New day in old way

I was listening to a couple of African-American political commentators when the first pundit said that the world would be disappointed if Obama was elected and did not push for social justice and equitable treatment or at least the liberals. The pundit-2 noted that no one expects Obama to be a Black Power advocate and champion the cause of Black people. The first pundit responded that social justice and equitable treatment was not a "Black people" issue but one of fairness. The reality is that Black people are at the bottom of the barrel using just about any social indicator that you can choose.

The significance of this exchange is that it speaks to the fundamental contradiction that we each face when we attempt to excel in a world that is based on "riba" or something for nothing. If we can not get past the need to conform to the existing dictates of society we end up with new caretakers for the same old house. This is old house needs more than a new coat of paint. It needs more than putting up new siding. But recognizing that requires us to suspend our belief in the righteousness of the existing order. It means that if we are down and don't deserve to be we need to get up. But if we are where we are suppose to be then we can lay down and feel content. The idea that Obama is not either willing or able to challenge the existing inequity and bias in society is a sad commentary for the future.





This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.