Obama Addresses Racial "Anger"

[ChristopherHall]

It’s obvious to me that the racial divide among even Apostolics is greater than I imagined. The leading opinion among whites is, “Get over it”. But we as a white majority have yet to even admit to doing “it” or to what “it” was and what effect "it" has had on people living today.

This is perhaps one of America’s most grievous national sins. The prejudice and racism that has fueled the frustration and indignation of civil rights leaders and black pastors is entirely lost on us white folks. Think about what has been inherited on their side.

- For nearly 400 years your people are enslaved in brutal conditions and no restitution is made. There isn’t a Zion for you to return to. You lost your history, your language, your culture, your identity. The only thing that defines you is your history in bondage and the stereotypes society perpetuates.
- Imagine, your grandfather was drug out of a house and lynched by the firelight of burning torches in a park by a group of white men in the middle of the night. Somehow the authorities never found a viable suspect.
- Your uncle was accused of a brutal rape and murder of a white girl when there were many eye witnesses testifying to his not even being in that place the night of the crime. One by one the prosecution throws out their testimonies and your uncle is sentenced to death.
- Your father is more than qualified for good work….but is never hired. When hired he’s paid only a portion of what a white man doing the same job is paid. He went out for the police force but they denied him for someone less qualified because he was white. Your father couldn’t get on with the fire department either. After multiple failures your father settles for working as a floor sweeper in the local corner market for little pay. No inheritance is handed down. Nothing is there.
- Your brother is approached by some strangers interested in getting him in on a narcotics deal. They want to know his friends and they network with him. They offer him big time cash, money he can’t refuse. The offer’s too good to refuse and at the abyss of poverty he takes the offer thinking this is a way out and that he’ll only do it as long as he needs to get set. Then he’s busted in a sting operation that brings him and ring of others down and lands them in prison.
- You call around for information on various apartments on a nice side of town where you can get away from the elements you live around and when you do amazingly, there are no vacancies, or there is still work needed to be done and they aren’t yet available. But your white friend calls the same properties and gets an offer for a lease beginning nearly immediately on nearly half the apartments you called.
- You walk into a neighborhood grocery store to buy some milk for your baby girl and find that you’re being watched and followed around the store by employees like they can’t trust you while white patrons walk around freely nearly oblivious to any suspicion.
- I’m white. I’ve been pulled over about 4 times in my life and was never issued a ticket. I was even going 57 mph in 35 on my way to Thunder Bowl once and got off with a warning. You’re my black friend; he’s been pulled over only twice and issued a hefty ticket by a white cop each time.

Nobody admits to “it”. No body apologizes for “it”. Everyone pretends “it” isn’t real. But the one thing they are sure of is that you get over “it”.

The frustration and anger over these things pours out from some black preachers on some Sunday mornings. The paranoia surrounding this issue has combined history with myth and sometimes what is said isn’t factual but is perceived by the speaker to be true. And we gasp and act faint like Victorian women who can’t believe how horrible it is.

Get real.