I was reading through the headlines on my MSN homepage when I came across this:
Get the best in black literature.
The Africana Library of Black America contains 120 of the most important literary and historical works by Americans of African descent. Selections include everything from collections of poetry to autobiographies to complete novels. The Africana Library of Black America is now part of the Encarta Reference Library.
Now, if it were to read as follows:
Get the best in white literature.
The Americana Library of White America contains 120 of the most important literary and historical works by white Americans. Selections include everything from collections of poetry to autobiographies to complete novels. The Americana Library of White America is now part of the Encarta Reference Library.
What comes to mind when you read the second article? Yep. Racism. If it were to be printed the way I wrote it, everyone would be in an uproar. It would have to be something to do with the KKK or some other white supremacy group. Everyone would be running around screaming, "why do they insist on making it a point to tell eveyone they're white?" It wouldn't be looked at as some literary fact. It wouldn't be viewed as a celebration of our heritage and the abilities of our race. Why is it that when the black community accomplishes something, their race must be mentioned repeatedly? When the white race accomplishes something, the accomplishment is simply stated and it is left at that. We don't find it necessary to remind you that we did this and that and we're white. We don't build libraries and museums and put "white" in the name of these establishments. We don't do this for two reasons; 1)we wouldn't be allowed to get away with it because it would be too racist and we'd be blamed for segragation and 2) what's the point? Why does it matter if we accomplished something while being white? To me it sounds like it means 'we accomplished this despite the fact we're black/white". So while we will always be able to see this: '10 great novels by African Americans', we will never see: '10 great novels by White Americans.' Doesn't seem fair, does it?
