I, as an African American female, have led a relatively peaceful life (minus some racial incidents in junior high school until recently with the polarizing political climate) as far as having the ability to live in American society and get along with people from various, diverse backgrounds; but seeing the injustice oppressing my sisters and brothers daily takes a toll on my psyche and heart.
I have always been distinctly aware of my double consciousness (W.E.B. DuBois); however, in the current, increasingly volatile state of American race relations, I am increasingly aware of “the skin I am in.”
At its core, America’s race problem is black and white; however, now it has spread to other groups across ethnic and religious lines as well because of anti-immigration and anti-Islamic sentiments.
America’s racial tensions are a social and educational problem. Hundreds of years of deeply imbedded attitudes, assumptions, and misinformation have to be changed to effect/affect change.
Many argue that America’s racial conflict is really an economic issue not a cultural one, meaning that if the country fixes the socioeconomic issues such as poverty, high crime rates, poor school quality in urban/rural areas, that the race dilemma will go away. This cannot be true because “driving while black” crosses all African American demographics, from the rich and famous to the poor (ask Chris Rock, Henry Louis Gates). The first African American president and First Lady have been the target of race hate from his campaign through his two terms in office.