Letter to America
Dear America:
Imagine a boat in the middle of a lake. There’s nothing about this boat that makes it more or less significant than any other boat except for its darker paint job, which neither adds nor debases the boat’s ability to float. The boat is going about its merry day when suddenly, a lighter boat, not being a fan of the color, comes along, pokes holes in the darker boat. The boat begins to be filled with water and slowly starts to sink and as more water floods in, water pours in faster. Then another lighter boat comes along, shoos away the other lighter boat, fills all of the holes of the darker boat, and leaves to defend other darker boats. This story seems to have a happy ending and I would agree except there’s just one thing. There’s still water inside the dark boat.
As you may have inferred, the dark boats represent African-Americans, the light boats represent white people, and the holes represent the damage that the white man’s prejudice has dealt to the lives of black people. Before you scroll down to find the name of “yet another stranger who dares to point the finger at white America,” know that a comment about how I “must think all white people are racist” would be a painful misunderstanding of the message I wish to convey. The problem that preys on the minorities today is no longer the “boats who put holes in other boats” but rather there is still “water” inside the “darker boats.”
To elaborate, no longer are people bluntly disfiguring the faces of black teens and throwing them in a river. No longer are people galloping around on horses wearing pillowcases and burning crosses. No longer do we live in a society where this is tolerable. Now before you say anything, I do acknowledge that there are those who are still imprisoned by their own small-mindedness. Some of which have a lot of money. Some of which still wear pillowcases. Some of which still go out of their way to hurt those with the “wrong” skin color. But to insist this fraction of individuals are 100% the problem both provokes those falsely accused of being racist and fails to acknowledge the problem. That problem being: due to the past, African-Americans live in an environment that is not conducive to success. To illustrate, it’s common knowledge that a high percentage of the African-American population lives in poverty. This causes difficulty when it comes to paying for education, which causes difficulty getting a well-paying job, which leads to a lack of money, which leads to poverty. It is an ever-repeating cycle. Some people find a way out of it but most never do and let it be the next generation's problem.
So what do we do? I don't know the answer. What we should not do, however, is continue the blame. That ship has sailed. We also cannot give up and allow ourselves to believe that the nation cannot progress toward a time where African-Americans are truly equal. We can't sit in the backyard like Troy Maxson telling his son, "The white man ain’t gonna let you get nowhere with that football." If we do, we only let the problem continue to be what it is and discredit the country of the progress it has made. We have gone from slavery to sending off our first black president with thunderous applause. To conclude, I hope I have accomplished enlightening you. To those I have offended along the way, my apologies.
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