By Damion Boycott
In 1865 the enslavement of African people was abolished in America. After 400 years of slavery was another 100 years of Jim Crow segregation. Segregation was white Americas way of trying to keep African people from benefiting from a free society like America. The law of the land in America dictated that it was o.k. to discriminate against African people. Africans were the only people discriminated against by law. It was white Americas' way of viewing another group as worst off than they were.
With the election of Barack Obama, the far Right Wing claims that we now live in a "post racial" society. However, it seems since the inauguration of Americas' first black president, under the United States Constitution, the racist ideas of the Jim Crow era are alive and well in America, There have been plenty of incidents in recent memory that prove racism has yet to go out of American society. There has been racist policing of African people, like the Ramarley Graham killing in the Bronx, the Treyvon Martin killing in Florida and the murder of five black people in Oklahoma by racists seeking revenge against black people.
Another good example of the exceptional racism in America has manifested in the state of Georgia. In Paulding County Georgia, the owner of a bar/restaurant put an exceedingly racist message on his restaurant billboard. The Billboard reads "I don't support the nigger in the white house", The bar/restaurant owner, Patrick Lanzo, has posted plenty of racist messages on his billboard in the past 26 years. Lanzo, who claims he is not a racist, said he is exercising his freedom of speech. Paulding County Administrator Mike Jones, who finds the billboard offensive said "If there was something that could be done it wouldn't be there". If the white people that patronize Lanzos' bar were progressive they would refuse to spend their money in his establishment. How does he still have a business after 26 years of racist rants on his billboard?
It seems the election of a black president has flushed out the racism in American society. Obviously the racist ideas behind laws like The Slave Codes and Jim Crow are still very much alive in America.