Churches have an important role to play in this process?
Following such a question, and prior to the follow-up questions, a look at race in the US today. If by racial reconciliation the questioner means citizens of varied races behaving and acting in a race neutral or color blind manner, only a small minority of Americans retain a racist view, and frankly, it is unlikely to be changed by external actions. If the questioner refers to economic or social racism, the vast majority of such forms have long been addressed. Not by government effort but by the consistent application of our moral and ethical foundations and teachings over time and through the active participation of citizens who have recognized the error of their neighbor, family, church or business partners and sought to do better.
So what racial reconciliation remains to be addressed? Political and government reinforced racism. Political parties on the left and right have followed the government’s model of addressing racism through race advocacy and the underlying belief that race is significant. The government continues advocacy positions through affirmative action and supposedly innocuous programs such as the EEO, the Census Bureau, and in its general pandering for political backing of either values or culture.
To address the issue of race, it must become a non-issue for those whose livelihood today is built upon racism and discrimination. So long as minority populations permit racist men to represent them, racism will remain a significant political issue. And so long as political power is availed to those using racism, the government will continue to support its race-oriented policies. Being black, Hispanic, Scots-Irish or Arab before being American is a result of the governments support for minority status rather than its adherence to the ideal that all men are created equal. As for the role of churches, the continued reinforcement of biblical teachings has a positive effect on our ability to erase race as an issue, but the moral basis of Declaration of Independence and the Constitution must be applied in governance to a far greater degree to properly remove race as an political tool for the manipulation of otherwise free people within the great land of opportunity.
Other Homespun Responses:
Dagney's Rant
Mud and Phud
A Physicist's Perspective
Bunker Mulligan
Weapon of Mass Distraction
Ogre's Politics and Views
Slarrow
The Commons at Paulie World.... by Paulie
Major Dad 1984
The Redhunter
Mad Poets Anonymous
