If I may, I wish to concur in the angst you have expressed. My father was also one who worked hard to help the black community. He was a teacher and principal in a Chicago high school on the south side, rough area. (BTW, despite his claims to the contrary, Obama absolutely does not “feel” like a south-sider to me, but I digress). Dad had worked on a two-tier advanced studies program that allowed strong students to excel. These students were creating a steady stream of successful undergraduate and graduate students for nearby colleges and universities. The dream was coming true for these people, escape from the ghetto, escape from poverty, escape from the spiral-down culture of the hood.
Do you know who stopped it all? The parents of the kids who didn’t make it into the advanced study classes. Their kids were not becoming doctors and lawyers like the smart kids, so it just wasn’t fair. Enter Jesse Jackson. Yes, my dad had a personal run-in with Jesse himself. In a face to face meeting with him, my dad was told he was the wrong color to be principal of a black school. With the support of the elder Mayor Daley, Jesse had my dad removed from his principalship and sent downtown to do some crappy budget work for the rest of his career. Dad was a good-tempered man, but after that a broken man, too, with ulcers and no clear vision of why he spent his life on such a good mission, only to be deep-sixed by, well, what do you call people who do such things?
My dad also predicted a race war, based on his in-person observations. Contrary to popular belief, the resentment is not universal, but where it exists it is a deep and focused rage, a spirit of revenge. He spoke of one encounter where a woman told him “you had us in slavery for hundreds of years and we’re going to have you in slavery for hundreds of years.” This is the rage that JJ and the other race-baiters know is there, that provides them with their base of power, prestige and wealth. *They* are the new plantation owners, along with their white enablers. Would to God that God would send these people a new Moses to set them free from the spiritual darkness that holds them. It is the only way out. A true race war, once it starts in earnest, will never end.
I said at the beginning of the Martin/Zimmerman episode that the Martin family needed council from a good Reverend. Unfortunately they got Al and Jesse with a Rev Wright attitude.
Pray for knowledge and true to will out.