Though I was raised by white liberal parents who early on supported Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement during the Sixties, I unconsciously took on common beliefs and attitudes prevalent in the dominant cultural paradigm about people whose skin was darker than mine.

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It's in times such as these that I am compelled to acknowledge my own racism. For though I was raised by white liberal parents who early on supported Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement during the Sixties, I grew up in America, in fact, in the South, and thus I unconsciously took on common beliefs and attitudes prevalent in the dominant cultural paradigm about people whose skin was darker than mine. "White people are smarter." "Black people are better athletes." Etcetera. And though I've become conscious of those beliefs, I have not rooted them all out and doubt that I ever will. At the very least, however, I can notice when my mind makes snap judgments (young black man driving a late model SUV = drug dealer) and recognize them for the falsehoods they are.

It's in times such as these that I am compelled to acknowledge how I've benefited and continue to benefit from white privilege. From attending high school in my youth in a new building with relatively current textbooks while black kids on the other side of town were all segregated into one old building with hand-me-down books from the white schools to currently walking down the streets of Asheville at any time of day or night without fear of being harassed by the police, I have benefited from white privilege.

It's in times such as these that I am compelled to acknowledge that I live in a nation that was built on a foundation of white supremacy--from the genocide of Native Americans whose land we stole, to the enslavement and subjugation of black people for the wealth their labor could bring, to the current slaughter of people of color in the Middle East for their oil.

It's in times such as these that I'm compelled to acknowledge that all our thoughts and prayers, conversations about race, demonstrations against injustice, voting for worthy candidates, passing laws, etcetera, none of these efforts will bring about the reconciliation we say we seek until we come to grips with our sordid past and our ongoing deadly incursions into the affairs of other nations, until we ask for forgiveness from and offer reparations to the peoples we have harmed.

Authors Website: http://brucemulkey.com

Authors Bio:

In an earlier incarnation, I was a hyper-masculine, self-indulgent, beer-swilling, hell-raising, pickup-truck-driving rebel (without much of a cause) who built log homes for a living. Having miraculously survived that era, I am now an open-minded, relentlessly inquisitive, politically progressive, bike-riding writer living with my wife Shonnie Lavender, and daughter Gracelyn largely outside the dominant cultural paradigm in the eclectic little city of Asheville, North Carolina.

I am also a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and The Good Men Project, a conversation about the way men's roles are significantly changing in modern life. From 2000 through 2004, I served as an editorial columnist at the Asheville Citizen-Times. My op-eds and essays also appeared at such online sites as MichaelMoore.com, Common Dreams News Center, Intervention Magazine, Information Clearing House, Truthout, BuzzFlash.com, and Smirking Chimp as well as on my blog--brucemulkey.com.

Topics I've dealt with include racism (and my ongoing recovery from it), my brief encounter with Norman Mailer ("Are you still stabbing your wife?"), opposition to the Iraq War ("A few illogical arguments for the elimination of Saddam Hussein" published before the war began), Al Gore (not the stuffed shirt you might imagine) and the perils of climate change, my seventieth birthday (It's not that I mind growing old; I just don't want to be there when it happens.), and why I gave up my last handgun (after my wife asked me the simple question: "What are you afraid of, Bruce?").

I appeared on two PBS shows--Bill Moyer's Now (my fifteen seconds of fame) and Simple Living and in The Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (among others). I was also a presenter for the Climate Project, Al Gore's initial effort to catalyze a global solution to the climate crisis (and got to experience Al in his element).

In 2008, at the age of sixty-five, I was hired as an Obama field organizer in Ohio (even though my boss and our entire staff were in their twenties). After that, I served as communications director for several political campaigns including a congressional race (four wins, one loss). During the 1990s, I wrote features and ancillary materials for Holt, Rinehart and Winston's high school textbook division (my first real writing gig). Finally, I have published three non-fiction books (featured on my blog and my Amazon.com author page)