By now, most of you have probably heard rumblings of this CNN article, and it inspired me to write this blog. The first thing I thought about after reading this is the history of the United States. This country was founded by European settlers who drove out Native Americans from their land and into reservations, and the land was worked by African slaves. I'm not mentioning this in hopes of inciting racial hatred; I say this to point out one simple fact that a friend on Twitter mentioned, "The U.S. was built for white people to succeed."
White people have long been afforded the opportunity to be as successful as they wanted to be, and have had the luxury of getting that success largely by the color of their skin if so chose to attain success that way. Now we live in a time where the race truly does go to the swift and not to one with the certain skin color. I remember a time when some of my own brothers and sisters would cry about "the man holding us down" or "we can't get a break because of the system".
The truth is that although racism still overtly and covertly exists, the oppression behind that racism has long been defeated. Just as assuredly that there's a white person somewhere still calling black people niggers, there's a black person somewhere still calling white people devils. The fact is that we all have the ability to rise above any racial hatred and ignorance simply by the work we are willing to do. For anyone who feels "racially oppressed" in this day and age, you are only being lazy and rather than work to rise above your current status, you choose to cry in the hopes of being given what you should be working for.
The bottom line is that in these United States, racism still exists, but there is no more oppression, so get over yourself, and get on with the work you need to do in order to achieve success...or get passed by.
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Your being too simplistic here and painting with a very broad brush. Racial oppression is still rampant all over the world. What makes that infinitely ironic is the simple fact that there are NO races but one; the human race.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I will add that oppression has now become much less discriminatory. It has finally boiled down to outright class warfare and is simply a matter of the ultra-rich and powerful oppressing everyone else, regardless of ethnicity on either side of the battle.
While it's true that "laziness" might keep some people further down than they otherwise might be, I disagree completely when you say, "...we all have the ability to rise above..."
and "...in these united states...there is no more oppression..."
That is simply outright delusional. This country is on the verge of third world status and if that ain't oppressive, I don't know what is.
@ Richard William Posner - Unfortunately, I can't speak in definite terms for oppression on a worldwide level, but I can assume that it does exist in many parts of the world. I made the statement that while racism still exists in the U.S., racial oppression doesn't.
ReplyDeleteOppression due to the haves & have nots is a different story. Even with me being able to admit that the haves flaunt what they have and wield the power to control the nation's wealth, I don't think it's impossible for a have not to be able to rise in status.