Can we please explore another extreme today?

We are exposed regularly to extremes on race relations in America.  Hell, we are battered by them. Riots over shootings.  Black Lives Matter. Rebels in the NFL. Statue toppling.   “Trigger” words that make some people retch.  And name-calling.  Name-calling is big these days. You know the drill by now.  Seems as though everything is racial today.

Here is a modest proposal, an opposite extreme.  How about an annual Racial Progress Day?

Just one day of the year. A day when we focus on progress we have made in our race relations. No bitching about what should lie ahead. No penance for past sins. Leave that stuff for other days of the year. No bleating Maxine Waters and Al Sharptons.  Unless they wish to talk about what we have achieved. Or how far we have progressed.

Let us set aside one day to recognize today’s heroes. Those who lead and push us forward toward better race relations. Let us honor those who did so over the years.  No matter their color.  From the White House to the school house, let us tell the stories of our progress.

I suggest this for a few simple reasons.  One is that we too often act like lousy parents. Those who see only one line on their kid’s report card. He has gone from F’s to A’s.  But they see and say “You’ve been fighting during recess.  We’re ashamed of you.”

Did someone scoff?  Did someone snarl “What progress are you talking about?”

I don’t ask you to play Pollyanna here. This is reality. It is writ large. But it is often invisible within the murk of today’s racial bonfires.

Think how many millions born 80 or 60 or 50 years ago could not dream the dreams of today’s African-Americans.  To be doctors? To rise to generalships? To star on TV?  To practice law?

To live anywhere they wanted?  To become lawyers?  Judges?  Supreme Court justices? To work as executives? Professors? In any position of responsibility?

How many millions faced walls of discrimination at countless junctures?  How many grew up in a world in which half the doors of opportunity were closed to them? How many spoke with each other in a code about what they were allowed and not allowed to do? Where they could stay the night or eat.  And where they could not. Because of their skin color.

How many millions of blacks would have belittled anyone who said one of them could be elected President? Or might hold any other high office?

How many were told they could not partner with a white?  In business or bed and beyond?

We have progressed where others have not. Name other mostly-white countries where blacks can become leaders.  Name mostly-black countries where whites can.

Step by painful step – and sometimes bloody steps – we have progressed.  From our Declaration of Independence to today’s legislation – we have made progress.

We should pause to study our progress.  To appreciate it. To teach it. To admire it as a platform from which we can launch further advances. To honor those who have led and who today lead the way to better race relations.

One day a year.  Racial Progress Day. A day when we forget about the squabbles during recess.  And we concentrate on the marks that get better.

From Tom…as in Morgan

You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com. You can read more of his writing at tomasinmorgan.com.