A Pulling Back of Racism Centers Blacks Politically
To most black Americans “What more do you people want?” is a callow question.
Racial profiling and its exploitation is still one of the nations most austere problems. Though some racial profiling will remain necessary in bad and rough neighborhoods and communities as an attempt to safeguard residents from harm. Racial difference, subtle but absolute still remain in industries such as health care and finance. Black men are also grossly overrepresented in prisons and jails.
The remains of pre-Civil Rights Act America do not explain or constitute the “reign of white supremacy” that some blacks still complain about. The United States is now at its lowest percentage of black families who live below the poverty line than at any other point in our Nation’s history. This figure is dwindling with each census count.
It’s hard to see “apartheid” in a place where so many individuals of power are African American. For example the CEO’s of Time Warner, American Express, and Merrill Lynch as well as the Secretary of State and our National Security Advisor are black.
Prior to the 1960’s blacks couldn’t even have imagined the positives for themselves. For example black studies offered at colleges and universities nationwide as well as blacks leap in politics. African Americans have such a negative and grim outlook on their own racial position, feeling that there hasn’t really been a change in race relations between 1964 and 2004.
There isn’t an indication that blacks as a whole will begin voting Republican anytime soon- which is a good thing because it allows for the parties to still fight for your vote. More and more we are seeing black politics moving towards a constructive center aware of the harsh realties but open to change and the concept that it can occur.
In a poll conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in 2000, for example, 74% of blacks were registered as Democrats. By 2002, that number had fallen to 63%, with about one in four blacks - many of them younger voters - registered as independents.
In a 1995 Gallup poll, almost all blacks favored affirmative action in the form of outreach to minorities, but 78% were opposed to hiring minority applicants when they were less qualified than white ones.
Though Blacks have made a marked improvement in the fight for equality. Proper voting and alignment in the political realm will ensure proper treatment and direction for African American’s in the future.
Ian Spellfield explores the most frequently used African American names through the lens of history in his blog, Black Ghetto Baby Names, at http://www.blackghettobabynames.net
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