September 2009

We have a long way to go in race relations in this country

l3wis September 6, 2009 2Comments

I think some people believed that racism and predjudice would disappear overnight when Obama got elected. Yeah right.

It’s the little things that stick out when it comes to how far we have come and how far we have to go.

Yesterday while working, I had a middle-aged white couple from a major southern city make an astonishing comment to me. They said, “We love vacationing in South Dakota because there isn’t a lot of black people here.” Of course I was a little taken back about the comment. I commented that there is ‘black’ people who live here. I also told them when I visited their city a few years ago that I had no negative experience from the ‘blacks’ in their community. To which they replied, “Well you weren’t there when Obama won.”

As I told co-workers about this comment, many were shocked. But to be honest with you, I wasn’t really shocked at all. I am not naive, racism is exists in our country, and it’s out and it is proud, which is unfortunate.

Going to HS in a suburb of Seattle I learned a lot about tolerance, especially being a whitebread farmkid from SD. Most of my friends were Vietnamese American or African American or white trash punk rockers. I can tell you one thing I have learned, there is bad apples in all races, and there is also good people. As far as I am concerned the only people we should be scared of is rich, greedy Republicans, they are the ones destroying this country, not the ‘blacks’.