"In this country 'American' means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate. " - Toni Morrison
Rescue workers transport a victim who was injured when a car drove through a group of counter protesters at the "Unite the Right" rally Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017. Joshua Roberts / Reuters
My point of view on this is that the United States is a sick country. But it has been from day one. Just after the so-called "Independence", discrimination started.
'Eventually, slaves become Negroes, who become "colored" and finally Afro or African-Americans. Italian-Americans,' writes American journalist Sophia A. Nelson on NBC's website.
Sophia A. Nelson is an award-winning author of two non-fiction books and an award-winning journalist for her groundbreaking feature magazine articles. She has appeared on every major network, media outlet, and cable news show platform. Her work and advice have been endorsed by top writers, journalists and business leaders.
'Irish-Americans. Jewish-Americans. Native-Americans. Hispanic-Americans. The rest of us are known not simply as "Americans" but as other people who came after the English settled here in the 1600s,' she continues. 'If you know history, you know that is simply not true. It was not just white people who built this country. And if anyone needs to take their country back, it is the native people who lived here and had their land and sovereignty stolen from them.'
And later in her column:
'Our history continues to haunt us. Call it karma. Call it chickens coming home to roost. The fact is that America started with codified, lawful racism in the form of slavery and then legalized Jim Crow segregation.'
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'Race and racism continue to be this great nation's birth defect: It is our weak link. It is our Achilles' heel. It is our dividing line. And if we are not careful, it will be the landing place for a foreign invader who is united in its goal to exploit our division.'
(...)
'America is at a critical crossroads. These types of incidences will not just be limited to Virginia. They will spread on campuses. They will rear their ugly head in corporations — in fact, a white male Google engineer was just fired for producing a sexist "manifesto.'
(...)
'Charlottesville is our wake-up call, America. It's time to do the work. It starts just like an AA program: The first step is admitting we have a problem.'
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Read the whole column here:
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