Growing up in the sixties and seventies, race and racism was a genuine concern for the black population as well as Hispanics, Jewish, Italians, etc.. Anyone that remembers “The Archie Bunker Show” will relate, that was in fact the attitude of older middle class Americans for the most part. It was funny, because it was relatable, but everyone also saw the ridiculousness of it. In the small community that I grew up in, it was frowned upon that an Italian would date a German-Irish girl, by both families. Women could get work, but only certain types of jobs, and for much lower pay. The attitude was that they did not have a family to support. We were still clinging to the idea that women got married and played housewife and men supported their families and everyone stayed married, “until death do us part.” After all, that was what our parents did. That was what was expected. If this did not happen in a woman’s life then it was a failing on her part, “ she was just an old maid”, or there was something wrong with her. Often, she ended up living with her parents forever or to live relatively impoverished.

Discrimination was everywhere. It was anywhere that did not fit into the lifestyle of the last hundred years. People went so far as changing their names after world war II so they didn’t sound as German, Italian or Jewish. The generation of the sixties and seventies fought very hard to change that, to provide equality where it did not exist. Affirmative action was so that employers, big and small could not eliminate a prospective employee based on gender or the color of their skin. A huge step! Black and white children started going to school together so they would get to know one another, because the theory was, segregation was that there was no exposure, so no understanding of one another’s culture. There was a great push for sensitivity and understanding of the minorities. So much so that freedom of speech was squelched to a certain extent because different terms to reference minorities were considered offensive to them. Most of our parents, never really looked at them as being offensive, just terms they grew up with. The “N” word for a black person is very offensive. It was a term that our parents grew up with from the days of slavery, it was in the history books and novels and television. There was no indication they were offending anyone until it was pointed out. The “D” word for Italian is equally offensive, but once again, these were nothing more than terms of reference, never meant to offend.

I have been called a “cracker” because my skin is white. My understanding of this term is that it came from slave days of people cracking whips….I never owned a slave. No one I know did. In this day and age no one alive has been a slave of the sense they were in the early eighteen hundreds. This has been abolished since the civil war that ended in 1865, that was a product of the American people seeing the injustice of it and at great personal expense, loss of life and sacrifice, 150 years ago the slaves of this country were given the same freedoms everyone else had. But did we forget about all of the white people that fought and died to free the slaves at the time? It’s time to move on.

So do we have equality today? No, not even close. However the fight today has changed dramatically. Where we have fought so hard for everyone to have equality in this country, we find that the people that lack equality and consideration of any kind are in fact the people that were behind promoting it to begin with. The average white, American. We are called racists if we ask for equality. We want the welfare system cut back so that people cannot make it a career choice to be passed down to generations as it has been for decades. Because the majority of the people that live off the governmental system is of a “minority”, we are called racists. The fact is, that it is our tax money that supports these ineffective systems, and if I have to go to work and make a living, everyone should have that same need.

Our congress houses the “ The Black Caucus”, that will stand up and call the Tea Party racist. Do you see a “ White Caucus?” Our black president , that was largely put into office by white constituents, goes to a black meeting and asks them to “ march with him.” If a white president did this, they would be looked at as though they were the Ku Klux Klan. But he will march down the street with “ the Black Panthers”, whom were a notoriously radical and violent group in the sixties. But that’s not racist. Members of the back caucus have stood in front of a black audience and told them how the “Tea Party would like to see them all strung up on a tree.” Not only is that an unadulterated, bald face lie, it is racist and inciting a riot. But, because they are black no one says anything, if they were white, the black community would be rioting. Are we starting to see the double standard here?

Several states offer illegal aliens free college tuition, housing and sometimes cars, but if you are a white American, there is no help, it’s just your tax payer dollars that get to pay for them. As a working middle class taxpayer we cannot afford to go to college or send our kids to college, but no one cares about that. If you are illegal or on welfare, you get free healthcare. Hospitals in certain areas are being shut down because the fact that illegal immigrants are overtaxing their resources, taxpayers are getting hit with much of the bill including the government trying to force us to pay for their mandated healthcare, and if we cannot afford it, we can die in the street and get fined doing so. NO one cares. But if we want to just take care for ourselves instead of supporting the illegal immigrant population or asking the people on welfare to get a job and contribute to their healthcare, because we do, then we are just being racist. If we want to require people to get a drug test before they collect government funds, it’s being racist. Never mind that we get drug tested before we go to work to pay the taxes they are collecting from, never mind that we as taxpayers do not want to enable a drug addict or choose to support someone that has no interest in taking care of themselves. That is being racist.

Is there discrimination, absolutely! But the discrimination is now against the average white American taxpayer and the current government is doing it’s very best to promote that instead of providing equality to ALL citizens. As far as hope and change? The change is painfully evident in the government promoting more and more people to live on the government dime instead of promoting free enterprise that made this country great, but hope? Hope for who? When the tax dollars run dry, where is the money coming from?