About eight years ago, I wrote a book called “What if George Bush were a Black Man?” The book was designed to analyze the vast impact that skin color has on our outcomes in a historically racist society. The summarized conclusion of the project was that disparities in the educational, economic and criminal justice systems give black men a much smaller margin of error than the one they would receive if they were white. A white kid in college caught using dope in a frat house gets a slap on the wrist. A black kid in the projects doing the same thing might lose his entire future.
Right around the time I finished the book, a legendary radio show host out of Milwaukee by the name of Keith Murphy asked, “Have you heard of this guy named Barack Obama?” My first response was “Who is he?” and my second question was “How do you say his name again?”
Murphy explained that Obama was a senator from Illinois that “everyone is excited about.” I did my research, and later on CNN, noted that Hillary Clinton may end up getting competition from the guy who was so sharp and charismatic.
Years later, after reflecting on how dumb it was for me to pour my soul into the first book about George Bush, I asked myself the corollary question: “What if Barack Obama were a white man?”
I started off by asking the readers on my Facebook page, a group of highly-intelligent black people who give me perspectives from across the board. Then, I looked in the mirror and asked myself the same question...
(Excerpt) Read more at blackbluedog.com ...
