The End of Racism?

With the election of the first African-American president in the history of the United States, some have entertained the idea that the Age of Racism is over. A nation that was founded on the labor of slavery- an issue that split this country apart 100 years after rebelling against Britain- then imposed countless years of segregation and intimidation through lynching would magically rid itself of the Racist Plague?

Not at all. To my naïve, idealistic, romantic or just plain stupid friends … as long as there are different color pigments in our skin and there is ignorance, there will be racism.

Don’t get me wrong, the nomination and then the victory of Barack Obama as the first non-white President of the United States of America is critical to ridding this nation of this Racist Plague.

There are still individuals that are bigots, small-minded or just plain ignorant and the election of Barack Obama will not sway their opinion:

• Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head."
• Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.
• University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.
• Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported.
• Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.
• A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'
• In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

What is sad is that some of these individuals believe that their actions are permissible under the First Amendment. They honestly believe that they are exercising their freedom of speech. Then, they have the audacity to cry foul when the rest of America finds their acts and behavior despicable.

Jobsanger adds, “The racists seem to think the election gives them permission to act this way, and that their fellow citizens approve of it. Well, I have news for them. The huge majority of your fellow citizens do NOT approve of this kind of vicious and cowardly behavior.”

The only hope is that their kind will die out as newer generations of Americans are born into a society where race does not matter but the content of ones character. The election of Barack Obama is not the final chapter of racism in America. It is more like the beginning of the end of this plague we call Racism.