Well-meaning separatists

I don't know who Tony Caputo is, apart from being a person whose mailing list I have found myself on. He might be the most sincere, well-meaning person in the world – but his March 29, 2008, letter to me and several others could not be more misguided, allowing for altruistic intent notwithstanding.

It begins: "All black leaders of America (men and women), which includes all religious leaders, politicians, doctors, lawyers, movie and TV stars, parents, journalists, professional athletes (both active and retired), here is an idea.

"If you want to help your race, put more time and money into programs to get rid of gangs, guns, hatred, violence in schools and streets, as well as teen pregnancy, drugs, and work toward cleaning up your neighborhoods."

At first reading, his comments sound like a practical treatise – even if not a particularly original one. But therein lies a problem. Let me explain: Caputo has thoughtlessly bought into the debilitating mindset that America is a nation of separated races, and thus, he furthers the idea of a white and black America. An America segregated by race and racial behavior juxtaposed to an America comprised and recognized as a whole.

His "If you want to help your race," is exclusionary and defeatist because it subscribes to the segregative mindset that continues to divide this great nation. They (blacks) are not "your race" (sic), i.e., some marginalized subgroup separate from the whole. Blacks are Americans and, thus, part of the American race, the fact that no small number find it to their financial and electoral advantage to minimize, obfuscate, even going so far as to deny this truth, notwithstanding.

It is wrong-minded separatism that recognizes persons based on color of skin rather than their nationality as Americans. And nothing, not even abortion, has done more to divide America.

The systemic problems that plague certain American communities of color will not be resolved so long as they are singularly identified as problems of that specific color group. It was and continues to be such reasoning that is responsible for entombing generations since the Great Society Initiatives in canopic jars of dependence.

The quagmires of urban malaise and self-destructiveness will not be corrected so long as they are viewed through color-coded prisms of "your race," and thus, "your problem."

Caputo asserts, "People like Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, the NAACP and many others have enough money to get [the] project off the ground."

This, too, is wrong-minded. The aforementioned did not work and sacrifice to be successful in their chosen fields of endeavor to then turn around and become de facto welfare systems. They are owing only to themselves, their families and such charities as they choose to support.

It doesn't take their money to clean up neighborhoods. It doesn't take money to pick up trash, and stop littering. It doesn't take Hollywood types, athletes, or professionals. It takes the neighborhoods themselves, joining together with law enforcement, courts and schools to effect positive change. Not change as a "black change," but change as in "American change," toward the end that cooperative efforts provide and ensure avenues to embrace the opportunities that are available to all, regardless of ethnicity.

It isn't "your [black] youth going down the toilet" as Caputo asserts – it is "our American" youth that are being destroyed. It doesn't take a visionary to see that this type of thinking has led to harmful and discriminatory race practices that serve only to further divide. Neither does it take a visionary to see the tremendous advancements that can be made if we divest ourselves of the race-assignation culture and embrace the reality that not only are all men created equal, but that all men can achieve commensurate with their level of desire and their level of ability, without consideration of race.

Healthy, safe, prosperous neighborhoods are not race sensitive. That stated, unfortunately and not so surprisingly, the exact opposite often is. This is what Mr. Caputo failed to grasp. It is mindsets like his that perpetuates acceptance of the hate-filled messages of the Jeremiah Wrights and Louis Farrakhans, et al. It is the mindset that has allowed racial divisions to become profitable, moving uptown to the high-rise buildings and plush office suites.

This is the message we need to hear Clinton, McCain and Obama address – not promoting policies that divide based on color, but supporting race-neutral initiatives. For the collective good of our nation, we must move away from the color-coded assignations that race-hustlers and political parties use as commodities from which to gain. We must work to enjoin one and all together, as Americans, and that does not include hyphenations.

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