"There’s no doubt that this was a historic election. Obama is the first black person to be president of the U.S., the most powerful position in the world. Many other world leaders and their people were jubilant when Obama was elected.
Yet what sticks in my craw, as my mother used to say, are the “experts” who seem to ride on this historic election and claim that it could bring an end of the Civil Rights era. Civil rights activism won’t be much needed anymore, they say. The issue of equality now has been settled.
I don’t think so.
Just because a black man was elected president, racism, bigotry and prejudice are not going to disappear. I don’t believe we can do away with civil-rights laws, policies and speeches. They’re needed to bring people upright, especially people who are so self-involved that they see only their own needs.
Nor do I believe that a wave of a black presidential hand will change hundreds of years of mistrust and bad treatment."
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DORREEN YELLOW BIRD: Obama's election doesn't banish racism
(The Grand Forks Herald 11/13)
More Dorreen Yellow Bird:
Yellow Bird: No smoking or drinking in casinos
(11/10)
Yellow Bird: Grief
the same among all cultures (11/6)
Yellow Bird: Turtle Mountain Band takes on abortion
(11/3)
Yellow Bird: Negative ads poison
Senate race (10/27)
Yellow Bird: North
Dakota landscape impresses (10/22)
Yellow Bird: Feeling helpless about the economy
(10/20)
Yellow Bird: Examine Native
American Party (10/15)
Yellow Bird: Sen.
Obama a presidential winner (10/13)
Yellow Bird: On UNITY, Amtrak and North Dakota
(7/30)
Yellow Bird: Sundance offers food
for the soul (7/23)
Yellow Bird:
Watching the sky for hints of danger (7/14)
Yellow Bird: Humbled by Turtle Mountain tornadoes
(7/10)
Yellow Bird: Sometimes the media
gets carried away (7/7)
Yellow Bird:
Smudging room at North Dakota hospital (7/2)
Yellow Bird: Adventures that stir the spirit
(6/18)
Yellow Bird: Exhibit focuses on
Arikara Scouts (6/16)
Yellow Bird: My
heart belongs to the Great Plains (6/11)
Yellow Bird: White buffalo signals hope and peace
(6/9)
Yellow Bird: Sen. Barack Obama for
president (6/4)
Yellow Bird: There's
good and bad in oil development (6/2)
Yellow Bird: Remembering all relatives a big chore
(5/28)
Yellow Bird: Oil on the Fort
Berthold Reservation (5/26)
Yellow Bird:
Recycle and live lightly on the Earth (5/12)
Yellow Bird: Leaps in America's multiracial society
(5/7)
Yellow Bird: Diversity in the
United States (5/5)
Yellow Bird:
Pollution a threat to North Dakota (4/30)
Yellow Bird: Program graduates Indian nurses at UND
(4/21)
Yellow Bird: Recovering from
brain aneurysm surgery (4/17)
Yellow
Bird: A fight for oil on the reservation (03/31)
Yellow Bird: Excitement in North Dakota's weather
(3/26)
Yellow Bird: Thoughts on Sen.
Obama and race (3/24)
Yellow Bird: Pray
for rain in western North Dakota (3/19)
Yellow Bird: Grandchildren are the greatest gift
(3/17)
Yellow Bird: UND powwow survives
budget woes (3/10)
Yellow Bird:
Stereotypes and Hillary Clinton (3/5)
Yellow Bird: Celebrating 125 years of UND history
(3/3)
Yellow Bird: High hopes for Indian
health bill (2/28)
Yellow Bird: More
Plains foods that are good for you (2/25)
Yellow Bird: Chokecherries, the wonder fruit
(2/20)
Yellow Bird: Sadness on a trip to
Standing Rock (2/18)
Yellow Bird: It's
time for a change in music (2/11)
Yellow
Bird: 'Sioux' drives Indian students away (2/7)
Yellow Bird: Another cold January in North Dakota
(1/30)
Yellow Bird: Tribal casinos
should be alcohol free (1/28)
Yellow
Bird: Race and gender in presidential race (1/23)
Yellow Bird: Barack Obama is my choice for 2008
(1/16)
Yellow Bird: Artman right on
off-reservation gaming (1/9)
Yellow
Bird: Barack Obama's big win in Iowa (1/7)
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