In an article in USA Today dated February 6, 2008 by Marisol Bello, it was reported that the number of racial harassment filings at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which investigates workplace incidents, increased from 5,646 in 2006 to 6,977 in 2007. According to USA Today, the annual figure has more than doubled since 1991. These are the reported cases and there have to be hundreds of thousands of undocumented cases. All the presidential candidates need to have open, honest discussions and dialogue on the subject of racial harassment and its byproducts. Dialogue or discussion on racial harassment/discrimination is not playing the race card.
Why hasn’t the sponsored media—CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS or FOX asked the presidential candidates in the debates or in other forums, questions dealing with ethnic intimidation, racial harassment/discrimination, sexual harassment/discrimination, affirmative action, racial profiling, religious intolerance and civil rights enforcement? These issues to many Americans are of far more importance than asinine, imbecilic, unintelligent, absurd questions dealing with candidates use of borrowed “words” in speeches. The above mentioned issues are very pervasive in our society and must be addressed in a positive, timely and constructive manner. The next president of the United States may be nominating judges to the Supreme Court and to other judgeships throughout the federal judiciary. We need to know the positions of all the presidential candidates and how aggressively and consistently they will enforce the civil rights laws in this country.
Not talking about racial harassment/discrimination does a disservice to all the citizens in the United States as we move forward in the 21st century as we try to set an example for the other nations of the world to emulate in this evolving experiment in democratic governance.
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