Jada Williams, a precocious 13 year old and student at School #3 in the mostly African-American populated city of Rochester, New York wrote an essay. A very good essay. In it, she explored the complex nature of humans and focused on the plight of those who suffer from our sadly dysfunctional public schools. Education, she argues, is the key to success in life. Taking the lead from a famous Rochesterian, Frederick Douglass, she expounded on his narrative words. Discretely slicing through the cloud of clap trap surrounding race relations in America today she concluded by saying that this educational breakdown proves that "discrimination still exists in the heart of white men."
Her conclusion is right. I'll wager there is more than one white man living among us who does have the plague of human hatred in his heart. But men, and women, have not just one heart but many. And, most of those hearts beat with the love for a fellow human.
Rochester, by the way, is not a victim of institutionalized racism as those who commented on Jada's essay seemed to think (see link):
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120301/OPINION02/120229008/School-essay-fracas-lost-teachable-moment?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|s
Rochester's segregation is the result of a long pattern of social and economic choice. Despite the attempts of feckless government policies designed to prevent it from occurring, segregation has thrived in our fair city. One cannot legislate economic and social preference. The little city of Rochester, New York is proof of that.
For more information, I recommend Route 15 to Gettysburg, a book I wrote and published recently. You may find it at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Route-15-Gettysburg-A-Journey/dp/0615572456/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330711782&sr=8-1
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