During the last few weeks many articles have been written in the Houstonian concerning the issues of race and more importantly racism. I myself have been a part of the multitude of letters written in response to the views of other students that I disagreed with and I’ve come to the conclusion that as hard as it is to believe, there are some really naive and ignorant people not only in this world, but in this school. It is apalling to me how a person, a college student in the year 2001, can write an article in a public newspaper that is circled all around the Huntsville area that says “you are no longer picking cotton in the fields” or “go back to where your ancestors came from.” Although these are the types of things that African-Americans have heard all of their lives, it’s astonishing to me that right here, in the year 2001, exist some college students, who will one day teach our children, live next door to us, or be our co-workers that feel as if these are proper things to say and believe them to be true. This bothers me because these are the same people who keep racism alive, and they do not realize it. To believe that racism and discrimination should be accepted and swept under the rug is to believe that inequality and injustice is right.It seems to me that some students believe that, but only as it pertains to African-Americans. What people like Martin Luther King, Jr. fought and died for were not black rights, but civil rights. He preached for equality and unity between blacks, whites, Latinos, Native Americans, etc. It is not a contest of which race has suffered the most oppression, but it is contradictory to have compassion for what one race has endured and not another. Oppression is oppression whether it is women, blacks, Latinos, or pink elephants and none of it is right, and none of it goes away if you ignore it to death. Women did not get the right to vote by ignoring the fact that they were not allowed to. African-Americans did not get into these “colleges that we have it so good at” by ignoring the fact that we could not go there. Since women have the right to vote now, should we stop bringing up the fact that we are paid around 70 cents to every dollar a man earns, because at least we can vote. Since African-Americans can now sit anywhere they please on a bus should we stop bringing up the fact that KKK rallies are held at our back doors. Action and awareness is what causes change and it takes more than those that are being oppressed. Many men fought and continue to fight alongside women for gender equality. Many Anglo-Americans still continue to advocate for racial equality. I have read many articles in which people have stated that we are all Americans and I believe that we need to grab on to that no matter what race, or ethnicity you are.
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