The day after the election, we stayed home and watched news coverage all day. We were revelling in the win for Obama and breathing a sigh of relief that McCain would not get the chance to carry on Bush's legacy of the last eight years--not to mention, no Sarah!
But that afternoon, we got a call from a coworker that some nastiness was going down at school. Some conservative teachers were freaking out and getting really ugly about "that man" winning. A student had uttered the "N" word causing a fight with a black classmate. A teacher from the high school was being verbally abused by most of her staff because of her support for Obama. WOW--not only a killjoy but seriously shocking and saddening! We had no idea we were surrounded by such extreme ignorance and racism.
Then we started reading stories in the news about cross-burnings and assassination threats...
Now we've had some time to settle into the new reality. Racism is alive and well and nasty as ever. So we have to brace ourselves for a new phase of what was suffered in the 50s and 60s. We have to be ready for facing racism (of all types) but remember our old "Rules for Radicals" teachings (Saul Alinsky)--fight from within, fight smart, fight educated. Kind of like, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer." But I regret having to feel cynical. I wish...sigh...I guess I wish it was easier,...automatic...that the world would say, "Oh, I get it now" and just move on.
Yeah, yeah, not to be. So, we stiffen our backbones and upper lips and take it one day at a time.
That's enough cliches for now. Goodnight.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment