Piece 1- Letter to the Editor

P.C.: Disregarding Race and Complicating the Rhetoric of Identification
Paper 1 Last Draft
September 16, 2008

To the Editors of the Daily Evergreen:

Race is an issue in America because it decides opportunities, creates communities, causes strife, and unifies. While this election is being touted as the changing of tides in American politics, there are some elements of this election and the media coverage that have remained poignantly the same; namely the fear of all parties to discuss the issue of race in a country seeped in racialized language and policies.
As a color-conscious individual, it must be paramount for one to recognize blatant racism present in the media; but one must also recognize when race is strategically left out of the conversation. In our generation, it has become taboo to say the dreaded R-word in fear we will be politically incorrect. The phrase "playing the race card" is in itself a way to halt any conversation, so to win votes and sell newspapers those who write have to identify with the money and power - the white upper class. In short, race is left out of the discussion to cater to us white folks who think racism is a problem of the past. But once made visible on the grandest of political stages in this election, the issue that underlies all the others will prove to be a better way to go about change. Recognition of power structures that discriminate (our country as one of them) is the first thing we need to do to bring about change. And that's on both sides of the political tape.

Regards,
Sarah Weakley