Fifty

I was thirteen and in high school when the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom occurred in 1963. I knew I was different then. I was a gay boy in an all-boys Catholic school. I was a relatively poor boy in that school as well. Many of my classmates came from wealthy political and professional families. I admired Martin Luther King. I admired the men and women who packed The Mall in Washington, DC. Sixteen years later I proudly stood on The Mall at the first national Gay/Lesbian March on Washington with a memory of the 1963 march consciousness on that bright October day in 1979. 

Fifty years have passed. Remembrances of the 1963 march have been everywhere in the media. It was a remarkable and memorable event. However, fifty years have passed.

The rhetoric I hear has not changed in fifty years. This is unfortunate and also remarkable. The constant drumbeat of "White people aren't doing enough for us." drones on. It is no longer as poignant or as credible. The fact is that Black people are not doing enough for themselves in their own communities. The fact is that Black racialism stands in the way of the progress of those who choose to still identify themselves primarily by race. Racialism, whether Black, Latino, Asian or White, is a barrier, not a winning banner. I say this as someone who lives in a racially mixed neighborhood. I say this as someone who shops in a predominantly Black shopping center. I say this as someone who pays attention to the minority cultures around me.