Acting White: Racism and Skin Color

The xenophobic events in South Africa offer a good of example of how race and racism is a social construct and not one of real physical difference (Pres. Mbeki pictured). The killing of black immigrants by black South Africans, or the tribal killings between black Kenyans, are every bit as racist as whites killing blacks and vice-versa. The same was true when the English and Irish fought decades ago. The truth is that when we decide to kill someone because they are different looking, acting, sounding, or otherwise, we are hiding our true motives inside a bottomless trick-bag of superficial differences.

Furthermore, discussions of race issues are clouded by claims of inherent evilness, that hide true agendas. Black Americans look away from the issue of African-on-African violence with the same enthusiasm the group focuses on white misdeeds of the past instead of black dysfunction of the present. In fact, blacks and Africans have always exhibited the same behavior most deplored in whites, with the matter of degrees dictated only by available technology. However, to acknowledge this would eliminate the ability to guilt whites for simply doing what humans have always done - kill each other for self-serving reasons.

Whether you like his presidential package or not, Obama is the first candidate with an appeal to whites and blacks. Blacks were skeptical at first, because they have been conditioned by the Reverends in the us-against-them format. But by staying on message, and with help from Hillary and Bill’s race-baiting, Obama was able to scoop up the black vote to go along with disaffected whites. He has his faults, but his extension of Rodney King’s ‘can’t we all just get along’ into ‘working together’ is a hit. Unfortunately, while race issues threaten blacks, race is not the number one threat to this country’s future and this leads to questions of whether we are over emphasizing race.

We are living in a global mess, void of leadership. There is terrorism, energy politics, war, trade imbalances and deficits, immigration battles, and recurring natural disasters coming at us at every turn. But many in the world ask, smartly, how can they follow the US lead when our own 'house' is in such disarray? And this is why getting on a better racial footing is so important. Call it a precursor, or central to our future, either way it goes to credibility.

James C. Collier

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