Racism Paper

The Addressing of Racism in the Coming Age

America, the unequivocal land of the free, a place where one skips upon the streets lavished in gold, and ascend the course of power through honest hard work. America, the unequivocal land of segregation, a place where one fears the streets occupied by another race, where one is so acutely aware of the color of their skin at any and all moments. This duality is the portrait of our beloved nation, one who offers everything to those of whom history favors. It is with this understood and charged past that I write in hopes of just scratching the surface of a radical paradigm shift in which we as Americans do not just coexist with one another, but that we enthrall ourselves in one another’s cultures and communities, actively seeking community with the many faces that make up our complex culture. We must stop as a nation denying the fact of our differences, and instead understand them so to underscore the accentuate all of which we share in common.

I’ve found within myself one of the key roots of racism and racial fear derives not from the color of my skin in contrast to another. It instead comes from an insecurity of my own history, and an innate sense of self-preservation. The golden road was lain for me, being born a white male or middle class, yet the burden of my race’s past lain heavy upon my shoulders. The question of the end result of that golden path also haunted me, as one must enslave and enlist those around to help carry that burden to progress. This history of the white man, whims blood never coursed through my veins, became the very origin of the bitterness of which I would have to face. I was a product of an environment I never belonged too, and in that insecurity of my cultural standing, a root of racism was allowed to take hold within myself.

It wouldn’t be until a retrospective look, and re-submergence into my own history and culture, that I would be able to uproot that seed of racial discrepancy in my life. This was summarized perfectly in the warmth of Travis’ house, as he jokingly told stories of his Mississippi past, laughing as he spoke of himself as a “Basted Child” during his attempts to change his name. There is no shame in the rights and wrong of ones culture and past, there is only shame in the one who does not utilize that past to bring forth a better future. By reconciling with some key figures, events, and locations I was able to shake off the white guilt that history had placed upon me and move past the notion of race as a divisive or taboo topic.

By accepting and coming into understanding of our charged and tense history and the progress that has been made, we can move forward with more ease towards the progress which must come forth. John Good writes in his thesis that to “ Deny or overlook the past five decades of racial history would be to prevent serious debate about what needs to happen in the coming five.” In other words, refusal or our past is to impede the necessary action for a better future, and we must seek and put hope in that better future. Looking at Ken Dunn for instance sheds light upon a nation in progression. He managed to break the fourth wall, and cross into the streets of which he had no racial semblance. He is no hero, just an intelligent man who saw the bounty of resources and wealth already in place in that given community. We need to start to take value in our own resources and those provided by the others around us. It is in that value of our differences that we’ll find a commonality towards relationship and progression.

There are also much more simple actions one can take to bridge the racial gap, actions that seem almost insulting for their simplicity. This being the simple action of immersing yourself into neighborhoods and relationships of ethnicity, culture, and different races. One must cross the “Midway” to truly see for them how similar it looks to the side they now stand on. Racism, white guilt & supremacy, slavery, colonialism, lynching, civil riots, it is a complex and convoluted history we all must face as we approach a global world of cultural immersion, but sometimes the simple actions we can make today, the conversations shared, the time spent, sometimes these may cause the paradigm shift needed to bring forth a cohesive yet beautifully unique humanity.