LET'S PLAY RACE CARDS!

There's nothing more personal than the color of your skin. And unless you got MICHAEL JACKSON MONEY, you're forced to play with the "cards" you're dealt. At the simplest levels, it's continually perceived as an individual test. If "I" do what I gotta do, then I can be as successful as anyone. Whether you define success by the balance of your bank account or the number of people you help, you do so for happiness and security. We ALL want to be able to live our lives only having to answer for our INDIVIDUAL actions. Unfortunately, our "melting pot" society requires MORE than that to reach its potential.

By no means am I implying that it's ONE race's responsibility to fix the problem. It's the responsibility of ALL individuals to take their stand based on FACTS, not FEELINGS. Feelings and emotions are the enemy of reason. No one knows it all, but we all have the same access to information. Before disregarding someone's plea because it doesn't align with you're minute piece of reality, question it. Don't attack it. The questioner is the controller of conversations.

What kind of facts am I talking about? One example would be the 3/5 COMPROMISE. It seems horrible to many in this day and age that our government would only count 3 out of 5 Black votes. To others, they still see it happening. From the recent CAGING of votes to DISCRIMINATING LAWS that target the "little guy" instead of the true mastermind. These laws have greater impact than most know.

One of the most famous of these laws is the Rockefeller Drug Laws in New York. Other than locking up disproportionate numbers of minorities, they also dislocate families. The affects of this can easily be seen in the state of the inner-city family. Where it's not so easy to see is in the locations of the prisons. Most State and Federal prisons are located "up-state," e.g., out of the cities and into the suburbs where "not as many" minorities live. You might say, "what's the problem?" To that, I would say the problem lies in a misrepresentation of the people. The districts where these prisons reside CAN include the prison population as constituents, although the inmates CANNOT vote. The minority vote is taken both from the individual AND the community that truly needs their voices heard.

LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT THE DISPROPORTIONATE FELONY ARRESTS IN CALIFORNIA - 2005

POPULATION STATS

ARREST STATS

TOTAL POPULATION = 36 MILLION +
WHITE = 27+ MILLION (77%)
BLACK = 2 + MILLION (6.7%)

TOTAL FELONY ARRESTS = 538,000+
WHITE = 180,000+ (33%)
BLACK = 113,000+ (21%)

PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION ARRESTED
WHITE = .6%
BLACK = 5.6%

Any rational person should see there is room for concern. This is one example of why minorities believe there is a WHITE PRIVILEGE. We all need to be truthful with ourselves. It may sound corny, but "injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere." These words still ring true because it's fundamental truth. If you allow discriminative behavior in your presence, you might as well be doing it. How does someone know it's wrong if they're never told.

All Americans, Black or White, are missing their history. Blacks had theirs forcibly taken away, while Whites are intellectually misled. I ask my White brothers and sisters to research your country's true history, and I ask my Black brothers and sisters to be patient with Whites when it comes to issues of race relations. The racism is SO ingrained that it's subconsciously denied. No matter how loud we scream at each other about how much our side is right, it will do nothing but make the situation worse.

WE NEED EACH OTHER. LET'S TALK!