Who are the Racists Now?

The NAACP has invited the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to deliver the keynote address at their Freedom Fund Dinner, their biggest annual fund-raising event. Tara Wall has written about this in a 15 April 2008 Washington Times OpEd. This venerable African-American organization is apparently very interested in and tolerant of this black separatist, anti-white, anti-Middle Class values, and anti-American clergyman. It is in fact only rational to say that he is a committed racist. How odd that the NAACP, supposedly committed to ending racism, is so tolerant and interested in his version of racism. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is certainly not going to show them how to end racism in America.

In fact, it is hard not to take this as clear evidence that the primary pool of racism in America today is in the black American community. Or is that in the African-American anti-American community? This is a case in which a community has primarily to heal its own faults if it is to be accepted by those it hates with open arms. After all, no one wants to embrace someone who hates them. If you really want to be embraced, you must set aside your hatred. Then, you may indeed be of sufficiently good character that someone of another race will be more interested in your character and able to see your value as a person than concerned that your race implies an intent to do harm. No one chooses to sleep with a viper. Neither can most people find good reason to want to have a viper for a neighbor or a colleague at work. On the other hand, it is easy to look past someone's race when you are confident that they wish good health, personal security, and wealth for everyone willing to live a civilized, productive life.

The only route to eliminating racism in America is a two-way street. Racism will always be a major problem if any one or two races believe they are entitled to hate another race. Everyone of every race is obligated by any rational ethics to judge everyone on the basis of their personal character, unless too many people of a given race are racist for this to be possible. If the majority of a given race are racist, then it may become too dangerous and impractical to expend the time and effort needed to learn enough about the individual character of someone of that race to put oneself in a position to make judgments on that basis. If you want to be judged for your individual character then you cannot indulge in hatred of another race. There must also be a willingness to suspend constant suspicion and a tendency to believe that other races are constantly conspiring against your own race. Hatred, constant suspicion, and a too ready tendency to believe in conspiracy theories are signs of a deficiency of self-confidence and self-esteem.

I believe most European-Americans are inclined to judge people of other races by their individual character. There is just too much value in people of good character to shun them as potential friends, as neighbors, and as co-workers simply because someone is of another race. It is past time when African-Americans should have acquired enough self-confidence in their abilities and productivity to no longer believe that European-Americans are able or interested in suppressing them. It is time for African-Americans, where it applies, to stop acting like children who are simply against everything that their parents stand for. After all, are they not adults now also? If so, then it is time to act like adults. It is also time for European-Americans to get over a sense of guilt, where it applies, and start expecting that all African-American adults will act like self-empowered adults. Racism is simply too childish for adults.