Letters to the Editor

• How Do We Move Forward?

  [Read the article: Is race dying? ]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I appreciate this article’s optimistic point of view on racial progress, but like the others who have posted here, I must disagree with the conclusions. Yet, this article has opened a space for dialogue. And that is where the real value is in this. I am looking to further this conversation productively. I know King’s Dream as well as the next person, but that was articulated decades ago. I want to see a goal in our contemporary conversation on race that allows the entire nation to take ownership of “the problem,” and therefore invest in the “solution.” So please, let’s talk about it.

  Above all I think we need clarity to move forward. What exactly is this “problem” we want to solve? Is it that there are too many black urban poor? Is it that “they” are disproportionately effected by detrimental social conditions? Is the rest of the nation is apathetic? Is the media’s portrayal of the situation distressingly inadequate? Perhaps it is all of these and more (I think it is).

  And that’s an awful lot to talk (and think) about.

  So why don’t we lay out the problems, one by one, talk about them. Listen to each other. And then see what kind of solution we want, where we want “race” to go. I beleive this is happening all over the country at times, but it isn't systematic or widespread. That has to change.

  Of course, there’s a long history for all of this race mess, and that should definitely be part of the discussion, but we cannot dwell there to move forward. We’ve talked race to death, and it’s easy (and human) to get very upset about it. But we have to have an objective in this ongoing conversation or it is wasted effort.

  So let’s talk about how these problems are problems. Let’s talk about how we can use our resources to deal with all of this. Let’s talk. Let’s listen. Let’s learn. And let’s do.

  -Derek McPhatter

  Permalink Monday, November 26, 2007 08:14 PM