Action, reaction and race

For the past year, I've been thinking about how we perceive and talk about race and racism under Obama's presidency. Well, more than a year. I explored the issue in an article I wrote for The Daily Star in Beirut, where I asked Lebanese from around the city what they thought of this African-American candidate.

Although gathering opinions on the world's perception of Obama was enlightening, it wasn't quite the amorphous hurdle I was grasping to understand. Like most others in the States, I'm more curious about how we, as individuals and as a society, think of, react to, and mold the idea of race. Of course, it's more than an idea. Race is a reality that is deeply confused with and embedded with a violent and contentious political history, class disparity, stigmas, and now a confused and often unreadable "black" president. And like most others in the States, I'm clawing my way through the hubbub for an answer.

I don't think we've become particularly enlightened about race, or come to a higher understanding of it. But I do think that politicians, the media, and fringes of our society have become obsessed with it in an almost damaging way.

The Shirley Sherrod mess is only evidence of this. Granted, the accusations that led to Sherrod's firing from her job came from a questionable and unethical source (I'm being nice to Breitbart here with my choice of words), but the fact that it was her views on race that caused her to be fired should raise some eyebrows. Five years ago, Sherrod would probably not have made it in the news for her opinions (even if she had incendiary ones), let alone have been fired for them. Now, a heavily edited video attempting to claim racism causes a scandal lasting days.

Racism is important to acknowledge, and anyone who perpetuates it in violent and negative ways should be held accountable. But the sensationalist manner in which topics of race and racism have overtaken this country is counterproductive, and it masks the actual human and civil rights violations our country perpetuates. What does it say about our society that we are willing to act upon and react to a comments on race with such expediency, and yet have been largely silent (in terms of action) regarding the contentious Wikileaks video on Iraq, reports of use of torture in Guantanamo Bay, and the obscene waste in financial and human resources on ineffective U.S. counter-terrorism institutions. Why has not anyone been held accountable for such atrocities?

Ultimately, this discrepancy in "promoting social justice" leads to one rather alarming question: why are we really obsessed with race?