Race Relations: Do it for America's survival

It is time to recognize all of us are in this together. Color does not matter. If we don’t, we will be surrendering our world influence to other nations, most notably China. They are smiling as we commit similar mistakes they made in their past.

President Obama was right when in 2004 he said,

 “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America—there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America—there's the United States of America.”

 If we cannot get along for any other reason, let’s do it for our own survival. We need to utilize all our resources and that includes citizens of all races. If we don't we will not keep up. Improving results from education, both black and white, must be a top priority. We cannot waste any resources we have, especially the human mind. The chart below shows our knowledge advantage over much of the world and we are losing it.

I was in high school and college during the civil rights movement in the 60's. We have come a long way but progress stalled. The headlines today are filled with police beatings and killings of black males. I suggest we focus on the rest of the world catching up with us, both economically and militarily. If we don’t we are doomed to repeating the mistakes of China that go back as far to the 15^th century.

Prior to that time China ruled the world. They were arrogant and felt it was not possible for the Chinese to learn anything from the rest of mankind. China was in this state of mind until the mid 18^th century when the tiny country of England, with their modernized army took Hong Kong from China without much resistance, For the Chinese this begun the Century of Shame. China, despite the size of its population, could not compete against the modernized British navy.

Because of  of not keeping up technologically, as a result of poor education, China was forced to sign treaties that demanded Britain and other sovereign nations be looked upon by China as equals , thus shattering the centuries old thought that China was the Middle Kingdom and the rest of the world was lower in culture and tradition.

Other events that were part of the century of humiliation included unequal treaties where Briton forced one-sided agreements on China. These treaties were followed by the First Sino-Japanese War resulting in the Twenty-One Demands by Japan in the early 20th century, and the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945. In this period, China lost all the wars it fought and often  forced to give major concessions to the great powers in later treaties.

Beginning after 1945 China was determined not to commit the same mistake of having a poorly educated population ever again. This brings us to today. Per a research study completed by the National Intelligence Council,

"By 2030 Asia will be well on its way to returning to being the world’s powerhouse, just as it was before 1500." 

Per a study by the Center For American Progress another problem is the lack of early childhood education for half of U.S. children and the poor quality of teachers.

"In the United States, high school students who choose to enter undergraduate programs for education have SAT scores on average in the bottom third of all students tested, which stands in sharp contrast to nations with impressive student results,"  The Next Generation/American Progress Report