[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by lovespink88

I've known that racism is still alive in our country. But I am appalled by the reactions and feedback that I saw in my Facebook “News Feed” on Tuesday Night regarding Obama’s win

I understand that McCain supporters are going to be upset that their candidate lost. I would feel the same if I was in their position. But I couldn’t believe the ignorance and hatred I witnessed moments after Obama’s win. I saw a countless number of “Status Updates” from people voicing their displeasure about Obama’s victory. Yes, everyone has the right to do this, but what disgusts me is how many people were making it blatantly obvious that they’re mad at the fact that a black man won. I knew racism was still around, but I guess I was just naïve, not realizing just how bad it really is still.

I’m not accusing all McCain supporters of being against Obama just because he’s black. Everyone has their differences in opinions about political issues and I know these are reasons that many people disagree on candidates. But immediately following the election, I witnessed an overwhelming number of people express their anger about our next President because of his skin color. To these people I say: If you’re going to hate Obama, at least make yourself sound educated and hate him for a real reason—not because he’s black.

It’s 2008. When will we move past this race thing? There are so many other things that we could be doing with this hateful energy. We all know that our country needs some serious changes but we cannot do this divided. We must work together as Americans to help our country out of this mess! I sincerely hope that everyone will soon realize that the racism is useless and will only hinder our progress.


^^^ So that there was a little editorial I wrote and submitted into my school's paper....I'm crossing my fingers that it gets published soon. I just felt so disgusted after seeing a few people's reactions to Obama's win that I felt I needed to do SOMETHING...

And for some of you who may think I'm over reacting, here's a few of the status updates I saw....

"Katie ------- says obama is a poisoin to this country. he is a sin. disgusting."

Sure, that comment is not particularly racist, but here's what she also wrote on someone's wall:

"he's just after money for all the dirty black people like himself"

.....

Another girl wrote

"Samantha -------- think's it's called the WHITE house for a reason"

And another...

"Frankie --------- FREE FRIED CHICKEN AND KOOL-AID IN GRANT PARK"




Is anyone else experiencing or witnessing anything like this? If so, how do you feel about it?

Ya know, lovepink88, I agree with you 100%, but unfortunately racists, sick human beings are going to be here until hell freezes over, and that's because racism is a human made, human enforced phenomenon. No one is born racist, it's a learned behavior and learned emotions on the part of a group of people towards another group whose physical characteristics are dissimilar to the former group. The problem is that people learn to discriminate, learn to segregate and learn to believe that whites are better than blacks, which to me is a mental illness. When people live in a society where such things are formally and informally taught and learned, and are practiced, to me it's inescapable that the ideology of racism does become a functional institution, organically blended together with every other ideology and institution of that society. It's sad, but racism in America is as much a part of the American way of life as anything else. Not only am I referring to our economic and political system, but our social structure, and the way power, jobs and life opportunities are distributed in this country simply on the basis of physical characteristics, which to me turns into a sickness after being taught.