African American republican candidate hopeful Herman Cain recently said in a CNN interview that nowadays racism affects African Americans very little. He stated, "People sometimes hold themselves back because they want to use racism as an excuse for them not being able to achieve what they want to achieve."
It's hard to fathom that this Georgia-born black man truly believes this.
Racism is still a touchy subject, especially in politics. The fact of the matter is this country was built on racism and acts that stem from it, like slavery, sharecropping and segregation. It is how this nation became the super power it has become, whether it was using slave labor from blacks or more recently, paying Mexicans and other races under the table. Regardless of if it were blacks picking cotton and doing farm work, working as sharecroppers making someone else rich, or building the White House as slaves, blacks literally built this country under racist conditions.
Now, some generations later, while whites have been buying houses and land for years, establishing assets and bank accounts from such things, some Blacks are just starting to make progress while others are generations behind because they were left with nothing. They have nothing while learning in a school that’s purpose is to develop them as workers, not entrepreneurs.
However, the crazy thing nowadays is how most politicians running for major offices or sitting in major political positions seem inclined to act as if racism does not exist in this country. In 1998, President Bill Clinton stopped short of apologizing for slavery while in Africa and yet was hit with criticism from the left and right back home in the states when he returned.
President Obama has almost wholeheartedly stayed away from racial talks since he’s been president. He also stayed away from racial issues while running for office. Many of his critics today don't like the fact that he hasn't directly done anything in the black community since he's been in office.
Today we have another African American presidential candidate, Herman Cain, who told Piers Morgan on CNN that he prefers to be called Black because African goes back too far in his history. He wants to let white Americans know from the start that he’s totally safe to them by dismissing the fact that racism exist today.
Has Herman Cain taken a look at our public school systems in the inner cities which are majority black? Has he compared the books and literature they receive as opposed to what the white schools receive and are taught? Has Cain stopped into the average county jail in our bigger cities in this country on a Friday or Saturday Night and seen how many Blacks are there for little of nothing as opposed to Whites? Has he paid any attention to Department of Justice statistics which state that in 2007 "The custody incarceration for black males were 4,618 per 100,000," while "White males were 773 per 100,000."
According to the American Journal of Public Health, the highest number of race based housing discrimination complaints in this country’s history was this passed decade. Not the 60's, not the 70's. What world does Herman Cain live in? He is totally ignoring some of the biggest issues in the African American community. Is this what you have to do to be taken serious as a republican candidate?
The saddest thing is that since Herman Cain has stepped up and started talking this foolish rhetoric, he's been lifted into the forefront of the Republican Party. Is it possible that he could eventually split the Black vote between him and Obama while giving someone else an opportunity to win the presidency? Is this what his backers really want?
© Copyright 2010 by The Informer, Inc.
P.O. Box 564, Macon, • GA 31201 * Ofc: (478) 745-7265 * Email: gainformer@yahoo.com