Race in Politics

 Policies in America designed to help people of color are still inherently racist.  Bonilla-Silva wrote about ways language is still racist with out being racist.  President Obama's policy, "My Brothers Keeper", reads "President Obama is taking action to launch My Brother’s Keeper – a new initiative to help every boy and young man of color who is willing to do the hard work to get ahead. For decades, opportunity has lagged behind for boys and young men of color".  The clause in this statement "who is willing to do the hard work" is suggestive that the Obama administration will only help young men of color if they buy into the American dream and work hard.  They are reaching out and asking that the African American community work hard in order to be rewarded and bailed out of the hole they are currently in.  To merely suggest an ultimatum that will only allow help in trade for hard work lends itself to the notion that African American boys will only work hard if there is an incentive behind it.  It is a lot like saying "he works hard, for an African American".  It is a backhanded piece of legislation that posses a clause that needs not be said.  Further more, it also suggests that women of color have no business trying to better themselves.  This legislation does not mention women and their attempts to further education and try to climb the socio-economic ladder. This is an example of how politics in America have an underlying message that people of color need to be enticed more than others in order to work hard, and succeed.  Completely disregarding other policies that are aimed to oppress both the races of color and women of all ethnicities.  This is only a small example of the type of legislation that further solidifies the people in minority.  Americans need to open their eyes and realize that the problem is not the general public.  It is the eyes of the administration and the racial elements of our government bureaucracy.  If hating a race were a crime, most of the crimes dealing with race would be white-collar.  White-collar crimes are very dangerous to the well being of the nation because of the power it posses.  Street crimes may impact the local area, but large level white-collar crimes posses the ability to stretch far beyond localities.  With this added to the power of government agencies, we should be afraid of the damage that is possible from this point.  Not only do these powerhouses contain the ability to do what they want, but they also portray an ambiguous image that lends itself to a non-racist agenda.  It starts with addressing the issue of color-blind racism being a faulted notion.  In order to properly address racism, we need to come to terms that racism is very well alive, and it is in the hands of people who are conceivably the greatest threat.