This is our generation's "Brown vs. Board of Education" moment...

[Obamarama]

I wasn't around to witness the civil-rights struggle our black citizens had to fight. I remember, as a young man, however seeing a very powerful B&W photo of the fire hoses spraying a young African American woman trying to enter a school. The image disgusted me, and I shed tears over it.

Since progressing through adulthood I have challenged racism where I have seen it, smelled it, heard it. Today, I sit here wondering, "Did I do enough?" If the answer is "no" then I can honestly say it wasn't out of apathy. But then I must ask what prevented me from seeing what else needed to be done to ensure equity for my fellow citizens who are black.

Make no mistake about it...my eyes are open wide now, and I will be asking questions and demanding answers and FORCING meaningful discussion of the racial AND class inequities for which Katrina has become a painful metaphor.

[journalist3072]

1. Kick ass thread!!

I was not yet born during the height of the civil rights movement either.

But I believe we are being tested today, just as our parents were then. My mother has often told me stories of how when she used to go to the movies with her friends, they could not sit in the seats on the floor of the movie theatre. They were forced to sit in the balcony of the theatre.

And my grandfather, who served his country and was injured in the Korean war, also experienced racism, but he remained faithful to his country and was an army man through and through.

The racism of today is very different, but just as real as it was back then.

And you're absolutely right that we need to ask the hard questions about race and clas in this country. And we no longer afford to let the Repugs accuse us of class warfare when we raise these issues.

The world is watching how we are doing to the least among us, and we are failing this test.