{"id":104,"date":"2009-07-25T12:45:17","date_gmt":"2009-07-25T12:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/07\/racism-not-as-important-as-healthcare.html"},"modified":"2009-07-25T12:45:17","modified_gmt":"2009-07-25T12:45:17","slug":"racism-not-as-important-as-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/07\/racism-not-as-important-as-healthcare.html","title":{"rendered":"Racism — Not as Important as Healthcare!?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hispanics.keep.out.WFAA.124x70.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>When Hillary wrote her post about Obama speaking out on Skip Gates’ arrest, I mentally applauded her for tackling the topic- from beginning to hopeful end, the whole fiasco gives me a headache.<\/p>\n

However, many of the responses to the story – not necessarily on this blog, but on all the various media coverage – surprised me. Many people seemed to think that racism is no longer an important problem in the United States. Now, I’m not saying that the Gates’ incident was a racial issue; I have my opinions on the matter but like most of us, I wasn’t there. <\/p>\n

I am, however, surprised by comments such as Andrea’s on this blog, who said, “I want him to get something done about health care and he just derailed that by giving people this race-based story to shout about for the next two weeks. It isn’t all that important.”<\/p>\n


\nI’m giving Andrea the benefit of the doubt and assuming she meant the Gates incident (specifically)
\nwasn’t as important as health care, rather than assuming she meant that
\nracism isn’t all that important.<\/span>Still, this type of
\ndismissive attitude perpetuates the problem and is part of the reason
\nracism still exists.<\/p>\n

I don’t believe that race is always the
\nroot cause of a conflict; in fact, even as a non-white woman in the
\nUnited States, it’s usually at the bottom of my list of reasons why
\nsomeone treated me unkindly, why I didn’t get that job, etc. But I do
\nknow it exists, in a variety of forms. From the off-hand comment you
\nmake to a friend to a comment you post on a blog to denying someone a drink at a bar<\/a>,
\nit lives on. In order for the problem to be solved, we must first all
\nacknowledge its existence and is still a serious issue.<\/p>\n

To all the people who think racism is a long-past issue in this country, watch this video<\/a>. A woman in Texas recently posted a warning sign on her porch – “Hispanics Keep Out”.  <\/p>\n

Everyone
\nacknowledges that this is her legal right to post that sign, even while
\nit offends most of those in a mixed-race neighborhood. Her neighbors,
\non the other hand, have acted in a very ethical manner – though they’ve
\nasked her to take down the sign, there hasn’t been one official
\ncomplaint. They say they want to practice tolerance. <\/p>\n

Final
\nthought….I almost didn’t post this today because I felt I might be
\npreaching to the choir. But then I watch this video or see some of the
\nreaction to Obama’s comments and think, nope, it’s still worth saying.<\/p>\n

\nEmbedded video from CNN Video<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Hillary wrote her post about Obama speaking out on Skip Gates’ arrest, I mentally applauded her for tackling the topic- from beginning to hopeful end, the whole fiasco gives me a headache. 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In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}