Talking about the Divide

Talking about the Divide

Cheers to The Day’s Chuck Potter, who, in his column yesterday, confronted a reader that questioned why Potter, an African-American, frequently—not always—addresses race.

I’m always dumbfounded why white folks think IT’S not o.k. for African-Americans to talk about race. I’m equally dumbfounded why some whites think IT’S not o.k. for African-Americans to examine race in a way that might perhaps implicate others who aren’t as 1% more conscious as they could be in terms of how racism may affect their very lives. White folks that transparently cloak their own racism by generally characterizing an African-American who talks about racial conflict as a racist him- or herself are only fooling themselves. Isn’t the role of the “overseer”—even of dialogue—a ghost of America’s past?

Hopefully, many of us have learned from the liberation movements, which gained more traction in the ‘60s, that silence = death. We will never move forward as a civilization if we don’t confront—in one way or another—the “isms” and “phobias” that plague us as a people and that plague our democracy. Talking about these “things” is very important. Talking about these “things” is one of many ways to reach across the divide.