by Major W. Cox
It has become my custom to begin each year with a review of the past year to gain insight and shoot an azimuth for the next. With respect to Janus, the Roman god of gates and doors, for whom January is named, this column closes the door on 1997.
The January/February trilogy, Ebonics Rooted in Slaves’ Language, More To Crime Than Numbers Show, and Institutional Racism Still Pervasive, conveyed a common theme. In these articles, I argued that race problems stem from past race classifications and only a reconstruction of American institutions will eliminate today’s race-based conflicts.
Next, a duo: Misguided Party-Switchers Choosing Backward Response took a historical look at conservative thought. Then, New Rejection of Liberalism Strikes At Core National Values provided a contrast that concluded with some prudent words from Justice Hugo Black on the wisdom of separation between church and state.
Three independent themes followed. First a March discourse, West Montgomery Can be As Integrated as Rest Of City addressed the city’s East/West racial divide. Next, Role Models Met To Bid Farewell to One of Their Own, a personal exposition on the late Bernice Gray’s funeral. Then, Durr Lecture Series Brightens City’s Intellectual Climate discussed and chronicled AUM’s successful lecture series.
In an April piece, James, Moore Should Resign, I made a wide literary stretch. After witnessing a support-rally for Judge Moore, I described the 1921 lynching of John Lee Eberhardt as a reminder of the historical link between racial and religious intolerance. In July with Loving Case’s Lessons Linger, I revisited this issue. I contrasted the 1967 Supreme Court decision declaring Virginia’s anti-miscegenation act unconstitutional, to US District Judge Ira Dement’s decision forbidding prayer in an Alabama school.
A thematic trilogy; Government Should Aid White Males In Tough Transition, followed by Time To Dismantle ‘Whiteness,’ and Discussions About Race Occurring; discussed the oxymoronic situation the "white" race category places on individual Americans so classified.
Many of these individuals readily accept the white race category for its higher status and accompanying privileges, while at the same time denying responsibility for the disadvantage whiteness imposes on non-white Americans. My attendance at the second national conference on whiteness, "Exploring Whiteness To End Racism" resulted from this theme. Expect to read more on this subject.
A controversial piece on Kelly Flinn, Gap Of Opinion On Flinn Case Wider Than B-52 She Flew, got me in trouble with some readers, as did my August piece on Autumn Jackson and Bill Cosby, Extortion Is Criminal, But So Is This Kind Of Child Abuse. Expect an update on Flinn and Jackson in the coming months. The former Air Force pilot has written a book and Bill Cosby’s could-have-been-daughter was sentenced for extortion.
My vision for the city’s future, Montgomery Offers Example of Healthy Race Dialogue forecast better race relations. I see the city deriving much benefit from on- going conversations between citizens in groups like One Montgomery. In that same tone, October’s White Males At Beginning Of Race Talk, expressed support for the President’s national race conversation.
On a hot August day, I visited the UPS workers’ strike line and wrote, Strikers Serious About Stand. They, in fact, did win their strike. Later that month, I lost some readers’ enthusiasm with Alabamians Need Choice Of Marriages, an article about Louisiana’s Covenant Marriage Act and calling for a similar choice in Alabama. My fortune changed however, when the Nation of Islam’s leader visited the area. Neglect Created Farrakhan manifested wide reader interest.
Stop Asking About Race In Census commented on pending changes in categories for reporting census race data in 2000. This piece created the intellectual space to repeat my call to end the government’s use of racial categories. I predict Congress or the courts will end government’s use of racial categories within the next decade. As we end affirmative action, majority/minority racial political districts, and other race-based programs, there is no longer justification for government’s use of divisive racial categories.
My perennial recital, Missing Fathers Take Big Toll warned of the pathologies of fatherlessness. Nothing new here. A solution to our nation’s absent-father problem continues to escape political leaders. It remains to be determined, who will answer when millions of the next generation’s citizens ask, "Where is my father?"
I closed the curtain on 1997 with Path of Racial Discrimination Ends With Criminal Statutes. In this article, I argue for criminalization of individual acts of racial discrimination as the only way to effectively end racism.
~
______________________________
Published: 8 January 1998, Montgomery Advertiser.
© Copyright
- 1992-2004 - Major W. Cox and Montgomery Advertiser.
Read our copyright notice.
Home | Directory of Columns | Search | More About Major Cox | Related Links