My, how far we've come.

Have you ever been out in your neighborhood, at work, at the mall even, and thought that you were better than someone b/c of what you had, where you live, or by the color of your skin? At the same time have you been in those same places and thought that someone thought less of you for those same reasons? How far have we really come as a country from 50 years ago? We pride ourselves on melting cultures and being one. You know, the coming together attitude that we carried so proudly after Sept 11. But when anything comes in that we cannot wrap our minds around we freak out and say that things should go back to the way it was 50 years ago.

I have always carried the quote with me, "We are scared of things we do not know." What if you were a family that lived on the other side of the Mexican border and had a family of five, three of which were severely malnourished because they had not eaten a solid meal for the last 2 months. You had no money, and in your current town, there was not an honest way to provide for your family. You want to do something, but have no clue of what that needs done and no idea on where to start. Would you,

A. Do nothing.

B. Rob, steal, and kill in order to feed your starving family.

C. Try to cross the border illegally where there were jobs to help feed your starving family?

I am not saying that either of these are right. But if I were in that same scenario, I know which one I would choose if I had a starving child. I write about this b/c I have fell victim to this type of racism. Why can't Whites, Blacks, Asians, Mexicans, Indians, etc. help each other? To me that question is easy. It's not about race anymore. It's about class.... I attached part of an article I read tonight on this subject. Check out these stats. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/feb/19/usa.paulharris

"An America divided."

.There are 37 million Americans living below the poverty line.

· The United States has 269 billionaires, the highest number in the world.

· Almost a quarter of all black Americans live below the poverty line; 22 per cent of Hispanics fall below it. But for whites the figure is just 8.6 per cent.

· There are 46 million Americans without health insurance.

· There are 82,000 homeless people in Los Angeles alone.

· In 2004 the poorest community in America was Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Unemployment is over 80 per cent, 69 per cent of people live in poverty and male life expectancy is 57 years. In the Western hemisphere only Haiti has a lower number.

· The richest town in America is Rancho Santa Fe in California. Average incomes are more than $100,000 a year; the average house price is $1.7m.

This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday February 19 2006 on p32 of the World news section. It was last updated at 13:31 on February 27 2006. " After you look at these statistics of what make up our America, which makeup of our culture do you think that you are most racist toward? Whites, Black, Asians, Native Americans, Mexican? Does it have something to do with where they live, what they do, what they look like? At the same time does this have a direct correlation with the amount of money that race makes. I would argue that the latter of those options is what I struggle with more than any other type of racism. It's so sad that it happens but it's true. Has "racism" taken on a new color and tone? This is a question that is being asked a ton in our small group. Have we disassociated ourselves from people that don't look like us so much that we have turned racist with out even knowing it? Or even sadder, have we done this knowingly and blamed it on crime and a bad city to save face? What do you think?