Noam Chomsky once called class the "unmentionable five-letter word" in America. I can think of another "unmentionable" word, but it bears only 4 letters: Race.

It is nearly impossible to have a sane, calm discussion about race in the United States. Fear of being called a "racist" causes many people to say nothing at all, silencing debate while managing to solve nothing.

So why am I talking about it? Because I believe that slavery and segregation were not ended by silence, nor do I believe that our current racial problems, can be ended by ignoring them.

Most people seem to be in favor of the ideal of a "color-blind society," but what on earth does that mean? Surely it can't mean that we refuse to recognize the obvious difference in skin tone among the races. That would be impossible. Rather, I believe the ideal should be a society in which the government gives citizens of all races the same rights and the same level of opportunity, nothing more, and nothing less.

We are closer than ever to that ideal, but we are not there. With the end of segregation came the end of institutionalized racism in the South, but it wasn't long before the government again began to allow the favoring of one race over the other.

Whatever your feelings are on affirmative action (and I believe there are strong and just arguments for it) you cannot deny the simple fact that it does favor one race over another and thus is contradictory to the U.S. Constitution. But America and its founding documents have never guaranteed equality of outcomes, only equality of opportunity. Thus, in America, people should be judged on their merits as individuals, not on their race.

And yet, when black author Ward Connerly led a campaign in California to insure that very thing, he was denounced as a "con-man" by Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP board of directors. Connerly, a former NAACP member, doesn't believe that people of any race should receive special preferences, or that the government should particularly care what race a person is.

Connerly's beliefs are not without historical precedence. When asked after the Civil War what should be done with the newly freed slaves, Frederick Douglas pleaded, "Do nothing with us!" Douglas asked for not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.

Expanding on the American idea of equality of opportunity and not outcomes, Douglas stated: "If the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also.

Instead of following in the footsteps of Douglas, modern "civil rights" leaders like Jesse Jackson spend more time "shaking down" corporations by making them pay huge amounts of money to avoid being labeled "racist." Such leaders preach constant "doom and gloom" to the young generation for a reason: it's the only way they can stay relevant. Jackson's success depends on the black community needing him, and to need him, he must make the black community feel like victims.

There is still today, and probably always will be, racism. It is ugly and wrong in all of its forms. However, the solution is not to further judge people based on their race. Some of you reading this may disagree with me, and that is fine. I would be more than happy to sit down and discuss it, but I hope that everyone can agree that no good will come of making race an "unmentionable" word.

Katie Wine is a senior Communications major from Memphis.