I think one of the issues that keeps racism alive is that it is a lot easier to point the fingers at others for our problems instead of being personally accountable for them.

Oh, and one more thing I wanted to mention about this phrase, is that when we internalize racism, we experience severe psychological trauma . . . paranoia is a manifestation of this.

If we are to push for personal responsibility, then the only way this will happen, is if those in power in the U.S. feel a strong compassion for those who are discriminated against, and fight against others who do not share their sympathy or work hard to get them to feel what they feel, which is that times must change, and that racism must end.

Pulling the race card” has become a cliché. It is sad that it minimizes real struggle because it makes a blanket statement of something that is a real problem and puts it right next to fear.

I loved that statement, because it is so true. I recently sent a comment a week and a half ago to someone and I felt the same way you do.

I think one of the issues that keeps racism alive is that it is a lot easier to point the fingers at others for our problems instead of being personally accountable for them.

What keeps racism alive is the fact that racist ideologies are perpetuated in society by those in power. It is not the fault of the person who is racially discriminated; in fact, a person who is racially discriminated should get angry. Those in power want people to internalize and swallow racism, but the truth is, is that when a person accepts the racism and does not react, they actually end up letting the oppressor think it is okay to ridicule them, and that they can get away with it . . . and once they get angry about it, and we racial minorities complain, they say that we pull the “race card”, lousy bastards, all of them.

I believe that oppression does exist, but the only people that can do anything to change it are the oppressed ones.

Now here is where you are flat out wrong John. Historically, it has been those in power who majorly need to create the change. Think about the civil rights movement. The founder of the NAACP was a white woman named Mary White Ovington, and like many other whites, she knew that what her fellow white brothers and sisters were doing was wrong, and she wanted to convince them that it was wrong, so she essentially got on their cases about it. It took sympathy from the those in power to create change. Another way to create change is if those in power feel a sharp amount of pain in their communities, for example, the Depression. During the depression, 40% of the country was out of work, and it affected a lot of white folks, hence the initiation of Social Security, etc. Those who have little power cannot simply pull themselves out of their bootstraps John. If that was the case, we would have never had slavery in our country.