I remember listening to people saying how the election of Obama was signaling the end of election after the election and thinking to myself “oh no! I really hope we don’t let this lead to an apathy about racism.”

I am reminded of a speech Bob Dylan did shortly after Kennedy was assassinated where he stated that he saw some of himself, and some of the times in Lee Harvey Oswald. I find this to be an incisive comment about how we move forward, which is to see how we really aren’t that different from the worst, to own it and to actively work against it.

As long as there are people who believe the problem is in those others, be it whites that see it in “those racists,” minorities, etc, we perpetuate the very thing that leads to racism, an us vs. them thinking that says somehow “I am different than them. I am better than them.”

Growing up, I would never have thought of myself as a racist, it was easy, I lived in an almost all white farm town. I didn’t really realize the racist tendencies in myself until a couple years ago, working on a strawberry farm with all hispanic workers. As I worked with these workers, almost immediately I found myself having to deal with stereotypes of young hispanic men being thugs, and my being distrustful towards migrant workers. Mind you, there’s no way before this experience I would have even thought of myself as being anywhere near racist. But that experience was very enlightening for me, because it informed me that at some level there’s a root in racism that is a fear of the other, anyone who is different than me. Only when I name that in myself, and confront it, do I have a chance to make any progress on it.

What does “American” mean to you?

We are all hyphenated americans. It’s just that white people, through the power that they wield, have been able to shorten their moniker to “American.” That which is in power becomes the norm. In essence, whites have been able to naturalize that whichisn’t naturally occuring at all (white people in America). Instead of “Americans” being native americans, native americans are now “indians” (ironic given where India is, no?) and whites of european descent are now Americans.

Really, whites residents in the state of America should refer to themselves as white-americans. Maybe that’s the start of ending racism in America? Putting aside modern day manifest destiny and realizing we are, mostly, all immigrants ourselves?

You say that “Racisim will not be over until minorities choose for it to be over. Until personal responsibility is taken for their own well being and they refuse to be defined by the color of their skin this battle will rage on.”

But racism isn’t merely about a simple self recognition of difference. If black people suddenly pretended to be white, that would not change their skin color, their hair, the shape of their noses. That would not prevent white people from seeing them as different, nor would it prevent white people from acting on this differences.

If we examine in isolation the phenomenon of racism between blacks and whites we can clearly see that it wasn’t the black man who chose the path he was put on today. It’s not about a black man saying he’s different. It was about whites proclaiming how different they were. Slavery wasn’t a celebration of blackness. Jim Crow wasn’t the forerunner of Kwanza. Whites used their technological prowess to enforce a difference. It was the white man of the time who claimed he was different and that it was his right to keep slaves, displace native peoples from their lands, and create an empire that stretched, politically, from the East Coast, all the way to the Philippines.

Truth be told, if racism was caused only by minorities talking about being minorities, racism would have been over a long time ago. It’s the same for poverty right? Maybe the Holocaust too? which was explicity racial. The killing fields of Cambodia? The Sabra and Shatila massacres? The Rape of Nanking? Sudan? The Bosnian ethnic cleansings? Apartheid?

If the victims had just stood up and said “I’m mad as H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks and I’m not going to take it anymore!” none of those tragic events would have happened?

I’m afraid not.

Racism is the combination of differentiation based on outward physical attributes combined with an element of unequal power. Yes, personal decisions are a part of that matrix, but it also matters whose personal decision it is.

A Waffen SS soldier holds the muzzle of his STG44 to the temple of an eight year old Jewish boy. who’s personal decision matters more? The boy? or the soldier? Do you believe that any amount of association that boy tries to make with that SS trooper will matter? “But sir! I’m a good nazi! I support the party–bang! Over. Finished. One more step on the road toward the “Final Solution.”

It’s the same in America. If a white boss refuses to hire a black person for any reason, how much “I’m white” is going to convince that white boss? How much “I’m an american too?” on the part of that black man will change the white boss’s mind?

What if someone told you that minorities couldn’t be Americans and couldn’t partake the greater prosperity and equality of America precisely because their skin was colored? That is the essence of racism.

So, you see, if the victim of racism had the choice to overturn racism, racism wouldn’t be an issue. Don’t blame the victim.

You are right about one thing though: change will come when a choice is made. Specifically change will come when everyone (both those with power and those without), together, chose to put away racial differences as a method of social, political, economic, and spiritual selection. Only then, will anyone truly be allowed to live in the the house, the neighborhood, the city, and the country he or she choses.

I have heard that Tim Wise has written a new book called “Between Barack and a Hard Spot.” He made a comment the last time I heard him speak suggesting that the very worst possible outcome of electing our first Black president would be folks thinking racism doesn’t exist any more. It is very dangerous to assume that a statistical outlier represents the experiences of the rest of the people in a group. I think the most important thing is the realization about how complex racism is. We hope we are making progress but many need to do a lot more learning. When Cornel West spoke in Portland he commented on the dilusion of progress. We often blindly believe that the only direction things will go is toward good. But we can take two steps forward and 3 back and the monster we are trying to get a hold of can completely morph into something else. We chase the traces left but the real thing eludes us.

In my family there was a lot of crying on January 20th. It just kind of rose up out of the people I know and love. We all had someone that we wished were alive to see that day. One very strong and committed activist I know, a Black woman in whose face I often see a great weariness, simply said that she has started to notice that people look her in the eye more often now. She feels like she has suddenly appeared.

Let’s remain vigilant while we also breath in this moment. I think it will strengthen us for the long haul.

The question you posed sums it up well: how many neighborhoods would celebrate in community or appreciate in value over the arrival of a black family now that there is a black president? This is just one evidence of many that racism is much much too deep to be absolved over Obama’s election. My main concern is this: we must still understand that we as individuals as part of the bigger systems (in our church, schools, neighborhoods, etc…) as still very much responsible for a continued, intentional journey to reconcile minorities with majorities, and it is deeply destructive to sit back and act as if we are no longer part of the problem now that there is a black man out there who we call “president”. Yes this shows a glimmer of hope, but my earnest prayer is that this lights the fire behind us to propel us with more intensity and vigor to love our neighbor, to serve minorities and allow them to serve us, to listen to one another, to earnestly seek solutions, rather than let the fire die because change is now no longer needed. This is the time when we must be encouraged and ignited for more change, not celebrate the consummation of a problem that once was and is no longer.