Race, while as old as civilization, continues to escape a sustained conversation. For some reason, we feel satisfied with completely ignoring the subject, or only addressing it when a blatant and ugly incident makes it unavoidable, and calls into question our own sense of decency.
The mission of USARiseUp is to provide an opportunity to share meaningful information that helps improve our understanding and relations across race and ethnicity. Please take a few minutes to add your thoughts to this conversation about race relations in your city. We value your input and will include your observations and recommendations with thousands of others to assess where we are when it comes to race relations in your city, and America.
Outcome: To compile a report of the findings and provide a copy to you and other decision makers in your city. The goal is to assist you in bringing about meaningful change and progress in improving race relations in your communities.
Click Here To Join The Town Hall Discussion about race relations in your city:
Framing The Town Hall Discussion:
Racist patriotism. Patriotic racism. Oh, what images those juxtapositions conjure. Patriotism has been such a unifying force in the same land where racism has been and continues to be such a divisive one. We can come together when we are attacked or at war. But too many of us persist in attacking each other and are intolerant when we are at peace.
As we go about our daily lives, we so easily forget that it is because of the hard work and the sacrifices of many different races and ethnic groups – of many religious, socioeconomic places groups and even political party affiliations – that we can be patriotic at all. People of all races, ethnicities, religions and political persuasions have played a role and contributed to making up the rich tapestry of America. And they continue to do so, every day, in any field you can imagine – from art to zoology.
Yet from one generation to the next, too many of us – either out of ignorance, fear, greed, convenience, or simply indifference – persist in allowing our attitudes and actions to be governed by gross misperceptions of each other. We readily allow one stereotypical image to define how we perceive and relate to a whole race of people.
Wasn’t it individualism and the rolling out of the welcome wagon to many different people from around the world that helped build America – the “great melting pot?”
America is not the only country with race relations challenges. Like global warming, it is an issue that continues to threaten the planet in varying degrees. We have our vigilante groups while other countries have their ethnic cleansing. And like global warming, if we continue to ignore racism, it could ultimately be our undoing.
The improvement of race relations deserves our ongoing attention. We must do it for our children, our grandchildren, and their children. Since the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, we continue to hear and read much about the need to wage and win the war on terrorism. The fact is, any effective strategy to win a lasting victory in the war on terrorism must include a deliberate and sustained effort to educate our children about racial, ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, not only as it exists in America, but around the world.
The mission of USARiseUp.com is to provide a community forum for us to address matters of race in an educational and informative way to help improve race relations among all of us.
We look forward to you joining us in this sustained conversation, about race relations that is long overdue.
Together, we can work to make things better for us all.
About author: Janice S. Ellis is the Publisher & Executive Editor of USARiseUp.