Race Relations

Race Relations

A constant problem in the developed world has been the relation of races with each other. People are destined to judge each other for one reason or another, and the laziest/easiest way to do so has always been to judge based on how others look. Judging based on color allows for prejudices that are often unfounded and unintelligent, and which just perpetuate a cycle of ignorance and regression. Prejudice is not a quality that is a positive in any human being, much less when it does not allow for common sense or relevance.

America is a country that was founded with race relations on the back burners, and is a country which had much to overcome in that department. Many claim that America still has many strides to make to conquer the problem, but not all citizens of a country can be forced to think a certain way. The greatest thing about our country is that individuals are allowed to think whatever they want. This being the greatest thing, it has also been one of the most divisive. No issue has ever sparked as much debate, hatred and suffering as race. Were it not for race differences between slaves and masters, the states rights issues of the South would not have been as heated as they were, and certainly would not have sparked a national war. This is not to say that the South would not have had a complaint for states rights, it is to say that it would not have come about the same way as it did.

Many a problem has plagued the USA since the time of the Civil War, and many obstacles have been overcome in pursuit of a better country. When our founding fathers created the perfect country, they gave us the foundation for a great country, and I will vote that we have created that great country where people can be themselves. A problem that consistently arises in my own mind continues to be race relations. The races were supposedly integrated in the middle 20^th Century, yet I can not find that to be true. There is a presidential candidate running for the Democrat Party is not a phrase I have heard very much this past year. Barack Obama is not a presidential candidate running for office with the ideas he has to make out country better. Obama is the first black candidate. Barack Obama is a black man, and all that seems to matter to many is that fact. African American. Native American. Irish American. Indian American. None of these should be an identification with which we use to distinguish ourselves from our neighbors.

When our country was founded it was compared to a melting pot, in which individual ingredients only give a hint of their real flavor. Allowing people to be separated based on their differences allows for the very segregation that we have fought to abolish. We are Americans, and that is all that should matter. If some of these Americans have personality aspects that they wish to acknowledge, that is a great thing, but these should not be what we use to define ourselves. If Americans are allowed to be classified into thousands of categories, they cease to be Americans, but instead continue to take the minority status that creates problems and belies the melting pot of all humans in our country.. Separating by race, creed, religion, sex, etc. is something that has gotten some countries in the greatest of trouble and is a crux that we have fought since the founding of our very country.