But are weepy recrimination and shut-up-don't-talk-about-it really the only alternatives white people have when talk turns to black history? Isn't there some middle ground of simple human compassion? Because I've got to tell you: While the one extreme makes me squirm, the other just hacks me off. It's tiresome to hear people deny truth that, in any other context, they would consider obvious. Namely, that we are all shaped by history. All challenged by it, ennobled by it, lifted and stained by it. That yesterday informs today. [...] The point is not that black people bear no responsibility for their own salvation. To the contrary, we bear ultimate responsibility. Nor is that obligation one we have always met. ...
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!