Post-Racial America?

Trey Smith

A lot of people believe that because the US has a black President, this fact alone proves once-and-for-all that our society has moved into a post-racial period. While racial minorities in this country would call such a declaration laughable, many whites cling to it.

For the sake of argument, let's say that we have statistical and anecdotal evidence that the rampant prejudice and racism against this nation's two most historically marginalized groups -- American Indians and blacks -- has abated by 90 percent. Even in the face of such evidence, the post-racial assertion wouldn't mean diddly squat. America remains as racist as it ever was; we could merely surmise that we have found new targets for our (whites) collective racism.

Even if racism against the two groups noted above had vanished -- and it certainly has not! -- Latinos and anyone who looks slightly Arab now bears the brunt of our animus. When people talk about red-blooded or "true" Americans, they generally do not include in that definition Latinos and Arabs. Those sorts of people are wetbacks, wannabes, terrorist sympathizers or...terrorist infiltrators themselves!

Let's face it. The majority of white America looks down at anyone who is not lily white. Those sorts of people -- and some don't even consider them people -- aren't the ones made in God's image. When God was putting his grand plan into action, his vision of the ideal human was someone who is white, Anglo-Saxon and definitely Protestant (a WASP)! Those other "people" were merely put here for WASPs to manipulate, subjugate and play with.

The irony of this perspective is lost on too many WASPs. They worship a man who was not a WASP -- Jesus was a Palestinian. In fact, from the standpoint of race and culture, Jesus was far closer to being an Arab than a white fundamentalist Christian. In the final bit of irony, Jesus didn't discriminate based on race or ethnicity. He exhibited an "open door" policy. And yet, the very people who call him Lord, master and savior are some of the worst racists the world has ever known.