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[SEC=UGA]

I was just reading an article about an interview with Rodney King regarding the Trayvon Martin case.

I like Rodney King and like what he had to say.  Each time he speaks, he hits on a singular topic... Unity.  As he famously announced in 1992, "why can't we all get along", he continue to do so today.  He seems to be the sort of person who truly and honestly wants this country to get better, he wants a healing between the races.

Yes, he is a notorious and habitual fu(k-up.  He should probably be locked away for a good long time for his habitual offeses.  But, I believe that as screwed up as he is, that he is really a decent, rational and caring person.

[delusions of grandeur]

I really hope that both sides of the extreme don't go overboard here, though I fear they will...

I saw a perfect example today of the massive strides we're making when it comes to race relations. I've lived near the ghetto, and now in an incredibly diverse area in Smyrna, GA, where I'm within stones throw of brand new 400,000+ homes, and on the other side a predominantly mexican/black apartment complex...

So today as I pulled into the gas station, I saw 2 guys chatting, one a white guy in a suit, and the other a black guy with dreads and baggy jeans. Well, it doesn't take a racist for you to assume which one of them was more likely to approach me for a favor (and that doesn't even have to do with race, just their dress)... As it turns out, the guy in the suit had gotten into a bind, out of gas and unable to make it to his job. He only needed to borrow a phone from me, but as the black guy was walking out, he hands the guy the few bucks he needed. I was immediately proud to see a fellow man helping out another, even when in the past he might have assumed he wouldn't have gotten the same benefit of the doubt if he was asking as a black man.

Hell, I've even sat down and talked to a black vet on foodstamps one day, who ended up offering me to help me with a job when I was looking for one, and moreover, just how pleasantly black and whites are getting along in many cases, when in the past, it would have been an unspoken thing to keep conversation to a minimum between races, if not some being flat-out rude, somewhat justifiably for black folks..

I just don't think that the people who aren't integrated with other races can understand how much things have changed, rapidly in the last few years... Not to give Obama himself any credit for race relations improving, but it'd be ignorant to not think that enough people voting for a president without regard to color (even if in actuality there may have been some guilt involved for some), gives hope that we can move past judging books by their cover and realize we're all just people.

However, I do worry about black/mexican and even white/mexican relations, as I don't even want to get started about the culture clash that continues to exist there. But I think all to often we look at race, when it really most of it is just the problems that always exist when the disparity between classes greatens, and in that regard it's very surprising they're improving in spite of economic woes.

Edited by delusions of granduer, 12 April 2012 - 04:15 PM.