Organizing for America | Northern Idaho's Blog: Race in America: Barack Obama starts a worthy discussion

Race in America: Barack Obama starts a worthy discussion

By Northern Idaho - Mar 21st, 2008 at 4:26 pm EDT

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Tags: AC360, barack obama, race, Roland Martin, stereotypes

As a white American male, I welcome the latest frank discussions about race. I recently began peeling back my personal comfort insulation, and have, over the last few days really started to listen and try to understand the race issue more completely. I want to thank everyone for their comments and insight on the HQ blog recently.

Let me also say that I never really thought I was lacking in my grasp of race in America, but I have moved my knowledgebase further in the last week than I have in the past year.

On Anderson Cooper 360 last night 3/20/2008, Roland Martin mentioned that when he tells people what college he attended, they ask him if played football, instead of asking what he majored in. I know it does not sound like much initially, but his comment cuts to the core of things, in fact, I have been thinking about his statement deeply for the better part of the day.

Due to social conditioning people tend to draw from a large pool of stereotypes rather than engage in real discussion. I am not saying it is anyone’s fault, but a disservice is done to all races when this occurs. Stepping out of our stereotypes takes effort. More often than not the easy road is preferred while the road less traveled is the one that will lead to racial healing. I will be making a more conscience effort in the future to discard social norms and have real discussion when circumstances like this arise.

Thank you Barack Obama for getting the discussion started and for causing me to think deeper about race in America.

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