Ebony and Ivory

In 1982 Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson sung of their desire for racial equality, wanting people to coexist in harmony like the keys on a piano. Now 21 years later it seems we still haven't made much progress. 

Our country's history on equality isn't stellar to say the least. I won't spend pages rehashing the history, it's well documented and known by us all to one degree or another. While things have improved over the decades since the days of MLK, Malcom C and Jim Crow laws, it's been too slow and too inconsistent.

Earlier this year a SCOTUS issued a ruling taking the teeth out of the Voting Rights Act sparking a number of states making changes to their voting laws that negatively impact minorities and women. Those who are working on passing laws that make it harder to vote say they are all about fighting voter fraud and not motivated by race. That argument doesn't ring true no matter how you spin it.

If only that were the only issue. Sadly it's not. Here are the two stories that moved me to post on race.

First is the case of 8-year-old Aolani Dunbar. Aolani is a biracial child living in the Rooperville, GA. She really wanted long hair like her grandmother who is white. Her mother and grandmother had weaves sewn into her natural hair. From the first day she went to school with her new hair she was picked on by classmates. Her fellow students pulled at her hair often resulting in her hair being pulled out and causing painful damage to her tender little scalp. She's being treated by a doctor for the damage and her family was told her hair may not grow back in the most severe area. Aolani's family said they complained to the school but that it was treated slowly and inadequately.


Then there is long time Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen and his remarks about NYC mayor elect de Blasio. In an article that was about NJ Governor Chris Christie and Tea Party conservatives he said the following about de Blasio:

"People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all."

This isn't his first incident of saying things that are at best ill informed at worst racist and harmful. He said until this year when he saw the film 12 Years a Slave he thought that most black people were content as slaves and most slave owners were nice people. He says that's what he was taught in school. 

When I was in school I learned slavery was brutal and destructive. My husband watched the mini-series Roots in middle school. I don't know what school Cohen went to but he's been a journalist for over 30 years, even getting nominated for the Pulitzer more than once. How can he be so ignorant to the truth of slavery until 2013?

It seems painfully clear that as a nation we still have a very long way to go in the area of equal rights for all Americans.