Much was said about how far the nation has come in terms of race relations in the wake of the election of our first African-American president.
It’s pretty clear we still have a ways to go. I have received a series of phone calls disputing the emphasis on Obama as being African-American. Most trot out the argument that all of us are a mix of ethnicity, but that first and foremost we’re Americans. I don’t dispute that. I also don’t dispute just how historic Obama’s election is.
There’s something else I don’t dispute. There is no shortage of knuckleheads who simply can’t come to grips with Obama’s victory. They lash out in the same tired, old ways.
Three college campuses are now investigating racial incidents in the wake of Obama’s election.
At La Salle, a white student is alleged to have used a racial slur about Obama as a way to insult a group of black students. A brawl just off the La Salle campus in which a group of white male students is believed to have attacked a group of black students, as well as chanting racial slurs and criticizing the Obama victory, is also being scrutinized.
Saint Joseph’s is looking into a drawing of a stick figure in a noose found in a classroom and residence hall.
And at Lehigh University in Allentown, a campus meeting was held to address racial epithets and fliers that popped up on the campus.
We’ve been dealing with race issues since the Civil War. The election of Obama was a watershed moment for race relations in this country. But don’t kid yourself. It is not going to resolve the simmering racial tensions that exist in this country.
Not by a long shot.
It’s pretty clear we still have a ways to go. I have received a series of phone calls disputing the emphasis on Obama as being African-American. Most trot out the argument that all of us are a mix of ethnicity, but that first and foremost we’re Americans. I don’t dispute that. I also don’t dispute just how historic Obama’s election is.
There’s something else I don’t dispute. There is no shortage of knuckleheads who simply can’t come to grips with Obama’s victory. They lash out in the same tired, old ways.
Three college campuses are now investigating racial incidents in the wake of Obama’s election.
At La Salle, a white student is alleged to have used a racial slur about Obama as a way to insult a group of black students. A brawl just off the La Salle campus in which a group of white male students is believed to have attacked a group of black students, as well as chanting racial slurs and criticizing the Obama victory, is also being scrutinized.
Saint Joseph’s is looking into a drawing of a stick figure in a noose found in a classroom and residence hall.
And at Lehigh University in Allentown, a campus meeting was held to address racial epithets and fliers that popped up on the campus.
We’ve been dealing with race issues since the Civil War. The election of Obama was a watershed moment for race relations in this country. But don’t kid yourself. It is not going to resolve the simmering racial tensions that exist in this country.
Not by a long shot.
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