Carol12:48PMNov 13th 2008

I have 28 kids on my high school/middle school run in the morning. All year, there has been a great atmosphere, everybody talking and laughing together..not even a hint of racism by either group. Morning after the election, the 6 black students board the bus with fists in the air, laughing and loudly yelling “black power, black power, you all need to move to the back of the bus, we’re in charge now..yes we can, yes we can”. I picked up my microphone and in general told the entire bus that I would not tolerate any demonstrations of political or special group interests, and would write up the next one that opened their mouth that day. It ended, but so did the raport among the kids and now there is tension so thick that I’m waiting for the fist fights to break out. Those six kids are not talking to me either and when they board the bus, they “accidentally” bang into me now in the driver seat. My six black students now strutt down the aisle, sit together away from the rest and all I see while I’m driving is the stare downs between the white and black students. Had McCain won, this would not be happening but because Obama won, the black students now feel they are entitled to bully everyone in their path. This tension is spreading into the community as well.I personally think Michelle Obama set this pace with her attitude toward white people and it has spread like a malignancy.

You don’t need to be black to be able to do that, just not be really naive about race.

My white friend knew just as easily as I did that Rashida Jones (this was before we knew her name or father) was probably part black.

But as for why black people feel the way they do, it has nothing to do with some BS conspiracy theory about trying to become leader.

Part of it is insecurity. We see white features as better than our own so we are quick to claim people with these features as being part of us.

Part of it is history. If you had an openly interracial relationship, you pretty much weren’t welcomed in the white parts of america.

Part of it is expectation. I doubt people see obama for the first time and say “he’s white.” if you are a person of color in america, then you are treated as not being white. period.

Part of it is political. Most blacks are of mixed heritage to any degree and dicing ourselves up even further just dilutes our political power to fight the problems we all have to face as a whole.

Six weeks ago I heard a would-be leader tell the 7,000 person congregation of an African American Chicago church “One drop of Black blood is more powerful than all the White blood in the world.” When I complained to an African American from another church, they said “Oh, we’ve heard that all our lives.”

I think African American leaders have created the Black-White crisis in order to increase their success as leaders. Leaders in every kind of group do similar things.

This is something that I think is hard for white people to get their minds around. It’s a point I’d assume Arana would understand because she has hispanic heritage, but obviously she doesn’t. Race mixing isn’t new. MOST BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA ARE OF MIXED HERITAGE. Maybe not a parent, maybe it’s a grandparent or a great grandparent, but the fact is, the vast majority of blacks in America can trace their ancestry to places other than Africa. Thomas Jefferson’s indiscretions aren’t rare in black history.

But now all of a sudden i’m supposed to pretend Obama isn’t black like Harold Ford jr. because Ford has two black parents? Even though the guy has green eyes, light skin, and wavy hair?

Like I said, I’d figure that a person like Arana would get the point because she has heritage with an ethnic group that is fundamentally of mixed racial heritage. Trying to shoehorn race into an objective concept is what causes problems. Whether it’s telling people they are black, or telling people they aren’t.

Anyone? Bueller…Ferris Bueller?

The irony, the social impact and policy implications of that truthful slip of the tongue was lost on Reagan, and I supect they are lost on conservative blowhards pumping each other into a frenzy like insecure frat boys.

The point is (to paraphrase Carter’s retort), there are Americans who ALWAYS knew there was a race problem. I’ll grant you all the black and brown miscreants,UNQUALIFIED (as opposed to the qulaified, competitive) Affirmitive Action hires (statistically, white women are biggest beneficiaries. Furthermorequotas are mostly filled in entry level jobs, not Ivory Towers), welfare fakers and malcontents, and there would still be a hundred fold more examples of real, ungodly, unAmerican terrorism and institutional racism against people of color.

Forget slavery, forget the 1960s,it’s that much harder for anyone TODAY the darker their skin or the more negroid their features are. That doesn’t mean that a minority can’t make it, rather, because the USA is the land of oppotunity one just needs to accept that true game changing opportunity comes harder to folks who don’t look like the previous 43 Presidents.

I am so tired of guys like “OBAMA IS A FAKE” being born on third base and acting like they hit a triple. Just reading these comments resigns me to the fact that even with a half white figurehead in the White House, I am never going to be percieved as “fellow, equal American” by the likes of this crowd.