We Together, CAN make a Difference......

Throughout Bob Herbert's article, I realize many things that the Black community is known for consist of very negative and depressing facts. My first thought was that is unfortunate that even though this was approximately written 10 years ago, I can still hear people mentioning the same issues today. I was raised in a border town city where diversity was not present, so I was not exposed with any African Americans until I came to Austin. Also, since I was raised in Mexico it was very hard to understand the negative offensive comments online because I did not understand what they were referred to. However, now I feel like there is more to do than before to address this issue. When Herbert mentioned that  Black American is" self-inflicted" I personally agreed with him when I read it for the first time. However, the more I read about it and about how the film "Ethnic Notions" described the African American community I felt aggravated and disagree with his statement.
As an African American, to me he sounded ashamed, aggravated and disappointed of how his community is developing in this country and how this facts have impact in  our society. Confessing all this to a white majority population kind of sounded like, "this are our issues, we are bad, someone has to do something". He was not telling them specifically he just threw up the idea of getting help. However, I disagree with blaming the community itself because at the end of the day the issues are something that the community can not fix on its own. There is ignorance because not everyone grew up in a good school district or a place with resources. There are no resources because of lack of communication to ask for help. We need support from the rest of the populations to stop degrading people because of their race, religion or color. In Martin Luther King's speech, I heard honesty, passion, desire and hope for a better tomorrow where African American and the rest of the U.S citizens can relate to each other in peace. This can happen if people learn to accept their mistakes and ask for help to people outside of their community. His speech sounded to me more as a" both sides have to agree in forgiving, forgetting and moving on" kinda goal. Everyone plays a role in this country and change has to come from all parties not just one mainly. I think Herbert sounded more of like "one person can fix this" instead of King who sounded more of a "together we can make a better tomorrow". Unity is key to support and just like he stated "their destiny is tied with our destiny".