Robyn's+Reflection+on+Racism

REFLECTION ON RAMPANT RACISM IN AMERICA

As America stands on the threshold of the possibility of electing its first black president, America's history as a racist nation looms large in the background. The prescient Alexis de Tocqueville knew that despite the fact that slavery ended and the country had moved forward, prejudice remained. The country cannot easily forget that the poem "Still I Rise" was written by Maya Angelou only thirty years ago. Its reference to history's shame and a past rooted in pain, the effects of which continued to be experienced by its author, may seem anachronistic now, but were embraced by America only a relatively short time ago. Aaron Douglas' artwork capturing the oppression of the slaves is poignant. Furthermore, Moyo Okedigi's 1995 painting "The Dutchman" demonstrates the lasting effects of slavery on today's African Americans. As recently as the 1950's and 1960's, writer Tom Hayden lamented the human degradation that epitomized the southern struggle against racial bigotry and the Arkansas blacks who attempted to integrate into a white high school following Brown v. The Board of Education were taunted and jeered by whites. Many Americans think that racism is a thing of the past, and while to a large extent it may be gone, it certainly is not forgotten.