The Re-Segregation of a People

The purpose of this site is not to be politically correct. The purpose of this blog is to convey my views and what I think many other people are feeling as well. If you don't like what you read, you are welcome to comment or to go to another site. In the interest of full disclosure and so you know what my perspective is based on, the following is some information about me. I'm a 30ish Protestant white male in middle America. First and foremost I am American. My heritage is predominately English (caucasian) with German, Scottish, and Cherokee Indian thrown in for good measure. I was taught that there is no differences between skin color. I was raised to believe that your standing as a person was measured on your actions, not on your race. The below thoughts are meant to be sincere and honest.

The civil rights leaders of the 1960's did amazing things for their people. People like Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and others led a generation of Black Americans into their own and stopped unjust segregation in schools and universities, on buses, restrooms, and drinking fountains. Even after the 1960's, reforms continued addressing workplace discrimination, housing discrimination, and other important issues. There is still more to do for civil rights, but not at the expense of the black community.

My opinion: Civil rights leaders, specifically in the African American Community, promote segregation among its own people in order to make themselves more relevant and more powerful in society. In my opinion these leaders are hurting the community more than they are helping. Their efforts are doing nothing more than re-segregating the people that their predecessors freed.

The purpose of Civil Rights Leaders and their movements are to secure rights for people who are not able to secure rights for themselves. Civil rights leaders today are taking advantage of these communities. A large part of the goal of the 1960's was to show America that Black=White. At that point in this nation's history, equality was a very important point to make. For the most part, Americans understand that. There are those that never will, but no amount of protesting and marching is going to change that. What can change it? A more positive and diverse representation of the African American community.

“True equality” is not what makes America great. Just think how life would be if “true equality” were to become a reality. Everyone would drive the same car, live in the same house, dress the same, work the same, have the same intelligence, etc. True equality is not what we should strive for. We should strive for an end to discrimination--the end to judging the quality of a person simply on perceived physical attributes and characteristics that can't be chosen.

Discrimination separates people based on these physical characteristics, giving someone power over them. Racial discrimination is no longer only committed by people of another race. It can be done my members of one's own race as well. Using one's own people to further advance a political agenda, or to gain personal power, is discrimination. The only thing that men like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Malik Shabazz get from representing Black Americans is power, clout, and money. Instead of promoting Black=White, they are promoting Black=Black and re-segregating the black community. To let one of these men represent you, one only need have a single qualification: the color of one’s skin. Is that not a new form of discrimination?

What is it that makes a society great? For the United States it is a celebration of our differences. It is knowing that some are business leaders, some are teachers, some are artists, and others are humanitarians. Some work hard in factories, others work in offices, others work in fields, and still others work in countless other positions all contributing to what makes this nation great. We have people who have immigrated to the United States from all over the world, mixing cultures, ideas, and religions. But instead of celebrating those differences, civil rights leaders are segregating and homogenizing their communities into a political power structure that is elevating them and doing a great disservice to their people.

Some black civil rights leaders welcome people from all walks of life including felons, murderers, gang-bangers, and drug pushers. As long as they are African Americans, anyone can be a member of Jesse Jackson's or Al Sharpton's constituencies. There is one exception (and it is a big one): You must side with them politically. Jackson, Sharpton, Kweisi Mfume, Spike Lee, Harry Belafonte and other African American self-proclaimed civil rights leaders have made awful comments about black men and women that disagree with them. These men and women (even those in power) are minimized and ridiculed. They are called names like "Uncle Tom['s]" (as Spike Lee said about Clarence Thomas), or compared to a plantation slave (as Belafonte implied about Colin Powell). Do these civil rights leaders sound like they are uniting mankind? Is it right to attack or question a person’s race because you don’t agree with them? This is called discrimination.

The message by these leaders is loud and clear to the black community: If you do not agree with your black leaders, then you are not black. And if you are not black, then you have nothing. To a community that has been taught (brain-washed) by its leaders that being black is the only thing that defines them, this is a very difficult and unfair situation to deal with.

Jesse Jackson rushed to the aid (with cameras and microphones) of a young lady in Durham, NC who had allegedly been raped. Why did he rush to her side? She accused 3 white, wealthy students of the crime, and this event could be used to further segregate the African American community. Jesse Jackson cared more that the victim was a black women victimized by white men, than he cared about the truth. While I feel very sorry for this troubled young woman, I don’t feel sorry for her because she is black. I feel sorry for her because she is troubled. On that day or at a previously time in her life, something awful happened to her. For that, and that alone, she deserved sympathy. According to national statistics 200,000 women were raped last year. Where was Jesse Jackson after any of those women were raped? Of those 200,000, 13% of them were African American women (2000 National Crime Victimization Study). Of women that are raped, 80-90% of them are raped by a person of their racial background (US Dept. of Justice, 1994). Does Jesse Jackson not care about them? As with any other politician, they only care about what will give them power. If they don't need you, they don't care about you.

There is one thing that I hope that any African American person gets from reading this: Be proud that you are African American. But please know that there is more to you than just your skin color. If you want to be defined by your race, then Jesse Jackson is the man to follow. If you want to be defined by who you are as a person and what you accomplish, then find another man, or a women, or lead people yourself. Your community continues to be segregated by men that call themselves your leaders. While I consider segregation a crime, segregation by someone you trust is worse.

MR