Party Like It's 1979

Man, I've got to be better about writing regularly. My apologies to anyone who reads this on a regular basis. I have thoroughly chastised myself and will do better. I promise.

What sparked me to write on this day, though, is that in the last couple of weeks I have gotten notices that the 30 year reunion for my high school class in Southeast Texas is coming up this summer. (O.K. so I just dated myself badly. But oh well.) Anyway, the main reunion is this summer. Not sure if I will be going as frankly I'm not really into traveling halfway across the country to see some of these people who I have not talked to or seen in that long a time. My philosophy is that if we wanted to be in each others' lives we would probably have been in communication without such an event. There are a couple of friends from my graduating class I still stay in touch with, and we do so without a planned, once in a while, event.

But here is how this whole thing relates to "No More Race." There is a second 30 year reunion planned for the fall, this one for the "Ebony Class," i.e. the blacks who were in this particular class. A separate event altogether. Mind you, the Ebony Reunion does not mean that black alumni will not be going to the main event this summer. But I am sure Whites and others will not be invited to the Ebony Reunion. You have to understand, first that this kind of separateness happened way back when I was in school with these folks. I believe there were separate parties and graduation events back in 1979. And I do remember there being an Ebony Club. But frankly I am just amazed that here we are in 2009 and we're now talking about people who are in their mid-40's, and we're still talking about the idea of blacks organizing a separate event for blacks.

I remember that back then I was opposed to such separateness and didn't partake in any event that excluded any group. And obviously I haven't changed in that regard. I mean what would that mean for my family for example and my Mexican-American wife? Would she be welcome? I know people think differently in Texas than they do in some other places, but I am still amazed. And don't get me wrong, certainly there is a place for black organizations, say an NAACP or a 100 Black Men type group. I am not denouncing such things. But the difference is, those are organizations committed to social change and the betterment of a group of people. That is wholly different than saying we just want to be with people like us for our social event. Clearly in the case of the Ebony Reunion, it is based on a feeling that blacks need or want an event that excludes anyone but them, an event I guess where they can let their hair down without whites or others around.

Wow.

The more things change in some ways, the more they stay the same in others, and this is particularly true in certain places where 2009 is just like 1979.

A White Perspective On Racism In The Age of Obama

My friend over at the blog, Zen's Sekai I - By Land, sent me this article. It is very interesting and tackles head on the issue of racism, from the perspective of a white American. Here it is:

By the way, Andrew M. Manis, the author, is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia and wrote this for an editorial in the Macon Telegraph.

Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It?

For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?
Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."
Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.
But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?
I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?
How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?
Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan: First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.
Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome."
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It takes a Village to protect our President!!!

Not Half or a Part

This is a very interesting article and perspective from a woman who is part Japanese and part Afican-American. I like that she considers herself not half and half but all and all. I hadn't thought of it that way. Makes me rethink a bit. Check it out here.