Colour-Blind
It's past time and a moral victory that a far greater percentage of people everywhere appear to be more colour-blind than ever. We represent, after all, one race of humans upon this earth. The facade of our physical anomalies representing superior or inferior status deserves the smothering death it has undergone in peoples' perceptions.
Despite the still-simmering prejudices on all sides that persist perniciously. There are yet times when one wonders if basic human nature will ever fully submit to the understanding of equality among peoples. We have this fundamental tendency to set up barriers between ourselves on the basis of insignificant, perceived "differences".
But look how far we've come in North America. Finally catching up to some degree to the northern European countries who seem long ago to have vanquished colour barriers.
Laws were enacted to protect equality rights of persons of colour. People of goodwill assembled in protest against the inequalities between Anglo-Saxons types and visible minority peoples. The lack of justice, the supreme unfairness of relegating colour to an inferior status, finally offended the majority sufficiently that they rebelled.
Sad to say, we needed a whole lot of help to get to that stage. We needed a person of great courage and determination to dedicate himself to the role of defender-of-equality-in-colour. If it were not for the appearance of people who devoted themselves to the liberation of the black community in North America, to the upholding of the civil rights movement, we'd still be languishing in a state of apartheid.
The imagery of Barack Obama visiting Ebeneezer Baptist Church left nothing to the imagination. While he presents himself as being beyond colour, he also, in reality, is imbued with the history of colour, and as such is one with Martin Luther King, Jr., who brought colour to recognition and honour in a social and political system that degraded it.
What is equally hopeful is the fact that African-Americans are no longer monolithic in their allegiances. For while many in the community will support Mr. Obama simply because he is black and his potential as a candidate promises a kind of redemption beyond hope for blacks, there are those too who look beyond colour and select for other reasons.
Like the perception of past performances of another candidate who is not black, but whose experience and genuine concern for all of her countrymen expresses equality and confidence. Some in the community think divisively, some wholesomely collectively, and others think of the political process beyond colour, like Dr. Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Whose statement that: "This was not and is not and will not become a race-based decision for me", in explaining his position in supporting Mr. Obama's political Democratic opponent. "I respect Senator Obama, I applaud him and I love him as my brother, but a vote for Hillary is not a vote against Barack Obama or any community." And that's an expression of true social and political enlightenment.
Another generation, another defender, to build upon rights established through the sweat, tears and lives taken in defence of civil rights. Today America has Barack Obama, a true step up from earlier incarnations of deliverers out of the valley of separation. He presents himself as an American, a patriot, a colour-blind politician for a new millennium. He has vision and presence, intelligence and integrity.
Whether that can or will translate to effective political lawmaking and governance is something else again. The very fact of his presence, his empowerment, his acceptance by voters of all backgrounds and persuasions can only spell victory in a moral arena of collective self-respect. That he, like Senator Clinton, can persuade voters that he represents their best interests beyond race, is a victory for everyone.
His message cannot be denied: "We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics."
And more power to him, and through him, ourselves.
Despite the still-simmering prejudices on all sides that persist perniciously. There are yet times when one wonders if basic human nature will ever fully submit to the understanding of equality among peoples. We have this fundamental tendency to set up barriers between ourselves on the basis of insignificant, perceived "differences".
But look how far we've come in North America. Finally catching up to some degree to the northern European countries who seem long ago to have vanquished colour barriers.
Laws were enacted to protect equality rights of persons of colour. People of goodwill assembled in protest against the inequalities between Anglo-Saxons types and visible minority peoples. The lack of justice, the supreme unfairness of relegating colour to an inferior status, finally offended the majority sufficiently that they rebelled.
Sad to say, we needed a whole lot of help to get to that stage. We needed a person of great courage and determination to dedicate himself to the role of defender-of-equality-in-colour. If it were not for the appearance of people who devoted themselves to the liberation of the black community in North America, to the upholding of the civil rights movement, we'd still be languishing in a state of apartheid.
The imagery of Barack Obama visiting Ebeneezer Baptist Church left nothing to the imagination. While he presents himself as being beyond colour, he also, in reality, is imbued with the history of colour, and as such is one with Martin Luther King, Jr., who brought colour to recognition and honour in a social and political system that degraded it.
What is equally hopeful is the fact that African-Americans are no longer monolithic in their allegiances. For while many in the community will support Mr. Obama simply because he is black and his potential as a candidate promises a kind of redemption beyond hope for blacks, there are those too who look beyond colour and select for other reasons.
Like the perception of past performances of another candidate who is not black, but whose experience and genuine concern for all of her countrymen expresses equality and confidence. Some in the community think divisively, some wholesomely collectively, and others think of the political process beyond colour, like Dr. Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Whose statement that: "This was not and is not and will not become a race-based decision for me", in explaining his position in supporting Mr. Obama's political Democratic opponent. "I respect Senator Obama, I applaud him and I love him as my brother, but a vote for Hillary is not a vote against Barack Obama or any community." And that's an expression of true social and political enlightenment.
Another generation, another defender, to build upon rights established through the sweat, tears and lives taken in defence of civil rights. Today America has Barack Obama, a true step up from earlier incarnations of deliverers out of the valley of separation. He presents himself as an American, a patriot, a colour-blind politician for a new millennium. He has vision and presence, intelligence and integrity.
Whether that can or will translate to effective political lawmaking and governance is something else again. The very fact of his presence, his empowerment, his acceptance by voters of all backgrounds and persuasions can only spell victory in a moral arena of collective self-respect. That he, like Senator Clinton, can persuade voters that he represents their best interests beyond race, is a victory for everyone.
His message cannot be denied: "We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics."
And more power to him, and through him, ourselves.
Labels: Canada/US Relations, Crisis Politics, Justice
posted by Pieface | 5:48 PM
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