Racism in the World of Politics: An excerpt from the lecture, The Pain of Racism

As noted in my last Blog posting, I would like to present the existence of racism in the world of politics within our own nation.

Indeed, many of us ,since childhood, as described in the lyrics from the song (You have to be Carefully Taught) from the production of SOUTH PACIFIC,have been taught by our families and peers to resent people of color or facial and religious differences ,Blacks, Jews, Japanesse. Remarks and, at times, violence and omission from organizations was prevalent over the past decades. Currently, the media has reported on “racial profiling”and politicians have engaged in racial slurs and inappropriate statements in political speeches.

As depicted  above, in the photo of Senator Harry Reid, he is one of those colleagues of President Obama who has engaged in a racial slur. As written in my novel, FAMILY SECRETS: A JOURNEY OF GOOD AND EVIL, such politicians have racially inflicted pain upon those with a different pigmentation even the President of the United States. I will cite a paragraph from this book;

“Ironically, the next morning, when Brandy was reading the newspaper, she came across an article that reported on incident involving President Obama. It was stated that during a 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Harry Reid described Obama as a “light-skinned African American with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”. The news article went on to report that Senator Reid apologized to Obama, and the president issued a statement accepting the apology and emphasized that the matter was closed. Brandy was shocked and devastated by this reported incident, which demonstrated such racism even to the President of the United States. She believed that the president must have experienced significant pain and humiliation for being the the subject of such hateful comments by a fellow colleague due to the color of his skin. Brandy reminisced about the lyrics from SOUTH PACIFIC, “you have to be carefully taught”.

It is hoped that this post does heighten the awareness of the fact that racism is not a concept from the past but alive and actively well  and alive even within our political system. What is your feeling as noted in the address of this Blog? Please do let us hear your voice on this post.

The next post will focus on racism and the Holacost with graphic descriptions of the outcome of hatred and violence by those who have been carefully taught.