Racism's red flag aided by all-African American group exclusivity

Martin Luther King who offer the message of inclusion for everyone

Carol Forsloff---This month we celebrated Martin Luther King Day, and as we reflect on African American history, and the present stresses related to contemporary events, the film about Selma now popular, and the memory of King's speech of inclusion of 1963, it is time to decide whether or not all-African American groups makes sense.

The manner of the concept of racial injustices and African American individuals and groups reporting on this, and other issues, is surely important.  But does the fact they highlight their own exclusivity add to King's dream of inclusion?  Isn't it time to question having all black groups and their titles, which can only serve as a barrier to racial amity?

Making a better world means to avoid the 'one-eyed, one horned, flying purple people eaters'

Shades of purple

Carol Forsloff---Never mind those "One-eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eaters," be purple in your politics and social manners too.  That's red and blue blended together in the United States, the primary colors representing its political divisions.  But across the world the color purple can be central to change and being in charge, so that like the crayons in a box of many colors we can be fused into something beautiful when we work together peacefully.

Sometimes purple needs some white thrown in for tone. Or brown. That means purple can be dark or light and come in various tones.  Working together and combining our talents and skills, as well as our dreams, may mean those variations. Purple is the color of royalty and being in charge.  In other words, it puts all of us around the world in charge of ourselves and each other, especially in a world where problems are great.

When we were all little, we enjoyed our crayons and paper that we used for our drawings. We also had watercolors of different hues that we could swirl around on a piece of paper and make pictures. Most of us say we enjoy seeing a rainbow in the sky and myriad flowers in gardens around our home or in our towns. In many towns across the world,, our gardens and our homes are as diverse as we are. So we're as special as is the whole world. We come in all shades. Sometimes, however, just like the whole world, diversity of color isn't appreciated, and it should be, because that is what nature is all about. That is what we love when we played with those colors as children and when we look at a rainbow or stop and smell those roses. As children we knew all of the colors made pictures that were far better than the ones we drew with our pencils. But diversity is different than divisions, for as painters know colors become more beautiful when they are fused with shades of others.  Separate colors, or primary ones, are like those one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eaters that don't allow compromise and unity, the kind of unity that can help people work together.  It is essential for progress.  But purple should be paramount in our thoughts, as representing that fusion of colors that makes for a beautiful whole.

In the world of today we live on the edge of climate disasters, disease outbreaks, and political upheavals.  In the United States, at the time of the first election of Barack Obama as the United States' first black President, polls found that 30% of the people would not vote for a black man.  That 30% was vocal both before and after the election, with the result that racial harmony today is undermined by the consistent racial difficulties brought about by attitudes that are like single colors.  Attitudes are those crayons in a box that create landscapes of tones of just the primary colors in ways that are sharp, resulting in a painting that appears crude as a result.

 There are people who tell us that 30% was not a big enough difference in attitude.  But the actual percentage can be very influential in changing a country's direction. Across the world, it can also make a big difference in whether people are able to work together, as it is often the negatives in our miidst, those who are the most shrill, who loudly proclaim their rights that override those of others.  They drown out those purple people who often work so hard to modify and ameliorate difficulties, yet are not as wantonly aggressive in their tactics.  30% of the people who isolate race or any divisive factor can make a big difference in what happens to the rest of us going forward.

We are many in this count of purple people who dream in color, just as we did when we were kids and hope that those of you who read this will do so as well. We can defeat those "One-Eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eaters" from that old song of the early 1950's. We dream about people of many colors doing whatever they want to do from teaching in schools, to serving as ministers, to running corporations and to leading the United States as well as other countries who seek, or have achieved, the interest to move forward. We don't want artificial barriers to prevent folks from reaching their goals and finding their dreams. Those were the dreams of Martin Luther King in America and Gandhi in India.

We dream in color. It wasn't always possible to dream that way in reality, and it's still a struggle, even in the developed nations who pride themselves on the freedom to select their own governments and their own directions.

How can we facilitate the purple as the color of choice in a box of separate colors called our world?
All of us can start by extending our hearts and hands to people of different races than ourselves. We can paint our lives in color. Dreaming in color allows us to realize the notion that we are all connected.  Perhaps the greatest wish of the holiday season, or every season where hope and love are the centerpiece--which means daily--is for everyone to dream in colors, setting the color purple as the right choice of blending and beautifying our world, representing the royalty in all of us.

March on Washington memorialized as US continues to explore issues ofracial justice

[caption id="attachment_19986" align="alignleft" width="247"] Martin Luther King declared "I Have a Dream"[/caption]

Carol Forsloff---Fifty years ago thousands of people gathered together in Washington DC to demand justice for those who had been segregated and treated unjustly in social and political affairs, as well as the workplace, for generations.  That March on Washington produced a movement that transformed the nation, according to historical accounts.  But has the nation been transformed as Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream maintained it could be?

Many people say racism is a thing of the past in the United States, that the civil rights legislation once considered essential to prevent discrimination is no longer useful as equality in the way King expressed it to the multitudes there in Washington DC five decades ago has been reached.  Yet others declare there remain inequities that should be addressed with new laws and additional understanding of the plight of minorities in the United States.

Racial disparities exist in the US prison system.  The NAACP cites these statistics:

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  African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population



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  African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites



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  Together, African American and Hispanics comprised 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population.

The unemployment rate for African Americans is 12.6% as of July 2013, nearly twice that of whites.

Only 54% of African Americans complete high school, compared with 77% of whites.

Favoritism allows whites to move past African Americans substantially in the employment and social sectors.  favoritism.   As the New York Times pointed out that favoritism means help from family and friends is a hidden force behind inequality that has a strong racial component.

So while many people proclaim equality has been won because the United States has an African American President, the facts remain there are great discrepancies in social, educational and employment areas that remain part of the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King that remain unrealized.

Who is the 'nigger' now?

Carol Forsloff ---As the publisher of a magazine that deals with humanitarian issues, I believe one cannot write of the problems of the world without looking at America's greatest one, a problem that led to war and that has maintained bitterness and resentment against a whole race of people for centuries. That is the problem of racial prejudice.

[caption id="attachment_16312" align="alignright" width="184"] Martin Luther King[/caption]

Nuanced speech can't hide the fact that many people in America were not, and still are not, ready for an African American President. But it isn't polite to say so.

It is not socially appropriate to use the word "nigger" in polite discourse, yet the word is neatly hidden in an underground of conversation where the emphasis is on differences, foreign, not like us, something that has taken the United States to war and through the bitterness of the McCarthy era and other tragic times.

In reflecting on the topic of racial prejudice, it is essential that we examine how America has treated most of its foremost black leaders throughout history. Virtually every one of them has been vilified, condemned with the eighth commandment ignored entirely and figuratively placed in the garbage bin of the worst of human behavior. The accusations leveled against African American leaders violate the commandment against speaking falsehoods against one's neighbor. The platform used is freedom of speech, which in the modern world has taken the form of license.

Social media, ordinary conversations with acquaintances old and new, and comments on news threads are reminders of one of the worst and most long-lasting problems in the United States. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that there has never been the level of violent speech and threats against any President in modern history as against Obama. The buzz word isn't "nigger" but the intention and the insults remain the same, only the key words are "Communist" "Foreigner" "Muslim, " not like the rest of us.

The vilification of President Barack Obama is only a repeat of long-lasting negative response against black leadership. Martin Luther King was called Communist and traitor and worse. He was the target of FBI witch hunts and personal violence, long before his death at the age of 39. In the McCarthy era, the target was Paul Robeson, whose career in music and the arts was virtually destroyed by right-wing attacks that continue long after the man's death to the extent that few people, either white or black, young or old, even know of his achievements. These three, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King and Paul Robeson are not the only ones who have suffered insult, constant verbal abuse and hate. The African American community, especially its children, recognize the pattern for what it is, racism and prejudice at its worst, as language and behavior reflect that Obama represents the "nigger" now.

"Nigger" is present in nuanced speech, but remains the same as ever, a blot on the American conscience that will not fade until folks focus on the problem of racism and stand together to fight the awfulness of its result so that every man, woman and child in America is treated justly and with respect in all aspects of life, including politics.