Can't we just shut up about race?

I'm having a hard time loving some people in my life lately. It's a hard topic to talk about because I used to be just like them. Then for various reasons I had to step outside of our circles. I stepped into other circles. Not one to always voice my opinions, I've spent a lot of time listening. And I'm hearing things. I'm hearing things that make it super difficult to return to my old circles. Maybe it's less about you, and more about how ashamed I feel to have thought certain ways. 
       I know many of my white friends think that racism is dead. Or if it exists at all its isolated to some sketchy rednecks who really only talk about it around the campfire holding their shotguns. You have a couple black friends. You watch scandal and Tyler Perry. You listen to hip hop music when you're getting ready to go clubbing and your favorite sports team is mostly black people. Besides that, you don't even see color, you see people. You can name at least 15 famous black people and know exactly what's wrong with that whole community... If they would just keep it in their pants... Or if they would just listen in class and do their homework... If they would just say no to drugs... If they would just pull their pants up...if they would just talk a little clearer... If they just wouldnt make such scary faces... If they would just wear decent fitting clothes....if they would just stay married and raise their kids right...if they would just stop mooching off the system...if they would just try harder... If they would just let the cops accost them for no reason and lie down when they were asked to and watch as their stuff is searched for no probable cause...if they would just get over watching their kids get taken from them because they opened their stupid mouths to ask why their car was being searched and now they have to spend the night in jail because asking a question is resisting arrest. Arrest for nothing. 

But that doesn't happen. This is America. We are not biased. We are NOT biased. We are not biased. 

It's all about personal responsibility, right?

Why are they so angry anyway? 

It's not like they grow up wondering why they look so different than the people on TV.

It's not like they grow up learning a certain way of talking and behaving amongst people that look and act just like them only to find out when they go out to try and get a job they are supposed to conform to a different kind of behavior. A foreign behavior. A behavior dictated by a majority that doesn't look like them and never lets them forget it. But never acknowledges seeing it. 

That black man sure was articulate. 

Maybe my head is a mess about it because someone shined a light on just how racist I am, and I'm not afraid to admit it. 

Maybe I don't smile at black people. 

Maybe I do find that black man approaching my car a little bit scarier than a white man. Oh, crap, he wasn't approaching my car, he was approaching his car. Wow, it's a nice car! Good for him! 


Good for that black man, doing so well. 


America isn't racist, Jiggs. 

We don't see color, Jiggs. 


You're right. We don't see color. 



We can't see at all. 
Y

Comments

Anonymous said…
Dangit, Jiggs.

How much of the perpetuation of the problem of racism is due to our refusal to acknowledge it?

M

p.s. found this blog because you've got the lyrics of Sylvester, by Randall Goodgame.
10:05 PM
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