Prejudice

Recently I’ve been exposed to a lot of talk on racism. One would have thought this topic would have died along time ago, or at least I did. The Civil Rights movement started in 1930. This year is 2010. Shouldn’t we be done with this by now? In my thinking: yes. In reality: no.
Frequently, I have students come up to me asking for help with their papers. Some of the topics they have are on leadership. They have to say what good leadership is, and then give an example of a historical figure who was a good leader. Of course, there were students who came up with papers about Obama.
For the record, I am not a racist. I treat everyone the same, just as if I were blind. I wasn’t born early enough to know that people of different skin color were weird, or whatever, and it was “wrong” to hang out with them. I had a group of friends who were Hispanic, African-American, Indian, etc. I have nothing against people who are different.
But, these students came up to me with their papers, and it was clear to see that they were choosing their examples of leaders based on their nationality. They would pick our new president, say he is a good leader, and not give any reason why. All they could say was that he went against the odds, got a good education, and was elected president. None of that proves that he was a good leader. The purpose of that essay was not fulfilled. Their reason for picking him was because they wanted to boost his achievement as the first black president.
This subject came up again the other day when I was speaking with a friend. She was talking about how the treatment kind of flip-flopped. White people are practically crucified now for saying something against a black person, because people will flip-out and think that the person is racist. She is also not racist. She is like a mother to all around her. She said that she’s sorry for the way that the history went; however, there’s nothing she can do about history. She doesn’t have a time machine, and can’t go back in time and stop it. All she can do now is work on the present. She does this by treating everyone the same. She also feels that she shouldn’t hang because of other people’s mistakes.
I know that the past was horrible. I’m not trying to make light that this was a problem. People were treated as humans should never be treated. However, the past can’t be changed. All we can do is live in the present and work for a better future. Isn’t it time that this issue was over? Can’t both blacks and whites just drop it and move on? There are a lot of Christians on both sides, claiming to know the Bible and live by it. However, if this is true, why is there so little forgiveness and forgetfulness surrounding these Christians?
The purpose of this blog was not to offend anyone or make light of anyone’s past wounds. What I’m trying to say is that we should have been past this a long time ago. People are people. Do we need to make all mankind blind to overlook these small differences?