Red Truck Stonecatcher

Reading Ana Marie Cox’s interview of actor, comedian and writer Aasif Mandvi (October 9, 2016 New York Times Magazine) reminded me of Wes Moore’s comments at The Connecticut Forum about wanting a post-racist, not a post-racial America. There is a difference. A big difference.

Mandvi argued in his Cox interview that “We’re not postracial [sic]. Years ago, people would say, “I don’t see race.” But you do see race, and if you tell yourself you don’t see race, you’re never going to address your racism [emphasis mine]. I’m not interested in being beyond race anymore. I’m more interested in leaning into race and saying that we need to accept that other people are different. That is the multiplicity of the human experience and also what potentially makes America great —” 

Wes Moore made similar points at The Connecticut Forum’s Racism program (December 3, 2015) when he said in the Forum’s posted video “I don’t want to exist in a post-racial America because I’m not ashamed of my race, and nobody should be ashamed of theirs. I don’t want to exist in a post-racial America. I want to exist in a post-racist America. And so there’s a difference.”

So we, the citizens of the United States of America, if true to our belief in the Constitutional rights of all Americans, should recognize, understand and celebrate what Moore said in his Forum comments, and what Mandvi concluded in his interview when he said “we need to accept that other people are different. That is the multiplicity of the human experience and also what potentially makes America great —”

Take just five minutes to follow the the links in my text to read the Mandvi interview, and hear Moore’s video comments. They are important points of view.

Don Shaw, Jr.
Writer and Editor
RedTruckStonecatcher.com