Martin Luther King Day – Declare War on Reacism

On the occasion of Martin Luther King Day, President Bush should declare war on racism. Who can deny that racism continues in the United States? From hate crimes visited upon immigrants to the institutionalized racism against people of color that continues to challenge our nation. The culture and race riots in Europe just a few months ago are viewed as something distant in far off lands to most Americans. Addressing racims has been pushed to the back burner in the U.S., allowed to eat away at our nation’s character. Any talk of improving race relations remains hushed and polite when it occurs as at all.

The problem with polite talk onthese issues is that it lets the vast majority of the nation off the hook. Thenation ends up treating overt incidents as the exception, regarding thoseinstances as the occasional target. In fact the prime target should be thefoundation of institutionalized racism that has created an environment thatenables subtle and unconscious racism and emboldens perpetrators of racistspeech and acts.

We need more thanpolite talk. We need a sense of outrage and indignation. We need massivemobilization over the issue. We need a declaration of war. The declaration ofwar on the evils of hate and racism must be loud and constant. Just as we havepoured millions of dollars into campaigns against drugs and smoking, we needattention-grabbing strategies to begin now, in the midst of our currentrecognition that improving race relations matters. We need a clear visionstatement on these issues to serve as the basis for this moral declaration. Wemust be driven, not politely, because we are beyond politeness on the evils ofhate and prejudice that our leaders acknowledge are not Americanvalues. Let’s put our heads together on this national priority. Becreative and imaginative in approaches. Set an example. Call for new laws,enforcement of old laws, smart coalition-building, civility, respect andapproaches to addressing actions and private attitudes. Make that callloud and clear and remind us over and over. Make it part of the nationalpsyche, not just part of the national agenda.

The public face of American pluralism–dominated by politicians, professionals and community leaders–is mostly positive. The problem is with the private off-camera face of America that fails to teach our children and challenge our neighbors to be respectful of others. We allshare to varying degrees the blame for a culture that gives rise to hate speechand ethnic animosity. Every time we engage in even subtle racism or thefostering of stereotypes, we perpetuate that culture. As much as each of usshares the blame, each of us can be part of the solution. Every time we reachout to others whom we have been conditioned to distrust, fear, or subordinatebecause of culture, race or class, we begin to chip away at the wicked culturethat gives rise to irrational hatred, animosity, and violence.

In the aftermath of the September 11tragedies, President Bush spoke out against hate crimes directed at Americansof South Asian, Pakistani, Arab, and Muslim descent. He urged “Americansnot to use this as an opportunity to pick on somebody that doesn’t look likeyou, or doesn’t share your religion.” But in the last year, for example, hisattack on affirmative action demonstrates how little he knows about theracialized structures of our society that continue to keep down underprivilegedblacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and many Asian Americans.

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