Sadly, if President Obama is willing to ignore the pain of race-based discrimination and injustice so as to make whites comfortable - and this, after he has already been elected and the campaign is long over - then the likelihood he will ever speak the truth about these matters, let alone address them, shrinks to nearly zero.
More Quotes by Tim Wise
Here's the reality. The image of a white Jesus has been used to justify enslavement, conquest, colonialism, the genocide of indigenous peoples. There are literally millions of human beings whose lives have been snuffed out by people who conquered under the banner of a white god.
Being asked to describe what 'post-racial' means is a bit like being asked to describe a leprechaun, cold fusion or unicorns: we know what is meant, but, if we are willing to be honest, we also know that none of the four describe something real, something tangible, something true.
To believe that the United States is post-racial requires an almost incomprehensible inability or unwillingness to stare truth in the face.
It's hard to say when or if we will actually arrive at that place called 'post-racial', or, better yet, post-racism.
As a writer, there are times when you have something to say, and yet no particular 'hook' upon which to hang the missive you are burning to release.
When you allow racial disparity and institutional inequity to affect one part of the country, eventually it's coming back to get everyone.