If you’ve gotten caught up in the salutes to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and preparing to shortly celebrate Black History Month, you must recognize that sometimes these observances can seem like just window dressing to disguise the innate and often two-faced nature of racism in this country.

Like we expected him to, President Bush had nothing but praise for the slain civil rights leader and the “clarity of his vision” as the nation commemorated King’s birthday.

“Even though progress has been made,” the president said, “there is still work to do. There is still prejudice.”

The president made his remarks on King’s birthday in a Baptist church in Maryland where the predominantly black congregation was probably saying, “Tell us something we don’t know.”

This is the same president, who, just a few days earlier, called for a halt to affirmative action programs that boost the number of blacks in colleges and universities.

Then, as to if to soothe those angered by the administration’s position, Bush later proposed a five percent increase in spending for grants to historically black and Hispanic educational institutions.

Sounds like, “we don’t want them in our schools, so here’s some more money to get more of them into your schools.”

But sometimes it doesn’t matter what kind of education blacks have, they still can’t find a job because of subtle racist tactics. Now it seems, blacks are often rejected even before they get to the interview stage because their resumes have an aura of blackness.

A recent university study showed that people with white-sounding names are more likely to be called in for interviews

Researchers sent out 5,000 resumes in response to newspaper ads. They used “white” names like Brett, Neil, Emily and Jill, while among the “black” names were Tamika, Rasheed and Ebony.

The resumes with white sounding names received 50 percent more responses than those with black names. And they didn’t even use Delroy and Donovan.

Researchers also found that blacks “benefit little if at all from improving their credentials.”

So while we extol our achievements and progress, and laud our tormented and persecuted heroes, we must understand racism is more than a curse, and it will take more than chants and ceremonies to fulfill our dream of equality.