[Kamikaze] Let the Chickens Roost
by Kamikaze
March 26, 2008
It appears that the chickens did indeed come home to roost. No, not in the Rev. Jeremiah Wright sense. Not even the Malcolm X sense. These "chickens" are a direct product of America's passive attitudes toward race relations. Its longstanding dismissal of the obvious problems between folks of different hues and different histories has now come back to bite it on its hind parts.
Ours is a country that has always believed, "If we don't talk about it ... it will go away.'' But as is always been the case with festering sores, if you don't treat them, they only get worse. So much so that it will eventually burst, and what we find inside may be too much for any of us to handle.
Growing up in Mississippi is not an easy task. The state that I have so much love for has always been shackled by its divisive past. There have always been unspoken truths that blacks and whites dare not utter. There are places that you dare not go, people that you dare not be seen with. Mississippi just "is" how it "is," and you dare not buck the system.
However, we've reached the tipping point. If we don't stop now and begin having the uncomfortable conversations about our racial prejudices, we may never rise above our state's (and country's) racist stigma. All the statistical data and historical context in the world means nothing until both black and white folks sit across from one another and say what they really feel.
Sen. Barack Obama had no choice but to make the speech he made last week. Destiny and good common sense called for it. Obama is the first candidate that I have seen in my lifetime to amply address racial prejudice from both sides of the coin. And it, indeed, made some folks squirm. You know, the kind of squirming that a parent does during that first "sex" talk with their kids. And that's a good thing.
White folks have been forced to look at their own fears and stereotypes, and black folks have been called to look at their insecurities and anger. Deal with it. White folks are so utterly horrified of being called racist that they mute themselves and quietly vent behind closed doors and back corners of ritzy restaurants. Black folks feel as if this country's government has ignored their anger so they fail to acknowledge their shortcomings, responding to vitriol with vitriol.
Look, white folks, the playing field has not been and still isn't level.
White ladies still cower in corners when I get on the elevator at my gym, and some of you still think that Farish Street is dangerous. Black folks, though we aren't side by side at that starting line of life, still have great opportunities to grab that brass ring. We don't help the divide when we play the race card every time we don't get our way. It sure doesn't help when some black kids don't think being smart is cool.
It's high time we clear the air. Now is a good a time as any to exorcise the prejudices on both sides. The question is: Who will have the grapefruits to do it first?
And that's the truth ... sho-nuff.
© Jackson Free Press, Inc.
