racism in america

wow, that title might be too strong for me. but it's what i've been thinking about all week. Sarah Palin is making veiled racist attacks on Obama, playing to the fears of voters who don't want a black man for president. Voters in some southern states are saying that if Obama is elected, the blacks will get "uppity." I hope (really really hard) that Obama is elected and then i hope we have four years of discussion about race and racism. it's time to move forward.

we left overt racism behind with the civil rights movement and have devolved into a subversive racism that is secret and silent and pervasive, but is never spoken about. yeah, i'm a white middle class woman, but i worked for years in South Central with young black men and women who had dropped out of high school and wanted that diploma - after time in gangs and in jails. does this qualify me to be an expert on race? no. but it means i have spoken to young people who feel so far removed from mainstream society that they operate in a different world and can't even imagine that they could be a part of the mainstream, that they can contribute.

Obama can go a long way to healing that without being too "scary" for most white folks. a dialogue on race, with lots of talking on all sides of the issue, can be painful and brutal and ultimately helpful and even, perhaps, uplifting. and it is so, so necessary.