press #1 for english

I was listening to a Q & A with presidential candidate John McCain the other day when a lady in the crowd asked the Senator “Why do we still have to press #1 for english in the United States of America?”  This question was accompanied by an overwhelming amount of support and cheering.  Honestly, I wasn’t surprised, but in a way I still was.  It was a reminder for me of how well meaning people can actually recreate racial divisions and inequalities they supposedly oppose.  It was a reminder of how far we still have to go as a country to overcome racism and racialization.

Personally, I have yet to commit to either Barack Obama or John McCain.  I don’t adhere to either party but consider myself to be an independent.  But in about four months all Americans who have the right to vote will go to the polls and vote for one of these two presidential hopefuls.  On one hand, I think this is one of the most historic, ground breaking and exciting times in the history of America.  For the first time an African American male and a female were racing for the White House.  We have come a long way.  But on the flip side, there is still a part of me that actually fears for Senator Obama.  His safety, his well being and his family.  Because no matter which way you cut the cake, America is still a racially divided nation.  Race has always been intimately tied to the American experience.

For instance, Americans live in a post-Civil Rights United States, but intermarriage rates are low, residential separation and socioeconomic inequality are the norm, and our definitions of personal identity and our choices of intimate associations reveal racial distinctiveness.  As Emerson and Smith say in their book “Divided By Faith” we live in a racialized society “wherein race matters profoundly for differences in life experiences, life opportunities, and social relationships.  A racialized society can also be said to be “a society that allocates differential economic, political, social, and even psychological rewards to groups along racial lines; lines that are socially constructed.”"

Like I said before, we have come a long way, but there is still a long road ahead.  And for the average person that asks “What can we do?  Where do we go from here?” I say, start by becoming aware of the issues of race.  Ignorance is acceptance.