Overshooting the mark on race

Martin Luther King Jr. was a visionary.

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are stationary. The only progression I see in their future is an attempt to either victimize the black man, or push him into a superiority race with the white – neither are things Martin Luther King Jr. advocated at all.

Dr. King spoke of two children of different race playing together. Together. Not separated by a fight of racial difference, even within a pretext of pressing toward racial harmony.

I don’t think racism can ever truly be wiped from the planet. For example, good people, white or black, in an argument with a person of a different race, will often grope for any differentiating factor they can belittle, often using racist remarks as fuel for the fight.

Are they racist? I would say the majority are not. I’d say it’s simply a man in a fight grabbing whatever tool he can to overcome the other, no matter how “politically incorrect,” or even futile, it may seem at the time.

My point is not that we should say racial division is not worth overcoming. A man is a man, regardless of his pigmentation, but if we sqwak so loudly when someone does something racist, does it not further racial divides? It rather works better as a parent correcting a child quietly, teaching them the error of their ways, and just-as-quietly correcting by advocating an apology.

In other words, there should have been few actual parties in the Imus fiasco. The offender, the target, and the monetarily affected – such as sponsors who would lose money due to his thoughtless words. I, joe schmo from round the corner need not hear Sharpton or Jackson explode, nor the news displaying every last detail when we have American service members fighting for the rights of women overseas not to be sexually mutilated at birth, among other things.

I fear Dr. King would weep to see what has become of his vision. This isn’t racial harmony. It’s a quiet standoff in a race war. And it’s not between whites and blacks, but segregationists and everyone else who’s already gotten over it – white or black.

Johnathan Cross
Marietta