The Myth of Racial Equality

The Argument: We are living in a post racial society. It took a while, but we (as a society) finally admit that our differences are superficial. At the heart, we are all human beings who want the same things—love, a family, a means to provide for our family, respect, and peace about what will happen after we die. Race doesn’t have the same implications as it did in the past. Opportunities are extended to everyone. The playing field is level. We have a Black president. It is both futile and racist to dwell on all the things that make us different. To do so will only cause further (unnecessary) division. After all, we all look the same on the inside. We all bleed red blood. The Bible is right, “all men are created equal”

My Response: Smh.

My Rebuttal: Don’t be fooled. We are living in a society where race still matters. If race didn’t matter, there wouldn’t be a big deal made about the gaps in education, technology, health, crime, jobs, and other social distinctions that are categorized based on race. It does not fail. Each year the census report comes out and everybody learns just how different the races are: How fewer Blacks there are in America than whites, how much more criminal Black men are contrasted against white men, how the Black race has so many more youth dropping out of school compared to whites.

So what we see is evidence the forked-tongue with which American society speaks. It’s publicly stated that all races are equal, but there are constant and consistent reinforcements that demonstrate the opposite. Hitler said it this way, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” As Black people, we must make a conscious decision not to get caught up in falling victim to the deception.

The Lie: The trick, as I see it, is to promote an idea of equality and to get everyone to buy into it. After everyone has accepted the notion of human and racial equality, whites exalt their unique abilities and differences as the standard. Others, in an effort to prove their equality consequently spend their time trying to do what whites do instead of doing what they are uniquely capable of doing. There are so many things that make us different and a too quick and uncritical acceptance of equality diminishes the power that the races have and causes people of other races to under-appreciate and devalue their uniqueness. Carter G. Woodson, in The Mis-Education of the Negro said it this way, “…even if the Negroes do successfully imitate the whites, nothing new has thereby been accomplished. You simply have a larger number of persons doing what others have been doing. The unusual gifts of the race have not thereby been developed, and an unwilling world, therefore, continues to wonder what the Negro is good for.”

It’s embarrassing that we’ve spent 400 years trying to prove to white people that we are not 3/5 of a human—but a whole human. As self-evident as that truth was, we’ve suspended developing our gifts and skills as a people and wasted our energies trying to get white people to say, “You are whole.” Smh.

It’s disappointing that we’ve spent so many years trying to prove to white people that we deserve respect and equal

I am sad to report that our fight for “equality” has not ended. We still suffer from complexes that put us in positions to “prove” something to white people, whether it’s that we are smart, that we are peaceful, or that we are equal/ better than them. We still suffer from disorders which branch from slavery which make us reactive instead of (pro)active. We still, in an unnatural way, equate equality with becoming (like) white. This position will forever keep us at a disadvantage. As a matter of fact, striving to prove that we are equal reinforces the idea that white is the standard. With such a mentality, we essentially give power and credence to something that has absolutely no truth, white superiority.

It’s a shame that we’ve spent so many years trying to prove to white Jesus that we love our enemy so much that we will not retaliate when he treats us badly. We inwardly hope that white Jesus would either make us white as snow and cleanse us from our black sins or (more realistically) open white people’s eyes to how badly they were treating Black people, have a change of heart, and stop oppressing Black people. Instead of loving ourselves enough to affirm truth and declare freedom from all kinds of oppression, we extinguished our light and conformed/ assimilated so that we could be peacemakers. Smmfh.

I am sad to report that our fight for “equality” has not ended. We still suffer from complexes that put us in positions to “prove” something to white people, whether it’s that we are smart, that we are peaceful, or that we are equal/ better than them. We still suffer from disorders which branch from slavery which make us reactive instead of (pro)active. We still, in an unnatural way, equate equality with becoming (like) white. This position will forever keep us at a disadvantage. As a matter of fact, striving to prove that we are equal reinforces the idea that white is the standard. With such a mentality, we essentially give power and credence to something that has absolutely no truth, white superiority.