Hi I'm Gary Klass and my topic today is racism.

Most people understand racism is the product of ignorance and hatred. It is based on the irrational belief that some races are innately, genetically or culturally superior to others.

Nobody benefits from this racism. We understand that it is inconsistent with the best principles on which our country was founded and the essence of what Gunnar Myrdal called the American Creed, what Martin Luther King called the American Dream.

They believed that if people of good will speak out and oppose racism, the evil will eventually shrink away. If people can be brought together in open and honest dialogue, the ignorance and hatred will diminish.

But, those who study and write about race and ethnicity in America, often speak about a racism of a different kind. Call it "postmodern" racism.

The conventional understanding of racism, they argue, ignores how pervasive it is in our society and the effect it has on victims. It ignores the often subtle ways racism operates to perpetuate inequality and the extent that those with power benefit from it.

This racism is deeply embedded in our social and political institutions, in our notions of merit, and in the "myth" of the American Dream.

And it isn't going to go away, at least not easily.

For some, this understanding of racism leads to a simple syllogism: racism involves both prejudice and the exercise of power, people of color do not have power, therefore they cannot be racist.

One problem with the postmodern racism is that it's based on a false understanding of power: White males it, others have none. In truth, anyone who practices any kind of discrimination race exercises power. The notion that only one race is capable of racism is, itself, racist.

David Duke is a racist, but Louis Farrakhan just a bigot? Surely not.

Most tragically, postmodern racism, offers only a hopeless self-fulfilling prophecy. For Racism's victims it forecasts continuing victimization. For the perpetrators, no hope of redemption. For society as a whole, no hope of racial peace and harmony.

Instead of "We shall overcome," postmodern racism teaches us "nothing can be done".

When I first came to Illinois two decades ago, my one fear was that the day had come when I would have to vote for the Republican party. I had read all about the Chicago machine, the ballot boxes floating in the Chicago river after the 1960 election, the fraud and the graft.  Surely, I thought, the party of Lincoln and Dirksen would be the refuge for honest politicians and it would compel the votes of any citizen who believed in good government.

Fortunately, my fears proved groundless.  It wasn't long before I discovered Illinois politics is corrupt without regard to party affiliation. 

 Visit any state office and you can smell the patronage and cronyism --a system the Republican party defended all the way to the Supreme Court. You want a job in state government? Get a letter from your legislator, and don't forget to pick up the tickets for the golf outing.  

You see the results in the ruined lives of so many foster children trapped in a Department of Children and Family Services run by Republican party hacks.  You see it in a state legislature bought and paid for by the liquor and gambling interests.  Only the gun lobby finds it unnecessary to pay for its legislation.

And then there's our governor.  He makes Mayor Daley look like an altar boy, and gives new meaning to the word “licentious”. Perhaps he is surprised at all the fuss.  It's hard to believe that the scandals surrounding George Ryan do not reflect a pattern of behavior that few criticized during his tenure as House Leader.

  My grandmother used to say, politicians are like nails, they go in straight and come out crooked.

This is not the way it has to be.  There are many honest politicians in the state. Bloomington, Normal, and McLean County, in particular, have been free from the any hint of political scandal for many years.  No, we don't lack honest politicians, just honest politicians who are willing to speak out.

 And they won't speak out as long as they think their supporters and the voters care more about the favors the system can bestow on them than they care about honest government.  Until that changes, Illinois isn't ready for reform.