by Mikel Kwaku Osei Holt
"How can it be that so many well meaning White people have never thought about race when so few Blacks pass a single day without being reminded of it."--Patricia Williams
For reasons I can’t explain, the Policy Institute didn’t send us a copy of its recent report on racial attitudes of Milwaukeeans.

Maybe they assumed we would find fault with the report, which revealed that most Whites are in denial about the impact of race and prejudice on society. Or maybe, the publishers assumed that as a Black newspaper we are so immersed with race on a daily basis that we would just stack the report on the shelf with the other dozen or so publications we’ve received on the subject in the last decade or so.

Truth be told, those assumptions would be on target. I am "raced" out, fed up with the numerous reports, talk shows and seminars that flood our airways, meeting halls, and classrooms. I’m beyond frustration in trying to convince White folks about the impact of race on every aspect of our lives.

My heart has grown callouses hoping against hope that America would live up to the tenets of our Constitution, that Christians would follow the principles of the book they supposedly hold so dear, or that McDonald’s would make a low fat hamburger.

It isn’t going to happen.

It ain’t goin’ happen cause you can’t legislate attitudes. It ain’t goin’ happen cause racism is as American as apple pie, baseball and Brett Favre throwing an interception with the game on the line.

It ain’t gonna’ happen because racism is as important to the economy as the fundamental tenets of economic exploitation; in fact it is an intrinsic foundation of Eurocentric capitalism, promoting class and ethnic divisions that exploit workers and thus ensure cheap labor and profitability.

The era of a strong middle class has long since past, gone the way of cheap gasoline, responsive government and marriages between virgins.

The strategy to ensure profitability is paved with a caste system that allows the poorest White to still feel superior to anyone of color; economic compensation has been replaced with a psychological bonus of implied superiority.

Most importantly, it ain’t gonna’ work because the truth of the matter is we--Americans of all hues, incomes, nationalities and incomes—don’t possess the wherewithal, desire or internal fortitude to make it happen.

As former MCJ columnist Marvin Hannah often said, "you can do it if you wanna, but you must wanna." I question if America really wants to.

Matter of fact, now that I think about it, it isn’t going to work cause too many White people are in denial about racism, and their role in perpetuating apartheid.

And too many Black people are in denial about how we perpetuate stereotypes, and thus fuel prejudices that Whites use to justify their ungrounded distrust, fears and biases toward people of color.

Too many Black folks are unwilling to forgive White folks for 400 years of oppression, and too few White folks are willing to admit their role in sustaining the system of apartheid that exists in America today.

Too many Black folks are blaming White folks, and racism, for everything from bus routes (it’s a racist plot to keep us from jobs) to the unwillingness of pizza establishments to deliver to Black neighborhoods.

Contrarily, White folks are blaming Black people for escalating costs of police protection, factory relocations and the decision by fast food chains to charge for condiments.

Obviously, we are so far apart in our worldviews, and our perceptions about racism and prejudice, that one has to wonder if the melting pot is really a molten kettle of lava.

Political rhetoric notwithstanding, America is on the brink of social and cultural chaos, and all that is being offered as solutions are in truth band aides with faulty glue.

The battle today is not in offering a prescription for what ails us, but as the Policy Institute report noted, the unwillingness of all parties to undertake a physical examination. You can’t cure the cancer of racism until and unless you first acknowledge that the patient is sick.

Too many White Americans blame the victims for their plight. They think we created the conditions, are content to be poor, like being second class citizens and enjoy being singled out by merchants, cops, teachers and timid old White ladies who clutch their purses when we walk within 10 feet of them.

There’s something in our genes that make us predisposed to having children out of wedlock, stealing and druggies. We are superior athletes because we grow up running from police or running away from jobs.

The civil rights movement is over, they believe. They allowed us to sit next to them at the lunch counter, to attend their schools, and even to move into their neighborhoods, even if the statistics show it is easier for a White dropout to get a mortgage loan in Milwaukee than a college educated Black man (who apparently only got to college because of affirmative action).

Apparently, they’ve done everything we’ve asked, but change their attitudes, and as I’ve always said, you can’t legislate attitudes, so the battle is over.

How to erase racism and prejudice from the American lexicon? The report didn’t deal with that Herculean task.

And since no one wants to talk us through this, or create a colorblind society, theocracy, or outlaw racism as they did in Cuba, I’m left with but one conclusion, one that I euphemistically call the ‘Tiger Woods’ remedy.

That is, in essence, an America premised on a mandated process of true miscegenation, the penultimate form of integration. An America where all citizens are of mixed race: ‘light, but not white, skin,’ ‘good hair,’ slanted eyes and rhythm.

Now that’s true integration. Have your son marry a White girl, and their children marry an Asian, who in turn marries, or at least procreates, with a Hispanic. The end result after three generations: a true American.

In the interim, let’s prod Barack Obama to run for president, for he fits the profile.

Whites are not "intimidated" by him, White women embrace his sensitivity and charm, and even White men are impressed by his grasp of issues and his common sense agenda for domestic problems.

His oratory skills, intelligence and political pragmatism would serve him well. But most importantly, he’s of mixed race, could pass the paper bag test, and doesn’t sport a mustache or beard.

(If you don’t understand the significance of that latter point, you haven’t been paying attention to the template for successful Black men outside of sports and entertainment.)

Voting for Obama would ease the conscience of guilty Whites, restore some semblance of hope for oppressed Black folks, and lay the foundation for an America that truly is close to a cultural and religious Mecca envisioned by the founders of our country (most of whom were hypocrites, but that’s another story).

Obama may not be the best America has to offer in terms of his political expertise, but from a purely sociocultural perspective, he could be just what the doctor ordered.

And if his children marry a Hispanic or Eskimo, we’re on our way to a truly colorblind society.

Hotep.