Emancipation Sunday

January 1, 2011 marked the 148th anniversary of President Lincoln signing an Executive Order ending Slavery and freeing 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as Union armies advanced.

This act by President Lincoln probably cost him his life. In the 148 ensuing years since the signage of the Emancipation Proclamation, there are some who would argue African Americans still aren't free. And, there are some who still try and deny African Americans the equality and freedom promised by the Emancipation Proclamation.

Although African Americans make up 25% of the population, they make up 75% of the prison population. Does that mean African Americans commit more crimes? No, it means African Americans are accused and convicted of crimes more than white Americans. An African American male is more likely to go to prison than to college in America.

There are no second chances for African Americans as evidenced by Swanson Food Heir and Talking TeeVee Pundit Head Tucker Carlson saying Michael Vick should be executed because he funded Cousin Pooky nem's dog fighting enterprise. Never mind the fact Vick paid for his crime. Compare that to the slap on the wrist white, conservative, activist James O'Keefe received for attempting to tamper with Senator Mary Landrieu phone lines, AFTER he posed as a pimp and selectively edited videos of his infiltration of ACCORN offices.

Then there are those who tell African Americans they should get over Slavery but celebrate the Confederacy every chance they get.

I grew up in the South, I know how white folks feel about the days of mint juleps, swinging parasols, and darkies in the fields. They swallow that garbage like a black man in the RNC swallows his pride. Gulp.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not characterizing all white people as racist. I know from personal and professional experience all white people don't fit the racist stereotype. From the early abolitionist to the Freedom Riders and Viola Luzzio whites have fought along side blacks for equal rights and social justice.

White people publicly standing up against racism AWESOME!!

Accountability and White Anti-racist Organizing lights the path for White anti-racist activists to become effective in their work and build sustainability as a collective. Accountability is the key to building cross racial relationships in the movement to undo racism and create a more just society.

Is it going to take another Civil War, or another 148 years before we all are free and freedom rings from every mountaintop and every valley? We need more white Americans to step out of their postition of privilege and stand up against racism. People of color live with racism every day, we can't "opt out".