Wednesday, January 16, 2008

MLK Jr. Day

I am reading "Race Matters" by Dr. Cornell West, and since it is MLK Jr. Day I thought I'd share this intriguing quote:

"...We confine discussions about race in America to the 'problems' black people pose for whites rather than consider what this way of viewing black people reveals about us as a nation.

This paralyzing framework encourages liberals to relieve their guilty consciences by supporting public funds directed at 'the problems'; but at the same time, reluctant to exercise principled criticism of black people, liberals deny them the freedom to err. Similarly, conservatives blame the 'problems' on black people themselves - and thereby render black social misery invisible or unworthy of public attention.

Hence, for liberals, black people are to be 'included' and 'integrated' into 'our' society, while for conservatives they are to be 'well behaved' and 'worthy of acceptance' by 'our' way of life. Both fail to see that the presence and predicaments of black people are neither additions to nor defections from American life, but rather constitutive elements of that life."