OK, this is my third attempt to write an article in reference to Quanell X.
As any professional writer knows, and I am not a professional, it is difficult to place your thoughts down in to writing, but I’ll do the best I can. I’ll just be frank and state what most people should already know.
Yes, prejudice exists. You can’t hold it but you can see it, and to deny it would be like saying we all look the same. Now, hopefully we all agree on this, for those who don’t, come out of your cave and welcome to East Texas.
Blacks are prejudice against whites, whites against blacks, Hispanics against whites, blacks against Hispanics and so forth and so on.
Now, before I continue let me just say that I am not stating that all people are in these categories (please don’t send me hate mail). What I am saying is that these problems exist in the Southeast.
While we don’t have to like it and in my opinion should not support it in anyway, what we need to do is understand that it’s not going anywhere.
Prejudice and racism have been a part of history since the Romans and before. The Christians were persecuted and the Christians persecuted others. African-Americans, Irish, Italians, Hispanics, Native-American – these people were all persecuted against in someway by another ethnic group or society.
However, what we need to do is learn from these mistakes. As humans we were created different not to go against each other, but to hopefully learn from one another.
Now, to be assured, yes, the Anglo is a powerful force in our history and the world today, but our future as Americans is what we make of it.
My father came from Mexico for a better job and living conditions. He worked from the mines in Nevada and New Mexico to picking limes in California. Now he is a chief correctional officer for TDCJ.
He worked from the bottom up, and got to where he is today by hard work and determination (Horatio Alger, for my classmates in Dr. Crimm’s class).
But he did not forget his heritage and background; he held onto it and that gave him even more strength to endure the hardships along the way. That is what all ethnic groups need to do. Remember your history, but don’t let it blind you from the future.
Quanell X is most assuredly proud of his heritage, but it appears he is trying to use it to further separate himself from society.
Instead we need to learn from one another and share that knowledge amongst us in order to further gain understanding and peace.
Speakers such as Quanell and Meeinks are excellent for our community because they bring up debates such as these, and although we may not agree with one another, we can certainly listen.
James Madison said it best. “The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”