ON RACE

Today is Martin Luther King Day. Tomorrow we inaugurate the first non-white president in United States history. And at last week's work retreat, we saw a display of fishing lures, one of which was clearly named...the N-word. Not "the N-word," but the actual word (I'm not sure why I feel the need to make the distinction, but I do.) There is was, five from the right and three from the top, labeled in beautiful calligraphy.

This led to a discussion about race in America, and how far we have come since the time of Dr. King. For example, fifty years ago, someone decided that it would be a good idea to allow children of different races to go to the same school. That means that prior to this - in America, a country based on freedom - the majority of people were like "No, it's a good idea to not let black kids learn arithmetic next to white kids." What? Seriously?! How is that remotely a good idea?

Okay, okay, education was a big deal. I can understand how some scared people could easily lead the populace through fear and whatever else they used. But to have separate DRINKING FOUNTAINS? That always seemed remarkably petty and childish, to say "I'm willing to put my lips where other white folks put theirs, but not where black people did." Also, from a straight economic perspective, it means you're putting in more drinking fountains that absolutely necessary. Just stupid.

A co-worker said that as a kid, he never understood how making black people sit at the back of the bus was a bad thing, because the cool kids sat at the back of the bus. I was with him, chiefly because the only buses I knew about were school buses. Again, I get the "I don't want to sit next to someone I fear" mentality...but making black people sit in their own little section? Ridiculous.

It's difficult to judge a culture from the outside, but that's the only place it can be judged (against a universal standard? Possibly. for example, would you say that 2009 America is more or less moral than Nazi Germany? Can you quantify morality? Short answer: yes.) In the past forty to fifty years, our culture has changed dramatically, and will likely continue to evolve. It's entirely possible that fifty years from now, we'll marvel at the treatment of gay marriage, or stem cells, or fat people.

And then our alien overlords will engage their neural whips and we'll go back to work in the bacon mines.