Losing the 'race'

So which two filthy-rich white men are you voting for? Last Wednesday I was in my favorite coffee shop studying for a class when a couple of friend scame in for their morning pick-me-ups. One of them asked me who I thought had won the Vice Presidential debate. I told her, and although my partisan bias had nothing to do with my answer, she said, "So you're black AND Republican?"\nWell, yes.\nFor some reason, as I have written before ("Angry, Black and conservative," Indiana Daily Student, Feb. 6), people refuse to accept the idea of a "black conservative." The fact of the matter is, as such, I do not vote primarily on social or racial issues -- because to do so would be an exercise in self-delusion. \nI know where I come from, and I know what I believe. I know what troubles ail the black community, and I know neither Sen. John Kerry nor President George W. Bush can provide substantive remedies, even if they sincerely mean to do so, which I very much doubt. \nI would bet neither candidate would go into my old neighborhood without a security detail -- even in the times before they received Secret Service protection. (I lived where, if your parents drove through, they might lock the doors of a moving car just because of the large number of poor black people around.) How are politicians supposed to solve problems in places (in their own country) they never would go without armed guards? \nLet's be frank: It's still bad to be black in America. It's just not as bad as it used to be.\nTake Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court case outlawing legal segregation in public schools. Are schools desegregated? Not really.\nAlthough segregation is no longer the law of the land, most kids go to neighborhood schools. If they live in poor black neighborhoods, they go to poor black schools. If they live in affluent white neighborhoods -- guess what? They go to affluent white schools. Until there is parity in the classrooms of America -- which both candidates claim to want but neither likely will accomplish -- there will be disparities in the homes and neighborhoods of America.\nLast month "H. Res. 793" was entered into the congressional record and has yet to be voted on. It calls for, among other things, the U.S. Congress to: "condemn in the strongest terms all efforts to suppress and intimidate voters in the United States" and "reaffirm that voting is a fundamental right of all eligible United States citizens." What makes these sponsors think their bill will be any more effective than the 15th Amendment they are trying to rewrite?\nApparently they think more legislation will make things better.\nHow naive are we, as Americans, to think writing stuff down again will change much of anything? It is as if we were to say, "This time, we really mean it." \nRace relations, social equality and justice for all will not -- repeat, will not -- be achieved by legislation or Supreme Court rulings without substantive changes in the way we think. If legislation could change thought, fascism would be the best form of government, and we could just write ourselves enough laws to make this land a utopia.\nLaws are only as good as the people who enforce and respect them. You can write down ideals and hopes until your hand cramps, but that doesn't make them happen. I don't think sponsors of H. Res. 793 did a bad thing, mind you, but let us not fool ourselves to think that the resolution, even if passed unanimously, will do much of anything.\nWhen it comes to racial issues, both parties leave us wanting. We, as members of the black community, must help ourselves because help, in these regards, is not "on the way" from any politician.