Guest Post: Parker

Much has been discussed about race and American society recently. Equality of opportunity. Poverty breeding poverty. Melting pot vs. stew. When these issues were mentioned it was all within the context of race. And my position has been and continues to be that race (skin color) is not the determining factor. Gandhi has said that we shouldn't be color blind. I think we should.

How is skin color a determining variable in who a person is? Can you determine anything about who a person is by the color of their skin? Does being white predispose a person to thinking Garth Brookes is the greatest thing since sliced bread? Does everyone who is black like to listen to 50 Cent? Do all Asians excel in math and science and end up at someplace like MIT? My point is that the color of your skin is determined by a few chromosomes. Who you are is determined by much, much more.

So why would we care if the winner of American Idol two years in a row have the same skin color? There are many reasons for our hypersensitivity to race. A few of the more prominent ones:

1: Failure of many political leaders. There are some political leaders who have found a great way for getting votes: pitting one group against the other. How many times have you heard a speech where the audience was told they deserved something and that opposition wasn't going to give it to them? Seniors deserve free prescription drugs, and republicans are in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies. Every politician that disagrees with the NAACP policies is a racist. Some politicians frequently exacerbate tensions between groups and are more than willing to perpetuate stereotypes. All because it has been shown to garner votes.

2: Failure of the education system. History is constantly being re-written and re-colored with the glasses of modern society. Christopher Columbus who was once a great explorer (undeserved) is now a historical villain of the same magnitude as Hilter (also undeserved). Current history books write about all of the evils of every previous generation of Americans (but only the one of European decent) and the implication in class is often that current Caucasians still need to be held responsible for those events.

3: Fear and laziness. I'd be hard-pressed to define American culture. I'm not sure there is one. I think america is more like a high school with a bunch of cliques. Each of these cliques have a few common elements (and maybe those common elements are american culture) but each group is different. And people by nature like to be comfortable and that means congregating within your own culture. Never venturing out to meet someone of a different culture. And then making assumptions about people from other cultures. (But again a person's skin color tells you absolutely nothing about his culture)

So is there a solution to our hypersensitivity to race? I think that every element of our society needs to be colorblind. And to judge people on what they do. Maybe then nobody will care if the winner of American Idol is black, white or purple. (And out of curiosity how many IR readers have watched more than one episode of Idol from start to finish?)