6.13.2005

Give Me Liberty or, good God, at least some iced tea and a damp wash cloth

In Philadelphia for the week. Hot. Really hot. I’m starting to wonder if in the original Declaration of Independence there’s a section about how it’s so God Damn hot and these English are just getting on everyone’s nerves and, Christ, I’m sweating like a pig and it’s somebody’s fault and these Limeys are starting to just piss me off! Which they then, wisely, deleted in favor of the bits taxation without representation and so forth.
One thing that is really hard – Living on the west coast we forget just how bad racial segregation is, not because we’re enlightened, of course, but because we don’t have to deal with it as much (except in regards to Hispanics, and we’ve got all kinds of ways to rationalize marginalizing them). With one or two exceptions, every single business establishment we’ve gone into, the low-level staff is entirely black, and every single manager is white. I’m sure living here it becomes easy to not see it, since it’s simply the way it is, but when place after place you see only black people until someone has a question for the manager and poof! Suddenly there’s a white guy! Man, it’s hard.


Perhaps the hardest thing is that in many ways, there’s nothing we (white people) can do about it. I don’t mean this in a helpless, socially-impotent way, I just mean it would be arrogant and, ultimately, self-defeating to think we’re going to "save" other races from us. This mindset is merely a mutation of the White-Man’s Burden that has done such wonders for the world. The affirmative action debate has been ground into farce through demagoguery and buzz-phrases which is too bad, because it allows us to simply ignore the issue while feeling like we have an informed opinion and are doing something about it.

This is the inherent flaw in affirmative action, but when black communities do galvanize and form organizations, etc…well…we demonize the leaders, and usually kill them. I just wish there would be some event that could bring about the next Dr. King, the next Malcolm X. And I pray that when it happens, many of us are able to support their efforts, even though it will mean erosion of our power. Equalization is an inevitability – either through mutual growth, or by force. People don’t give up power, as a general rule, it must be taken. Liberty can’t be granted, it must be declared. Even if it has to be declared while standing in a pool or, or even bathtub full of cool water to avoid delirium from the heat.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, I just got back from NY... and now that I think of it, there were a lot of blacks (and other "minorities") in the security guard, or 'lower' jobs.

11:57 AM  

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