Listen to me vs Shut up and get over it.

As with most things there is not a simple yes or no answer.

You will forever have some who feel disenfranchised and a result want to make noise about it and say their personal failings are "because I'm black". While others shout them down saying "No its not, you 'people' have just got a chip on your shoulders, shut up, get over it and change your attitute" - general gist from some Conservative party member with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on radio 4. (she's a funny one herself).Surely the chip formed with good reason? And perhaps 'us people' are not the only ones who need a change in attitude?

Ignoring facts so entrenched and the historical wounds so deep, and still fresh in the minds of many is like covering a sore hoping it will just go away, when underneath it is just festering.

Nevertheless repeatedly going over the same arguments from the same ignorant standpoints goes no way in solving the problem of negative racial stereotyping that seems to be reserved in its most extreme forms for 'black' people.

It most definitely doesn't help the cause when many of those latter voices are black people themselves; rolling their eyes at others who have't managed to 'pull themselves up from the gutter' and therefore tainting their 'I'm ok and not like the others' image of the perfect black man in a 'white man's world'.

The White-Christian-Heterosexual-Ablebodied-Male hardly makes up the bulk of the world's population but their ideas and ideologies, presented as universal, continue to rule it. Without a change to that status quo the discussion is futile. Obama is being hailed as post-racial. I sincerely hope so, but am highly doubtful.

I'm personally tired of both sides refusing to acknowledge each other's arguments. In a time where me and mine are constantly being reminded that were black, and as long as snide comments are still said out openly you cannot simply ignore it. Silence by black people merely prolongs the agony until a proper discussion is ready to be had. So long as the discussions follow the same unhelpful pattern they always have with ignorant parties refusing to listen to the other.

We live in an age where becoming in spite of you race is an achievement.

So long as people still make derogatory remarks about other races, discuss race in the wrong and non-constructive way, the discussion sin't over. Understanding is the key, and I just don't think people understand, but perhaps Obama's election brought us one stage closer....? We shall see.