Fallout Over Senator Reid's Comments: Sasha Smith

Before the 2009 holidays, my boss decided that we should do some more staff development and attend diversity training by the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI.) NCBI is a nonprofit leadership training organization based in Washington, D.C. founded in 1984 to eliminate prejudice and inter-group conflict in communities throughout the world. It was an open diversity training and really made the people of color in the group and white folks become honest with their stereotypes and their own racial hang ups. We were almost forced to be confrontational about our negative thoughts about our own racial group and others. Saying all this, all 30 people in the room acknowledged that they stereotypes about all racial groups and the American cultural society we live in reinforces them everyday.

The training group facilitator asked us to break up into groups on our own based on what social identity you identify with the most. I joined the African-American group. The facilitator asked us to make a list of all the racial stereotypes that others had about your group and pick some that you wish to erase if you could. One of the first on the list was: we asked White people to stop saying "wow you speak so properly and how well we use our words." Basically, we wanted to ask white folks to stop assuming we are all uneducated and unable to use Standard English. This is no different than Harry Reid's comment about President Barack Obama.  We all know that racial tensions in this country will probably never be resolved in my lifetime and I also want to recognize that people of color are still reaping the horrible repercussions of what slavery has down to this country. NO it's not equal now because we have a Black President. It can't be over when we have incidents like Katrina, the economic state of Black folks as a whole, the educational school system's current state in the inner cities due to white flight, and this housing crisis that affected Black families who now will not be able to send their children of color to college because all their investment was in their home that they just lost. The list could go on and on. It is what is. Our country was founded on killing folks of color, taking their land, and making them their slaves. It's hard for us to dream of a land of fairytales. Our history is a nightmare.
 
Now, Michael Steele that is a whole other story. So... if I were Steele, a republican politician of color, what do I have to gain by making it issue that Obama wants to move on from Reid's comment? It's not the first racial incident that Obama has been involved with since his presidency begun. Where was Reid standing up for Black folks then? Reid has his own agenda and that's to make the Republican party look like it has a shred of decency left after this health care debacle and their former leader, Bush leaving our country to shreds. Steele as the new Republican National Committee Chairman is trying to get some airtime seen as a good guy and let's not forget trying to get some folks of color back on the RNC side. The RNC's image right now is old, racist, cheating white guys. Everyone is viewing the RNC as the bad guy right now. So Steele as a good businessman and politician is trying to get the RNC on the good side of everyone. Saying Steele is trying to fight racism in the American government is about as likely as Tupac Shakur is alive. It's likely but probably just a small wish that some might have inside.
This is a perfect case of racism being alive and well and as a woman of color in America, I always have that in the forefront of my mind and everything that I do.
To learn more about the National Coalition Building Institute click here.

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