I Passed for White and Straight, Even Though I'm Not -- How Looks Hide My Identity

[haele]

25. When access to opportunity and power is race-neutral, then you might, might

have a reason to bring up that question.

We are currently in the phase where race and prejudice is being discussed and recognized, not that "the problem is fixed". Just because there are more "black people" in power, or who have made a lot of money, does not mean that the promise land has been reached.
There are also more blacks in prison, and blacks are being profiled, stopped, frisked, and suspected in greater numbers than previously - just as they are beginning to step out into the greater public instead of being relegated to red-lined neighborhoods and segregated out of sunset towns and do not have the same perception of social worth that those who have lived within the existing society of those communities receive on a daily basis. The newcomer is "the other", the red-headed stepchild, the bumpkin who is a leach diminishing local resources because they have "a different culture they don't want to change to fit in", or "their families haven't paid their dues like the generations living there before them" or some other such nonsense. While under the law, race relations have gotten better -but socially in some areas, it is getting worse as some people who already have privilege are afraid of losing their own status or money if they are forced "to share".

The classic race problem is still opportunity for advancement or positions. Nobody wants to think they didn't have enough skills and "lost" in a competition for a job or a school slot where there are a large number of applicants, including minority representatives, competing for the same position. So if the minority gets the work, it's assumed that it's gotta be because of "race" or "quotas" - "you're just as (or maybe more) qualified as that other guy, but they got picked because they looked different than you" - instead accepting that it was a weighed business or educational decision that always has a lot of other factors involved than just race or quotas.
In my experience, unless it's a completely blind hire or advancement, when someone in a "majority" racial or gender class is "passed over" for a position and a minority gets the job, that person rarely ever questions their own status or capabilities - or the organization that made the final decision - because the minority sticks out like a sore thumb, no matter how qualified they are. It's gotta be the race (or gender, or religion), because that's the "only difference".

There is still a great prejudice - a pre-judging - based on race, color, and class, both within American society and within the black community itself, as the black middle class is disappearing at a greater rate than the white middle class. The pendulums of reaction and backlash need to be addressed and mitigated before you can say "NAACP - keep it or kill it?"

The NAACP will either evolve or disappear naturally as the issues of race equality, opportunity, and accessibility evolve themselves.

Haele