Is anyone else being worn down by the recent incidents of racism and ignorance? Whether it's nooses or name-calling, it seems like every time I turn on the news or open my e-mail, some new incident of bigotry is slapping me in the face. The latest is an incident involving 1962 Nobel Prize winner Jim Watson, a 79-year-old American, who remarked to a newspaper recently that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours, whereas all the testing says not really." He went on to state that there was no basis for assuming that persons raised in different geographical locations evolved equally and while he hoped everyone was equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."
Watson has since attempted to backtrack and cannot even believe he made those statements. (Insert blank stare). Please........pulling the AARP card does not excuse this type of statement. I take offense not only to his "research" on intelligence, but as a hard working Black lawyer, I'm incredulous that he would actually tell a newspaper that black employees are not equal to whites. Sadly, I suspect a lot of people feel this way privately, but don't actually voice their opinions.
To that end, I think Yolanda Denise King is right when she said, "Jim Crow is dead, but his sophisticated cousin James Crow, Esq., is very much alive."
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1 comment:
The best way to fight this kind of ignorance and stupidity is to get an education. As a black woman in corporate america, I know the value of an education. Racism is a weapon of Mass Annihilation. The only way to deal with that kind of enemy is to become the aggressor's worst nightmare. We can do this by learning, encouraging the youth in our community to build their minds, mentoring youth and helping build self-esteem in our young men and women. As a graduate from an HBCU, I learned early on that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. A smart, sophisticated, fabulous, educated black man or woman is a majority racist's worst nightmare. I say majority racist because there are minority racists out there. Always remember that ignorance is not bliss and stupidity cannot be cured!!!!
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