Race Cards

Today the nation stops work and is supposed to reflect on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Perhaps in New York and Washington, D.C. and so many other places they could reflect a little bit more.

Recently, a potential juror, Raeana Roberson, was given a "standard" jury questionnaire.  She was offended by questions about her race listing the options as Black, African-American, or Negro."  She wrote back on the form that it was 2014 and it was offensive.

Perhaps more offensive though is the idea we are still recording race at all.

Dr. King noted in one of his more famous speeches that he dreamt that “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”  Somewhere along the line I think we missed this and my question is how can we ever lose race consciousness when our government day in and day out tries to pigeon hole individuals into categories whether they describe a color (black) or an area of migration (Caucuses).

Let me be clear. Raeana Roberson, the potential juror in New York was right.  The notecard is offensive and obnoxious and obtuse when consideration is given to Dr. King and the civil rights movement for which he gave his life.  It is time the government got out of trying to categorize us and treat Americans as just that.  Americans.

In the words of one of Dr. King’s contemporaries, Franklin Thomas, “One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.”

They were both right and I wonder if we haven’t lost some of which they yearned in the fight for equality.