Apr
30
2009
2

390 Years Minus 100 Days, Pt 1.

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series 390 years minus 100 days

It’s been pointed out by many — including the president himself — how absurd it is to Obama’s success in cleaning up messes that were decades in the making, based on his first 100 days in office. It’s equally absurd to expect that 100 days in the administration of our first African American president to even begin to address 390 years of racial history in this country. But it’s at least an opportunity to assess where we really are, where we’re headed, and how far we’ve yet to go.

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Written by terrance in: Barack Obama,current events,politics,race |
May
01
2009
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390 Years Minus 100 Days, Pt. 2

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series 390 years minus 100 days

National Urban League head Mark Morial recently described the state of black America today as "the best of times and the worst of times," and he’s right. The inauguration of the first African-American president was a moment worth celebrating as an undeniable achievement of the progress we’ve made regarding race. Many African-Americans from communities across the county traveled to D.C. to witness the moment. Even more of us gathered around radios, television screens and computer monitors.

It was a brief respite, savored for as long as the day lasted, and then we all returned home, or turned off the television and returned to reality. For reality the day before and the day after was, and remains, an indicator of how far we are from “the Dream” so often referenced on that day. For just as much as “everything changed” for African Americans on that day, at the same time nothing changed, as one article noted days before Obama’s inauguration.

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Written by terrance in: Barack Obama,current events,economics,politics,race |
May
04
2009
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390 Years Minus 100 Days…And Counting

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series 390 years minus 100 days

In many ways, the discussion of race in America, particularly as it relates to today’s issues (the economy, health care, education), brings to mind the parable of the blind men and the elephant. Different people have a firm grasp on part of the truth in the middle of the room — be it the tail, the trunk, an ear, or a leg — but no one seems able to look at the thing itself. Three examples of a similar phenomenon reveal some of the difficulties in our national discussion on race.

During the press conference concerning his first 100 days in office, BET reporter Andre Showell asked Obama about African American unemployment.

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Written by terrance in: Barack Obama,current events,economics,politics,race |
May
07
2009
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390 Years Minus 100 Days … And Counting, Pt. 4

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series 390 years minus 100 days

Now, what did he do that for? That was my first thought when our newly-minted attorney general reached for his own rhetorical handful of elephant, as in the previous examples. Not because I thought he was wrong, but because he was saying what was virtually unsayable to a country still basking in, and congratulating itself for, the election of its first African-American president.

He was not only lifting his blindfold, but taking it off entirely while tugging at ours, and telling us, “There’s still an elephant in the room. Take off your blindfold and just look.”

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Written by terrance in: Barack Obama,current events,economics,politics,race |
May
15
2009
1

390 Years Minus 100 Days … And On, Pt. 5 of 5

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series 390 years minus 100 days

Coming to terms with race and resolving racial disparity in America feels like an insurmountable, unfinished task, because it is unfinished. The work was started and abandoned, started and abandoned many times by generations before us. But it’s only insurmountable to the degree that we tell ourselves the work is finished – or “finished enough”- choose to leave the rest of the work to those who will come after us.

But if it seems hard now, it will only be harder then. Yet it’s easy enough to start, once we assess where the previous work stopped.

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Written by terrance in: current events,politics,race |

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