Letters to the Editor
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the letters section of Salon is extraordinary in the internet world
There is no other place I've found on the web that I feel like I'm in an intelligent discussion with thoughtful people as here.
On that note, calgodot what a great post!
extraordinary. Have you read the book by Jonathon Kozol on apartheid in education? I am convinced that we need to change the country systematically at the education level first in order to tap into our full potential as a nation. The tricky part is the give and take...if there is one pie then white people may not want their slice to be smaller (As AKA once succinctly put it) even if it makes things more "equal." We need to tap into civic pride as a nation in order to stop squabbling with one another about what we need to do to create true change that is good for all of us and necessary for all of us. So see you on the beach (I'm kidding...education is a field I'm planning to return to...this issue matters to me on a gut level that I hope never disappears into some unasked for scrim of privilege...)
And Susan Sunflower, thank-you for your thoughtful post as well. I wonder, for curiosity's sake, which part of the country you're from?
You touch on many things that resonate to me. Have you ever read the book "Black Like me" by John Howard Griffen? It is a memoir written by a white journalist in the 1950's who takes a drug to make his complexion darker, shaves his head and takes the identity of a black man and travels through the South. The most haunting moment of the book is when he catches his reflection in a mirror and thinks "I don't like the looks of that guy."
I read it recently and it keeps resonating as I watch this election unfold....we as a society are catching glimpses of our own reflection in the mirror....and it isn't always a pretty image.
How do we reach across these barriers to talk to people who are convinced that racism no longer exists (except perhaps in Rev. Wright's pulpit)? Is it worth it to try to explain, or should we encourage people to vote for the candidate of change and think about racism--later?