A RIGHT TO ANGER

Blacks have a right to be angry at the treatment they have received in America. That is an important message in Barack Obama's speech yesterday. Brought here in chains to work the white man's plantations, even when finally freed from legal slavery, they suffered personal, economic, and social discrimination not much less bitter than their former condition of servitude. For those reasons Black anger and hostility is understandable and, admit it or not, fully legitimate. The Reverend has a right to be bitter and angry, and his rant is legitimate and fully justified by his experience in America. This a bitter pill, but one we need to swallow.

This is the way Obama put it, "But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."

White America needs to accept the legitimacy of Black anger, for without this acceptance, racial peace will not be achieved. It is no longer sufficient to demand that Blacks meekly accept a reduced place in American culture; we have passed beyond a point where that is a functional respsonse to increasingly complex economic and social reality. Clearly, we need to function more efficiently, both socially and economically, if we are to continue to prosper as a nation. Racial conflict is antithetical to efficiency. Hence, if we face this Black anger, accept it, and work our way beyond anger to reconciliation, we will take a giant step toward efficient use of our human resources and an equally giant step toward the "more perfect union" that Obama and the founding fathers aspired to.