Anyway, thank you for your insightful comment – I will have to take some time to read and process it before I respond (and please forgive me if that takes awhile).

In the meantime I’ll check out what you’re talking about over there at ThoughtFriction, too.

Ah, and you’ve probably already discovered it by now, but you might find this article of even more interest:

http://www.godheval.net/black

I must admit that I wept but a few tears of joy over such rare articulation and sensitivity to a breadth of issues from a developed perspective. Most of my life as a mixed minority Ive repressed my opinions for the sake of non-confrontational assimilation and the evident lack of a competent audience. Just recently the clasps began to loosen on my gasket of satirical retaliation. Im originally from New York but have spent the last decade in midwest Ohio. Although our national identity is riddled with societal woes from coast to coast, permeating every facet of the American lifestyle, Ohio has proven to be an immense challenge unto itself. Every quip has been lost to empty gazes of confusion and any outrage doused by the predetermined “angry black man” rebuttal, often when race isnt even the topic. I had just recently let loose in a flourish of unedited prose via my blog http://thoughtfriction.blogspot.com/ when my brother (im the oldest of seven) directed me to your site with feverish excitement. I have yet to be met with such refreshing literary resolve from within a culture that flaunts freedom, but lives chained by stagnant stereotypes. As you have artfully demonstrated, these social viruses have infected everything from my childhood education, to the movies I watch, the churches I visit, the games I play, and politics I spectate.

I responded to this particular post because of a sinlge rhetorical question you made, not only pertinent to the immediate topic, but what I believe is poignant in trying to comprehend the totality of the American mindset.

“But where is the middleground? As with all things it is clear to me that a balanced view is necessary here, yet not too many people seem willing to discuss the roles of both lack of personal accountability (and the anti-intellectualism, self-hatred, and self-sabotage associated with it) and racism.”

Where is the middle ground in anything!? I feel fully surrounded by a binary system of loyalist camps where personal and collective responsibility is shirked for agenda driven ideals. By white america im labeled as black. By black america im labeled as white. In reality im both, in addition to native american and semitic, but the dimensionality of my ethnicity is lost to the wind by the culture. I dare engage a discussion on the matter lest it be immediately reduced to a topic of racism, the most elusive social virus by the way, that is now shrouded in layers of political correctness, denial, and ignorance; a force guarded by a defensive caucasian regime brandishing the race card against any perceived attack (rightfully so in some cases.) Regardless, it has coerced me to aim my sights “higher” or “deeper” than skin complexion and associated topics in desperate hopes of connecting with the core of humanity thats spans the socio-economic and racial boundaries. These universal issues, as I now perceive it, is exactly as you mentioned above, a combination of self accountability and an educated perpection of fellow humanity. You can take your very scenario demonstrated by a social platform as core-shaking as race relations and trace it down to the most trivial details of our western lifestyle, where both accountability and perspective are often avoided by those who merely “choose a side.”

In any case please excuse my run-on ramble in my attempt to keep this a manageable “comment.” Thanks once again and I look forward to further posts!