Culture treats blacks as inferior to whites

In response to the recently published full-page anti-slavery reparations ad:\nIt interests me that someone is expending so much time, money and energy denying the legitimacy of reparations supporters' claims. Especially troubling to me is the racist assertion that economic inequality between black and white Americans is due to deficiencies in character or intelligence on the part of black men and women in this country. \nThe myth of black inferiority is the lie adopted by many white Americans as a means to avoid hanging behavior and attitudes. It's far easier to proclaim (in coded terms, naturally) black inferiority than to include black people in white institutions, neighborhoods, offices, clubs, fraternities, sororities, etc., because to do so would necessarily involve examination of our own deeply ingrained prejudices and fears, as well as a refutation of the myth of white superiority, an undertaking which is apparently too much work for some white people to even consider.\nAlso interesting is the ad's reference to the large and growing black middle class as evidence that racism as an oppressive force is not actually at work in our society. Fine and well, many black people are making it despite everything, and I applaud them. But what percentage of the ultra-wealthy, decision-making elite in this country today is black? The bank owners, the CEOs, the corporate lawyers, the media moguls (R.I.P., B.E.T.), etc.? \nI guess it's OK for black people to be comfortably middle class, well clothed, driving nice cars and generally "tolerated," and yet to be completely (or almost completely) locked out of any real ability to make large-scale decisions about the way this country is run. Let's call this the happy, well-fed and well-clothed Slave syndrome, shall we, because that's really what it's all about, folks.\nOf course it's possible for exceptionally motivated, intelligent, ambitious, hard-working and perhaps in some cases even lucky black people to enjoy great success in this country. The point is, it's much easier to be mediocre and white in America than mediocre and black. I've seen plenty of normal, average, just-plain-nice white people with no extraordinary level of intelligence, ambition or creativity getting by quite nicely in life. \nThis happens much less often for black Americans, unless there's some secluded part of the country I don't know about. If you're black and have an interest in your slice of the American pie, you'd better be smart, creative, focused, ambitious, able to make white people feel at ease (which is always understood to be the black person's responsibility), etc. With those provisions and conditions firmly in place, your future looks rosy, Black Brothers and Sisters! \nSome of my ancestors were wealthy slaveholders. Some killed Indians, some stole land. Some were East European peasants, escaping grueling poverty under "slave-like" conditions in southern Poland at the turn of the 20th century. Many were German Lutherans who came to the United States in the mid 1800s, when slavery as an institution was breathing its dying breaths. Most of my ancestors did not own slaves. \nBut the fact remains that I still benefit from living in a nation whose great wealth is in part attributable to the existence, not as long ago as we might like to think, of an evil and unjust institution called slavery. I live in a society which tacitly favors me in ways I don't even have to think about. I don't have to think about being public enemy No. 1 while I'm walking down the street. I don't have to feel the glare of people's gazes as I walk into a bar with my friends only to discover that I'm the only black person in sight. I don't have to constantly think about changing my normal modes of behavior, or of muffling my opinions and feelings in order to make the white people around me feel comfortable. \nThese are all historical remnants of a society founded upon the idea that black people are sub-human, are less capable of intelligence, are generally unworthy. These remnants might not seem like a "big deal" to me as I sit pretty in my pink, white and beige skin underneath a head of straight brown hair, but they are very real to millions and millions of Americans.\nI'd like to see something acknowledge that many of us in this country have to deal with those kinds of considerations as part of daily reality, and that doing so often takes a huge personal, emotional and psychological toll. If not reparations in the form of pay-outs, we should at least have a prominent national memorial to acknowledge the role that slavery had in building this nation and making it what it is, that many people worked hard without ever getting paid their just due. My feeling is such a memorial could go a long way toward creating an environment in which people can begin to heal, an environment in which good will and being a "nice" person can begin to actually mean something. \nPerhaps most importantly, we owe the spirits of those dead American foremothers and forefathers some acknowledgement and recognition for the lives that were taken away from them, their parents and their children.