The vast majority of people know that racism is wrong, and despite recent claims here in the United States that we have entered into a post racial society due to the election of Barack Obama as the first black President, racism still persists, is felt and affects the day-to-day lives of countless African Americans and people of color in communities all across this country and world. While many blacks have risen up the ladder of financial and professional success, and the black middle class has grown substantially over the past generation, vast numbers in the inner cities have been left behind in a virtual quagmire of chronic poverty, family structure decline, violent crime, high incarceration rates, teen pregnancy increases and high drop out rates from secondary school. Of course, there are similar problems in poor Hispanic and white lower economic areas, and while the wealthy and middle class of all socio-economic groups are not exempt from these sorts of challenges, those with darker skin who live in poorer areas seem to suffer these unfortunate conditions at much higher rates.

To many whites all this "overwhelming evidence" seems to further justify what has long been preached by generations of a white dominant society that became convinced that blacks were by nature prone to savage conduct, uncivilized behavior, a lack of sexual restraint, poor intelligence, and moral looseness. As a consequence of these beliefs it was felt and still is to certain degrees that blacks must be segregated and cordoned off in projects and in selected parts of town in order to control this behavior lest they escape their bounds and "infect" the white population with the same kind of "ethical" disease and moral lapse. The problem is that many blacks have been hypnotized by a system of negative thinking that is the result of centuries of conditioning by a mindset that although has been weakening in strength, basically still says that white is good and black is bad. Many blacks have escaped or broken free from the bonds of this mindset by the dint of their own efforts and by developing positive beliefs passed on to them by loving parents and leaders in the community that offset or cancel out the negative ideas imposed on them by a ruling white ethic mindset. For many, however, the negative influences of such a strong mental battering, still exist today, yet in more subtle ways, much like an albatross around the neck that impedes growth but is not fully recognized as a debilitating limitation because it has been carried around so long.

We have all had the experience of looking through a window at the surroundings outside when suddenly at some point we recognize that the window we were looking through was actually dirty, and on closer examination wonder how we had not seen all the dust and smudge marks before. Our vision was impaired without really realizing it. Often we can look through the same window countless times before coming to this conclusion. Upon cleaning it we then marvel at the clarity of the view that had been marred before and was obstructed by our own lack of attention and unknowingness.

Many of us don't recognize that some of the ideas and beliefs that we hold are like the dirt and smudge on a window that we are so accustomed to looking through that they become a part of our world view and never realize that the window of our vision is even dirty and that our day-to-day experience is being obstructed by our own "dirty vision." For blacks, the window was dirtied by the accumulation of the dust of an unenlightened mindset that said they were inferior to whites. No one can go back through time and right the wrongs of those who have suffered so much because of slavery and racism, but what can be done is a cleaning house of those ideas that created this whole mess to begin with, and finally take away the hypnotic hold that they still have on the minds of so many.

The ideas that constitute what can be called in this context a 'white ethic' must be identified and recognized as a structure of beliefs that masses of people view the world through and accept uncritically as reality itself, and not as beliefs about reality. While many white people have never subscribed to the idea of racism and over the years have fought against such thinking, there is still a lot of dust from the buildup of centuries of beliefs that cloud the vision of so many others who know that something is wrong with their thinking on this matter but don't know how to go about changing it. The time has come to wipe the windows clean of ideas that limit both white and black people alike, albeit differently. Remedies are sometimes bitter pills to swallow, but as we all know, some of the best medicines for any illnesses are bitter to the taste, yet they often balance the system and make us well. Hopefully, here will be a prescription that can offer as a tonic for minds that have been aching for relief from the pain of a belief system that told darker skinned people that they were unworthy but were egregiously wrong all along the way.