How do we become post racial?

 

 

"When Rodney King asked why can't we can't all get along, I thought it was a very good question..."

I have often said I am only concerned with one race - and that is the human race. Why the Lord created people of different colors in this world is a mystery known only to Him. But I am fine with it. Not to sound too "PC", but I like something other than a homogeneous society. I like our diversity.

That being said, when our current President was elected, he was going to catapult us into "post racial America". Some even thought we were going to revisit the MLK days of judging others by the "content of their character, rather than the color of their skin." Sign me up for that one - I have been a believer in that since the 1960's.

So what happened? Why are we still so divided? We have a black President, black Attorney General, we have had a black Secretary of State (twice), and a black female talk show host is one of the richest people in Hollywood. I beleive we have made significant progress with the exception of one key ingredient - poverty.

Poverty is the cancer that eats away at many of our large cities. It traps people - people with no hope for the future. This is why all it takes is a spark, and you end up with a huge problem in St. Louis. When we hollow out cities, when we leave people there who are stuck with low wages and high unemployment, this is a result. Many of the problems which are race related will be fixed if we can fix persistent poverty.

In this morning's paper, there was an article about our chronic "achievement gap" in the Minneapolis schools. The powers that be have a plan to eliminate this gap by 2020. This subject drives me crazy. I have no idea why this gap is so vexing to so many. I have served with, worked with, and worked for many people of color. There is not a wit of difference between their intelligence than any other race. Some say kids of color learn differently than white kids. That may be true, or it may not. Dr. Shockley's theory of an IQ difference between blacks and whites has been proven false over and over again.

My solution for the inner cities is simple - fix poverty and you will fix the achievement gap. It will start to stem the violence with drugs and gangs. What is the first step? According to many leaders inside and outside of the inner cities - stop having kids out of wedlock. That is not the solution, but a solution.

Fix the schools. Private and charter schools all over the country are showing they can teach all children - black, white or whatever. Our current schools in many cities are a mess. Chronic low graduation rates year after year - many kids just give up and drop out. The current recipe does not work. Change the recipe and get better results. We owe our kids much better than this.

We can fix this. It is within our power. It is not just a matter of throwing more money at programs which don't work. We need to be strong as a nation. The world is changing. The world is becoming more dangerous. We need leaders who can lead, who can inspire. The time is long overdue to be a post racial America.