Blackosphere & Whitosphere
Man, where to begin on this conversation!?
It seems like we, liberals and the Democratic Party (and the country, for that matter), have been engaged in this conversation since the Civil Rights movement — and even before then, I’m sure. Frankly, everything that needs to be said has been said, the points are now old and stale and, to many, seem to lack relevancy. Please, don’t get me wrong: I’m a firm believer that conservation is always good, and that if family members (as we all belong to the American family) have grievances that they need to get off their chest, then a family meeting must be called and held till what needs to be said has been said. Of course, a resolution may not be arrived at at that time, and if more meetings are necessary then, shit, hold more family meetings. What for me is missing from the conversation that European-Americans and African-Americans have been having with each other over the past 50+ years is that there are a lot more settings at the table nowadays; consequently, these two parties must recognize that the dynamic of the conversation has changed.
Sure, the odious history of slavery in America binds European-Americans and African-Americans more closely to each other, perhaps, than how they’re bound to other hyphanated-Americans. However, while these two aggrieved family members continue their two-way conversation at one end of the table, Latinos have become the second largest group at the family gathering; Arab- and Muslim-Americans have garnered some unwanted attention of recent, and their contributions to the dialogue may be more important than ever to the global discourse; and, just as importantly, globalization is affecting everyone at the table from the bottom up.
And this is what gets me about the two-way conversation that some continue to advocate. Of course, my description above doesn’t even begin to capture the complexity of the conversation that we ought to be having; but one thing is for sure, two way conversations — specially in an age of economic and cultural globalization — are simply insufficient.
