During this Black History Month there is a need to discuss an idea that we too often know but do not objectify at any length. That is the need for America to develop a critical white mass that will come together and put into practice the ethical paradigm of fairness. America is an unequal and unfair society to non-whites, regardless of the lengths America goes to argue the contrary.

There is a small minority of white America who are honest and forthright in their stance against abuse, unfairness, and inequities they know are embedded into the fabric of this nation. Those righteous souls are real in their efforts to change the continuing abuses, to right the wrongs, to erect level playing fields for all Americans, not just whites. This small class of whites are Americans from various political parties and classes, having seen America's duplicity and heard the rationalizations put forth by the untoward that they may feel justified in continuing to luxuriate in the benefits of unequal treatment and privileges as the orthodoxy.

Last week Bill Gates spoke out against the USA for what he defined as this nation's disgraceful lack of focus on the disaster in Dafur, Sudan. A man who has put his mouth and money in many of the right places, Mr. Gates has put his money in Africa's AIDS crisis, Dafur, United Negro College Fund, etc. Into these areas he has poured large sums to make a difference--billions of his own money.

Also last week, Sharon Stone the actress was so taken by the needs in Dafur that she went beyond the task she was asked to perform (in the use of her celebrity) and took an in-church stance and collected a million dollar offering right on the spot from those rich persons present to help buy tents for the needy in Dafur.

During the Civil Rights Movement, some of the first to die with Blacks in our struggle against the racial apartheid in this nation were Jews and a number of non-Jewish whites. Jews heard our cry because, no doubt, they were not long from their own tragedy, and they greatly aligned themselves with us in money and people to say, "Never again." That is the way of the oppressed--when the pain of their oppression is quick upon them, they can see and appreciate the suffering of others. And they will go to the aid of others.

But most whites of this nation have become intoxicated with their own invincibility and importance. This condition exists because their own true history is dim in their minds, and they cannot see that they too were an oppressed people. And because that history is far from them, they oppress others and rationalize it, even as their own English, Irish, Polish, etc., oppression was once rationalized. Many white Americans sympathized with African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, as they looked upon their own cruelty and inhumanity, but the inequities that were fought against are still in this system as commonplace and invisible to them. On the other hand, many whites see this truth, but they traffic in lies when they allow the present system to go unchallenged as the opponents of non-white affirmative action claim that affirmative action is reverse discrimination against whites.

The American system is an unequal system, and the many whites who know this and act to change this unequal and unfair system are appreciated by nonwhites, but there is a problem: that many that we refer to are not of sufficient numbers to constitute a critical mass capable of doing more than showing that there is a small number of white Americans with a set of core values that are fair, ethical, and that are willing to see all people as people of equal worth and value and willing and do treat all people fairly. That number is not enough because that action is not enough. Yes, the small core is the redeeming value and soul of white America, but they need to rise and grow their numbers so that they represent the majority of white Americans.

It is a noble work for a Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, to spend his riches on laudable and worthy causes as he assuredly does generously, but for America to be cured, the majority of white America must be of like mind.* And to be of like minds is not to spend money, it is to, as the prophet put it, loose the bands of wickedness...and to see America as it is--a nation with white privilege rooted in its core--and change that unfairness so that all people who have made this nation can share in it fairly and equally.

A white critical mass is needed to propel that idea, to sell that idea, to popularize that idea to whites who represent the majority of the citizens of this nation. The few whites who are willing to stand and fight against unequal and unfair treatment of non-whites are not representative of the majority. They stand out as different, breathing rarified air and represent only their few, but until they can become the critical mass, no difference will be made in America. They will continue to be little more than band- aides on the sore that is in the heart of America. They must become the majority, hence, the norm, and not the exception.

It is strange that white America and most of Black America are not discussing this oversight that has been allowed to continue. The few cannot proxy for the vast majority of white America. That few need to harness their energy and educate White America on fairness, morality, and equity for all Americans. These concepts need to be taught as the American paradigm.

During the 1989 earthquake in California, while on my way to a store I stopped at a red-light with other drivers, and we saw and felt the street roll like a wave underneath our cars. Immediately everyone rolled his/her windows down and started talking. We were afraid. Similarly after 9-11, there was a palpable difference in the American ethos--a sense of nationhood, a sense of family and fairness, a sense of a need for each other. We were afraid. But as the shock and pain of that terrorist attack passed, the old America took root again. This nation went back to the wild roots that are its core. And that core needs changing if this nation is to change and be at peace and equity with itself.

To change, there needs to be a majority of white America to change; that requires a white critical mass to bring about that change on a broad scale. Whites need to set up national salons, town hall meetings, and any other methods of communication among them that is effective to discuss, focus on, and to formulate strategies to bring about a core value change in this nation. That takes developing a white critical mass to generate this ethos of equity that I am referring to. A white critical mass to allow affirmative action for all, or none at all. And it takes a white critical mass to reject and disavow all special privileges based on skin color and all other unfair and special conditions that are antithetical a cultured and civilized people.

The absence of such schools of thought-generation is an oversight that has been tolerated too long. It is an obligation that fair-minded white Americans have to society because, although there is a small number of sincere and honest whites concerned about others, they do not proxy for the vast majority of white Americans who are willingly ignorant of the inequities to others--inequities they are the beneficiaries of.

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*Neither Gibbs Community Foundation, our parent, none of its smaller arms, nor this writer received any funding in any way or had any contact with Bill Gates, his foundation, or Microsoft Corporation.

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