Prejudice and Discrimination Ends in America with President Obama's Election? It Depends
A few weeks ago, Senator Harry Reid was in the news for an unflattering comment he made about how President Obama made it in politics over other African-American politicians because he was threateningly light-skinned, and used neutral language, as opposed to a quickly identifiable Negro one. This would not really be a problematic observation to make if it was said in disappointment. As it happened, Senator Reid said it was relief; relief that America's core heritage in prejudice was safely intact even if one might be led to fear from President Obama's successful election that America was finally done with racial prejudice and discrimination.
The Senator's personal views betrayed by his choice of tone, as odious as they are, do basically point to an immutable truth in today's world. It is no more sensible to deny that black political candidates find success in a way that is directly proportionate to the lightness of their blackness, than it is to deny that democracy treats candidates with success that is proportionate to the amount of wealth they invest in their candidacy. Research on prejudice and discrimination in America, over hundreds of reports, easily show that a person's tone of skin and other signs of racial stock, end up in large part determining how easily he gets hired or fired, imprisoned or released, or, for that matter, elected or defeated. The more a person's physical features betray his racial stock, the more he attracts discrimination.
The research in the reports shows that lighter skinned Latinos in America usually make several thousand dollars more than their darker skinned counterparts, at similar jobs. Success at standardized school tests too, usually favor the lighter skinned person of color; and the difference is as large as it is between blacks and whites. Perhaps people naturally know what color means in today's world. Mercury-laced skin-lightening creams that give women mercury-poisoning are still well-used all over the country by darker skinned people of color. People have to do anything to gain the advantage. It is difficult to call this simple racism; it is prejudice and discrimination just against darker skin, no matter what race a person technically belongs to.
Political advertisements that feature black actors, shown at elections, usually prefer lighter skinned blacks. It has been established that viewers are influenced more readily that way. A political ad in the last presidential elections that tried to defame a specific black politician, used digital techniques to make that politician appear darker-skinned than he was. Before Mr. Obama's election, Americans at least were fully aware of the prejudices that their society held. But now that the first black president has been elected, we have somehow managed to push out of the national dialogue any talk of prejudice and discrimination. It seems like there just is no point anymore. Perhaps that is the problem to face now.
3:45 AM