..How Little We've Changed...

..A brilliant commentary on the legacy of American racism....

"Make no mistake about it. This will serve to remind us of how little we've changed. Southerners are particularly to blame. They are so proud of their heritage that they cling to the behaviors, beliefs, and the language of slavery. The consequences are direct and unambiguous. Every Confederate flag displayed, every tourist backdrop celebrating the "plantation", every last name of almost every Afro-American citizen serve as a reminder of the ugly past still celebrated by the white culture in the south.

Let's put the dots closer together and see what picture is made clear. The history of the southern states is not merely one of the ownership of human beings. It is also a history that drags a sordid reminder along the years. The southern "charm" is tainted with the ugly stain of rape. Millions of cases of rape. Tens of thousands of children born as a result of rape. The rapists of the slavery era are the great-grandparents of today's southern elite. Yet the children born of those rapes did not benefit from the fact that their owner was also their father.

Count the years. From the early 1600's until well past the Civil War, over 250 years of a culture that secretly endorsed rape as a weapon to secure obedience from women at their disposal; controlling too the male slaves that were allowed to live if they did not revolt against the rape of their women.

The bitterness of the southerner who proudly protects this history lives with the guilt of the era and the knowledge, ultimately, that the people they discriminate against are their own relatives. They are the living DNA connecting today's culture to an unmistakable history of rape.

Even more current examples exist. Strom Thurmond eventually admitted fathering a child with his families maid in the 1930s. In the mean-time, he kept the sordid history secret with bribery. Make no mistake about it. It was rape.

The history of rape in the South continues to be the stain they cannot wash out"

Steven Kale - Eugene, Oregon

"..Thanks For Giving Me a Chance..."

...these were the prescient words of Cam Newton, black QB of the Auburn Tigers football team, in his post game interview. His team had just soundly beaten So. Carolina U. for the SEC championship by 56-17, where he passed for 4 td, ran for 2 td and scrambled almost 100 yds - a remarkable feat considering that just 38 years ago, there had never been a black quarterback allowed to play in the SEC.

For this season, Cam is the first player in SEC history to pass for over 2000 yds. and rush for over 1000 yds. He also owns the Auburn single-season scoring record of over 114 points.  He now also holds the best record in college football history of 28 td passing, and 20 td rushing in a single season.

On his way to this historic achievement, Cam has been the victim of a series of vicious, racist attacks by those in his conference and beyond, who never wanted to see a black playing for a previously all-white southern university, much less a black player leading it at quarterback. At issue are allegations that his father solicited payoff money from Mississippi State U. before his son would consider playing there. Clearly his son did not play there, but instead went to Auburn. So it must be asked, if these allegations are true, then what did Auburn agree to give him to play there???   Significantly Auburn is denying this ever happened - for good reason. If they did admit to paying him, they would be ineligible for conference play, and the conference championship they just won would be invalidated. As well, they would be ineligible for the year-end prestigious BCS championship bowl, worth about $40 million in income to the school. There are some that are hoping that just these allegations will be enough to deny him the Heisman Trophy award for the best player in college football. If he doesn't get it, it will prove that this award is worth very little, and not even worth the metal alloy it is made of.

Being given this chance that Newton spoke of, is the heart of the black experience in America since slavery - the denial of an equal chance for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for blacks in all aspects of American life. Some would argue that it has gotten much better, and it has, but there is still has a significant way to go, as the racist signs of the ignorant teabaggers prove.

What Cam did today, is the worst nightmare of red-necked supremacists, who correctly feared that giving blacks a chance, would result in historic performances like this. And would far surpass those of whites, thus exposing and denying the false premise of white superiority and black inferiority.

In Cam's final interview after winning the game's MVP award, he was asked what would he say to all the fans as well as the TV audience, he said, "a wise man told me, if God be for me, who can be against me?"

That wise man was probably his father who is also a minister.  But, even if it wasn't, it was still the wisest thing anyone could have said to him and I'm glad he shared it with his fans and the nation.