TAKING DOWN THE FLAG WILL NOT CUT IT, RACISM IN AMERICA BROADER THAN FLAG?

Icheoku says although the current move in South Carolina to take down the racist, slave-owners' Confederate flag is a good step in the right direction; but like President Obama rightly pointed out 'merely  not using the derogatory word 'NIGGER' to address a black American does not necessarily mean there is no racism in the country.' The country needs to do more and should indeed do more if it sincerely wants to move the issue of race relations in America forward and to a more better acceptable and tolerable place. Icheoku says America needs to be more proactive, instead of all these fire service approach as the current reaction to the Charleston church race-killings, in broaching, tackling and decisively dealing with the issue of racism in America. 

Racism is a problem which is very pervasive throughout the American society, regardless of its present day mostly subterranean nature. Therefore taking the flag down from the grounds of South Carolina state capital is more of a mere symbolic gesture, concocted to pacify the current rage over the church murders in Charleston, than a real solution to race problems in America. So after the flag is taken down and the current media hoopla, camera and lights are panned elsewhere, then what? Has the black American been able to get a job? Has the back American been able to be accepted in the society as a person, especially in certain neighborhoods where he or she is not a welcome sight? Has the black American been able to get loans and credits from banks and at the same rate and terms as his/her average white counterpart? Has he or she  been able to get mortgage rates comparable to his.her white counterparts? Has the black American been able to walk the street freely without unduly being conscious of the police who would apprehend him or her rough him or her up or even shoot him or her for somewhat trivial reason? Has the black American male been able to be seen and treated like a human being and not just that angry black man? 

Icheoku is emphatic that there are simply so many forms of racism in America and only those who wear the shoes, the victims of racism, actually understands the pain because they feel the pain. These are the targets of racism, the victims of racism in America, the people that actually have and should have the sole prerogative to attest to the ugly effects of being discriminated against because of the color of their skin. Icheoku says the current renunciations of racism will be more effective the moment it begins to address the mindset that fosters it; the moment it begets full integration amongst all races that call America home; the moment a black kid and white kid can freely play in the park without the white kid's parents coming to yank their child away from the playground because he is not supposed to mingle with the black kid; the moment white people and black people will not practically live in a separate but equal society; a society where blacks have their own neighborhood while the white people have their own neighborhood and a white person can kill a black person for merely straying therein; where black people have their own black churches while white people have their own white churches or where late Jerry Falwell could proudly proclaim that white people have a different God from black people; where white kids have and enjoy all the privileges including best schools and better job opportunities while black kids are left holding the bags. 

Icheoku says until the longing of Martin Luther King of an America where Americans will be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin are put into effective practical use, all these current rhetoric  on race or taking the flag down will continue to sound hollow; and at best are only as good as the sound bites which they are.  These existing racial differences in America are the things that need to be taken down alongside the confederate flag; but not just only the symbolic flag flying on the grounds of South Carolina and throughout Southern United States of America. 

Icheoku says action speaks louder than words, so let white Americans show black Americans and indeed the entire world that they are now ready to do good to and by their fellow Americans and then put their words into practical effects. But for Senator Lindsey Graham and Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina to suddenly feel jolted because of the Charleston church murders into now calling for the take down of the confederate flag that has flown in South Carolina for several decades now, is merely pandering to the moment and the current hysteria in the country. Why haven't these elected officials done something about the flag all these years or did they think it was funny reminding fellow Americans of their slavish past or that some people proudly resisted the attempt to grant fellow human-beings full human-being status of civil rights, flowing from the abolition of slavery? Such was their crazed-out desired intent to continue to keep fellow human-beings as their slaves that they took up arms against the country to retain their slave owning capacities and abilities; which they now celebrate through confederacy and its nauseating confederate flag. 

One thing with politicians is that they are like willow grass that always bend with the wind of opinion. Just give these panderers a few weeks when the current media attention will fade away and they will be singing alleluia to the merits of keeping the flag flying in honor of their war heroes past?   Their mantra is whatever gets them elected and keeps them in office is germane enough, regardless of the abhorable nature of it or the hurt it visits on some. But hey, at least taking down the flag is a right thing to do and a good start. If the death of the nine church-killed is what gets it done or becomes the kick-starter of solving race problems in America,  then may be, their death was not in vain afterall. But more than that, it is about time white Americans sincerely started listening to the cries of racism in America towards doing something about it. Every American is an American and therefore this discrimination based on the color of skin is not only not right, it is reprehensible and should not continue to have a place in America. The golden rule says "do unto others as you would like done unto you"; but why white Americans turn deaf ears to this rule bemuses Icheoku. So, it will be a thing of joy if white Americans would find some good in their heart to use the instance of the church-murders in Charleston to recommit themselves towards solving the race problem which is bedeviling the America society.