Good morning, black America. Hey, while I have your attention, let me ask you a question: How’s that “post-racial society” thing coming along? I know that many of you were euphoric that, with the election of Barack Obama, you would finally make that seamless transition into a colorless society and a heavenly utopian dream would descend from the skies.
You thought you would be finished with hearing statements like the one made by Rep. Sally Kern, R-Okla., who said that black people make less than white people because blacks are shiftless, listless directionless, prison moles who don’t want to work hard.
“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but [are] they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school?” she said, according to www.colorlines.com. “I’ve taught school and I saw a lot of people of color who don’t want to study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”
Let me help you, black America, pick up the shards of your shattered dreams of a post-racial society. And I offer my condolences for the pain you feel after Rep. Kern took a baseball bat to your soft sensibilities. I have a hard time believing that Kern actually procured a teaching permit and was not supervised while she taught a classroom by herself — my heart goes out to the “people of color” who were unfortunate enough to be mis-educated by this supremely ignorant race-baiter.
Of course, Kern’s grotesque assessment of people of color conveniently ignores a criminal educational system that blacks pay taxes into inordinately and get much less out of. This simple woman’s ugly utterances trivializes the horridly underfunded urban public schools, lack of books and equipment and, well, being taught by people like Kern, who are repulsed by the very sight of young, innocent black faces who look up to her for guidance and education.
Of course, Kern has never visited any HBCU to take in the sights of scores of black students working hard to overcome entrenched racist policies and a plethora of problems to carve out a successful existence in this country. And, of course, she has never looks in the direction of the White House to see many examples in the Oval Office and in the cabinet for blacks who “work hard.” If Kern did that, she would have to shove her words right back down her very red neck. –terry shropshire
