Now if you think a national dialogue is bull then I’d love to know what should be done.

We don’t confront these issues because we’re scared too, we’re scared we’d be called racist and intollerant and our politicians are spineless and gutless when it comes to dealing with latino groups like LaRaza, infact McCain and Obama do their best to kiss up to LaRaza because all politicians care about is “votes” and getting as many votes as they can. LaRaza which stands for “The Race” is a terrorist racist organization. A lot of it also has to do with “white guilt” and a lot of it has come out of the 1960’s baby boom generation where we were taught and currently being taught in public schools and colleges about making whites feel guilty for what they have and making whites get scared to speak their mind, it’s “political correctness” and nothing is more dangerous on this earth than political correctness which flips common sense upside down on it’s head and that’s what is slowly destroying Europe and especially England.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. The Civil Rights Movement hit only 40-50 years ago! The Civil Rights Act was in 1964!!! I would say at least 50% of us white folks STILL are not comfy with African-American culture. If you have parents born in the 40’s 50’s or 60’s that’s going to be the case. That’s not racist. It is going to take a while to turn this ship around. It’s a comin’! Right now I’d say we are in the beginning stages of inertia. It may not be in your lifetime or mine, but racial harmony may come to be in this country a few generations from now. Just keep fighting the good fight to do your part and I’ll do mine. It’ll come around. NO WAY are you going to get everyone in this crazy diverse country on the same page within the past 50 years. You have to let the stubborn racists from as late as the the 60’s die off and their great grandchildren to die off before that happens. It’s generational! Enjoy your life as best you can, and I’ll enjoy mine hoping for racial (and religious/non religious) harmony!

Peace!

Amber…same here with the blackness. Where on earth did the idea come from that you aren’t allowed to have non black friends? Its a sad trend that I wish would stop already.

Casey…that’s an interesting story. Its upsetting for me as a black person to read that because its incidents like that propagate negative stereotypes about black people. I have witnessed things like that myself where people know they were wrong but will “play the race card” rather than admit it. All the while not realizing that they are helping to reinforce the stereotypes by doing so. I’m glad that you shared your experience but I worry that someone who is already racially biased will come away from reading your post with what they see as more proof of the negative stereotypes out there from the statistics you mentioned near the end.

Don’t see this as a personal attack because it absolutely is not. I completely understand your frustration as I’ve actually had other black people tell me I’m racist against blacks. I just want to point out to others that will read this article and your post that the experience you shared has one very important factor. The people involved were stealing…a thief will say anything they think will work to keep from getting caught. Which sadly, often includes accusing someone who is simply doing their job of being racist. Please don’t think that all black people (or any other race)go around randomly accusing the rest of the world of racism whenever its convenient and as a result are responsible for keeping it alive all own their own. Race relations in America is a very complex issue with many, many, factors…and I hope everyone who reads this article and your post comes away from it more aware of that fact.

What is most frustrating to me is to see people use their race (no matter which one it is) to hide or justify flaws and failures in personal character. The cops who beat Rodney King were guilty, but so was O.J.! What is it about our culture that makes it cool or okay for us as fathers to abandon our kids? Being able to sire children doesn’t make one a man, it just makes you a turkey baster!

during my last year of school, however, we had an influx of african american students. it reaked havoc, and i had trouble understanding why. the black students disliked the white ones as much as the other way around. i am white, and i remember one particular day when a black female got agressive with me simply because i was sitting in her seat. then another day i found a notebook and when i looked inside to return it, it was filled with racial slurs against white people. and as far as the racist white kids in the school, the n-word had become a part of the everyday lexicon, and fights had broken out. i was very uncomfortable because not only did i dislike the racism on the part of the white students, i had trouble understanding why the black students disliked me also (just because i was white: keep in mind they were new students and i had never seen them before).

it was then that the town’s underlying racism became apparent. after telling my mother about it, she told me a story about how in my town a long time ago, a black family wanted to move in and the house they were building kept getting destroyed. it seemed like the racism in my town had never been very ignited, because we only had a few black students that had grown up with all of us. the racism didnt surface until there was an influx of black students to trigger it.

this sounds like a story from somewhere down south. but i live in a new jersey suburb.

(thank god im in college)