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Moreover, it’s a future I can’t even figure out if we want. 19 Do we really want to come together for the common good? Are we willing to reach out and embrace EVERYONE as our brother and/or sister? Are we willing to let them embrace us in the same way? We don’t act like it. We don’t talk about it. Equality is one thing … total harmony is another. Today’s “leaders” are advocating hard for a *One America* for all of us. And the question is, are we really going to follow them to it? "confused:

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Originally posted by EbonyRose:
While the idea of this whole *No-Black/No-White/Only-One America* concept is currently being made famous by Senator Obama from his 2004 Convention speech, it is actually the celebration of MLK that is making me ask today whether or not this thing is for real. The idea of *One America* reminds me of the Star Trek series (the original) … something futuristic but imagined to be real or at least possible! A concept that went so far beyond real life … and one that didn’t catch on very fast. The show only ran for about 2 seasons because there wasn’t very much interest at the time.

However, today that future is here, and we really can talk computers … and they talk back. Men (and women) are flying through space on a regular basis. All we’re missing is a Vulcan, and I suspect we have one of those on the board, too.

Martin spoke and talked and dreamed of a *One America* as well back in the 60’s when it was the furthest thing from the truth. While most leaders before him advocated the unity of the Black community first and foremost, MLK wanted equality and justice for all. We were in a fight for AMERICA, not just for ourselves … we were all in this together … we were one, and should move forward accordingly.

Well, I don’t see one America in the place that I live. In fact, with this historic election in full force, I see divisions I didn’t realize were so deep. Of course there is the Black vs. White, the Black vs. Everybody else, the White vs. Everybody else, and Everybody vs. Everybody else, too! Sometimes it is ourselves against each other. But, the racial split is only the beginning of it. We also have women vs. women, with Oprah having to defend her race against her gender from her fans. And, surprisingly to me, our men, our Black men, are demanding that we make the same choice or face the dreaded label of *traitor* because we cannot so easily split ourselves in two for them, beingonly “Black” and disregarding our womanhood like yesterday’s trash.

But, the question I keep asking myself is, ultimately, isn’t this *One America* thing supposed to be the goal? Aren’t we supposed to striving to be one big happy country where racial differences no longer matter and there is equality for all? Or are we, as a people, aiming only for equality … to have everything be ‘the same as …’ but to retain our own separate individuality as a race? While *colorblind* is about as conceptual as Star Trek was -- seems impossible and certainly not a reality now -- are Black people hoping that that’s what America becomes?

A lot of White folks these days appear to be ready to jump on that *One America* bandwagon, as evidenced by the large support shown to Obama in this campaign. And also by their reverence to MLK. His dream is all they know, but that dream was about unity … and many seem to want to ‘wake up’ to that reality. In fact, they seem to think that everything is hunky-dory right now, and to hear them tell it, we have already overcome. But, those same folk, when the matter of race actually becomes an issue, it’s back to “us” and “them”, “me” or “you”, which is back to the reality of where we really are today.

If we were going to embrace this *One America* concept, then Hillary would have to stop being WHITE before she is a woman, and Barack would have to stop being BLACK before he is a man. According to him (and starting with MLK), that difference that doesn’t even matter anymore. But nothing could be farther than the truth. When you look at his support from the Black community because he is Black how can there be no sense of racial preference? Even though he says he wants to be elected as an American ... not a Black man, that’s not the reality of the way it will go down if he should win. And on the gender side, there is very little understanding, even from our own. Black women are under attack by both Black men and White women, with sometimes very mean and hurtful things being said.

So, to me, this *One America* concept is at once a fact, a fiction, and a fantasy. Moreover, it’s a future I can’t even figure out if we want. Do we really want to come together for the common good? Are we willing to reach out and embrace EVERYONE as our brother and/or sister? Are we willing to let them embrace us in the same way? We don’t act like it. We don’t talk about it. Equality is one thing … total harmony is another. Today’s “leaders” are advocating hard for a *One America* for all of us. And the question is, are we really going to follow them to it?