by Andrew Price
Daily Lobo columnist
The Albuquerque Journal reported this month that Highland High School has been experiencing what it calls ethnic tensions, and that it held a meeting between the school's administration, faculty, parents and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
I guess the Journal calls them ethnic tensions rather than racial tensions because the tensions are between Hispanic and African-American students - without whites involved, by modern politically correct definition, they must not be considered racial tensions.
The thing that bothers me the most are the comments made by the representative from the NAACP. Apparently, the NAACP feels the tensions are merely a misunderstanding between two ethnic groups and that the whole problem can be solved by recognizing and celebrating the groups' differences.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
With the tendency of dissimilar groups to form tensions, it would be much more helpful to recognize and celebrate our similarities.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a day when men would be judged based on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. It is sad the people who claim to be carrying on his work have become the biggest impediment to the realization of his dream.
Their legacy has been disgraced by selling out to the Democrats, the political party that conducted a filibuster to block the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - a practice they often threaten to bring back to every time their minority can't get their way. Many of these sellouts consider John F. Kennedy to be the country's greatest president - and he was the very man who ordered the wire tapping of King back in the 1960s.
These so-called civil rights leaders show up at natural disasters for photo-ops and make human suffering and misery into divisive racial issues and political fodder. Their speeches are riddled with catchy plays on words and quotable sound bites devoid of any content.
The paradox is that true equal rights will leave these false leaders bereft of their power, since their status is dependent on pursuing those rights. This gives them a disincentive to achieve what they claim to be their goal. They fight for the implementation of programs that only indirectly bring any positive change yet increase the size of government.
These so-called leaders practice a soft bigotry, not believing the people they represent are capable of success, thus requiring their leadership and their handouts.
When an African-American like Clarence Thomas or J.C. Watts goes against this, they are labeled as an Uncle Tom, and rather than being engaged in rational debate over real issues, they are quickly dismissed as aberrations.
Ironically, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton each needed great men like Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. in order to become what they became. The difference is that Rice and Powell look out over America and see us, while Jackson and Sharpton look out and see us and them.
Who is being divisive anyway?
Bill Clinton was correct when he apologized to the subjects of the study in which the subjects, all African-Americans, were infected with syphilis and studied without being offered a cure.
At some point, however, we have to abandon the atrocities of the past and face the future together. Whenever humans judge suffering, they always judge their own suffering to be the worst - and from their prospective, of course, they are right.
Black history, Irish history, Jewish history, Arab history and all others' history need to be remembered and celebrated. Let us honor the great men and women of all races, all the while recognizing and understanding our similarities.
