Racism and The Presidency

·        1968 Poor Peoples March

·        1961-63 George Wallace vs. the Kennedy Administration

·        1966 The Black Power Movement

·        1963-70 Mass racial violence of Harlem, Philadelphia, Watts, Atlanta, San Francisco, Oakland, Baltimore, Cleveland, Newark, Detroit, etc.

These are the events that are irrevocably threaded among the childhood memories of the majority of our leaders.  There is no escaping that these events must have had an influence in forming the personalities of those currently in office.  In some cases, especially in those of Southern extraction, there may well be a deeply embedded, but not consciously recognized mistrust of a president who is African-American.  In such cases, the individual is likely unaware that their opinions and viewpoints have been formulated in a childhood of racial division and violence.  In consideration of psychoanalytic theory, one can assume there has been a disassociation and repression of conscious racist thought, resulting in instinctual and visceral reactions emanating from the subconscious.  This is especially true in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement in which racist attitudes have rightfully been deemed primitive and unworthy of an advanced compassionate civilization. 

Despite the challenges that remain, how far we have come is encouraging.  In the racial aftermath of 9/11 in which many Muslim Americans were forced to subjugate their national and religious heritage, white Christians gathered together to protect Muslim school children from any potential source of violence.  Yet despite these small victories, we cannot completely divorce ourselves from our histories and the childhood memories that influence us today.  We can only overcome them.

In the celebration that we have progressed where we would overwhelming elect an African-American to the highest office in the land, we perhaps did not consider the challenges he would personally be required to face at every turn in order to advance his work towards improving life for all Americans.  While it is certainly to his credit that he would disregard race as motivation behind the opposition, it is perhaps less than realistic.  However much we wish for a perfected world and united nation, we are still a work in progress.  One can only hope that in the interest of the American people, each of us, Senator, Congressperson and private citizen would be willing to examine our personal and instinctual reactions and review the issues with a reasoned, logical, and compassionate mind.  Our only alternative is to wait until future generations outlive our childhood memories where we can only hope that the sins of the fathers will not be a curse but a warning of a future within our means to prevent.