Race Relations In America: A Snapshot

by Emmanuel Omoh Esiemokhai

Race relations in America got into a messy tangle last week. It is a rotten shame that in America, there are still many people, who embrace racial intolerance, without understanding the disastrous consequences of such racial outbursts.

There is a spiritual dimension to racial discrimination and denigration of Man. Those light-headed individuals, who are racists are advertently or inadvertently questioning the Creator of the Universe, why He created people with different skin pigmentations, noses, hairs and eyes.

No-one deserves an answer to such stupid musings. In every society on our planet and I have visited the five continents, “some people run, some people walk, while some people don’t even move at all.” Don Williams.

I have never bothered whether some-one is piggish-white, charcoal- black or Obama brown. My quest has always been to find out what such people have done to add value to the human condition on planet Earth.

This is why I often look down on African leaders, who fail to uplift the conditions of life of those they claim that they are governing. When I compare the progress that the Chinese and other states have achieved, I feel ashamed.

Non-performance can lead to loss of esteem and one cannot blame those, who demand high standards from their fellow earth sojourners.
In America, the society was so structured that the Caucasian race had better opportunities to develop themselves than the negro and indians, who faced elimination.
This situation lasted for centuries. It is a heart-rending story.

As the world entered the ERA OF THE GENTILES, ATONEMENT AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN, the will of Jehovah NISI, manifested in America.
Mr Barack Obama, unexpectedly became the President of the United States of America.
Ever since, every presidential policy aimed at improving the human condition in America has been misinterpreted and misconstrued to favour “blacks” . As a result, racist and race-conscious organisations have sprung up in America like mushrooms, all determined to run down the Obama administration.

The health-care and banking regulatory laws are in defence of the socio-economic rights of all Americans.
The defence of human rights is the primary purpose of modern international human rights law, to which the United States had subscribed to, inexorably.However, there appears to be disconnects between the zeal with which the US promotes human right externally and its strict application of laws against racial discrimination in America.
The United Nations Charter urges nations to promote” Universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.”

The United Nations Durban Human Rights Conference 2001, expanded the scope of the defence of human rights to include xenophobia and racial intolerance.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination should be reviewed to include measures against xenophobia and related intolerance.
It is ironic that during the last World Cup, participating nations condemned racism, yet, the message seems to have fallen on deaf ears. This proves that “Things are easier said than done”

The Harvard University don’s case and the Agricultural director’s mistreatment show that race relations in America have not gained acceleration in the right direction that should lead to racial harmony.

In the 1975 UN Declaration on All Forms of Racial Discrimination, it was stated that (a) Any doctrine on race differentiation is seriously flawed, morally condemnable, socially unjust, and dangerous. There is no justification for racial discrimination , in theory or practice,(c) Racial discrimination harms, not only those, who are its objects but also those, who practice it.

Small-minded acts like xenophobia, intolerance, racial bigotry, ethnic preference, erect barriers on the historical forward march of the human race. Such practices create inferiority complexes and reduction in daring, reduction in self-esteem, etc.
All these handcuff ambition, human adventure and the spirit of enterprise.

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1 comment

Jane Clark July 27, 2010 - 7:42 am

This commentary is vey apt and incisive.

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