There are so many aspects to racism. It occurs in every race and is not just about whites against blacks. Whites hating Blacks is what seems to get the most attention but it happens every which way. If I had a nickel for every time I heard a "don't you have any cousins who can do construction", "I bet your a good swimmer", or any other Hispanic joke I'd probably be a millionaire. I've had Black, White, Asians, and many other races make those same types of comments. Typically I'll laugh it off maybe even add to the joke and move on. I'm not going to let simple words affect who I am or what I'm trying to accomplish. However, if I had to pay a nickel for every time I made racist ( about every race or religion) joke I would be broke again. Some people feel that by saying these types of jokes one doesn't help create progress, but I feel that through comedy it sometimes is easier to bring these things out in the open, and if we have an open mind we can laugh it off and move on instead of getting offended and sheltering ourselves. I understand there is a terrible past in this country, and it really is horrendous the injustices that the African-American community suffered but we shouldn't dwell on the past and hate each other because of it. The only way to progress is to move forward regardless of who tries to put us down. My grandmother would get upset when she would go the Alamo and say, " This was Mexico's land, they took it from us, ooo how my blood boils". I used to think to myself, " if you love Mexico so much what are you doing here?" and as I got older I thought maybe she is just ignorant and then I realized that it was what she learned, that is what her parents taught her and what her school taught her.
My point is that it's about what we we're taught, what, and how we teach our children. If I tell my kids to be proud of their Mexican roots and that the White men took Texas away from us etc..., then I am instilling hatred in them. If we teach our children to feel hatred because of our past, they will continue the vicious cycle, but if we tell them to learn from our ancestors mistakes and to change their views maybe they can move forward. When Barack Obama was elected president it was a great moment for me because I felt that he not only helped inspire the Black community but all minorities. I felt that if my child had come to me prior to that date and said, " Daddy I want to be President of the USA" I might tell him sure son, but I don't think I would believe it. I realized later how ignorant I was and how I was following the mold of what I had been taught. I didn't need Obama to become President so I could believe my child could become President. I should have believed it could happen and that no matter what anyone said if he worked hard and set his mind to it, he could do it.
There are many who believe racism doesn't exist or that people are taking things to personally. I read a comment, on a story by Jeffrey Wright discussing his recent experience with racism, saying something to the effect of "If a white gets declined for a loan it is because he has bad credit, if a black man gets declined for a loan it's because he is black". While I say we have to put the past behind us that doesn't mean ignore the present. I agree in some cases it may not be racism or it may not be the form of racism we are thinking. Last year I became good friends with one of the kids, Jonathan, in my neighborhood. We would round up other neighbors and play football in the afternoons. One day, while running, he fell on the pavement and was unable to get up from the pain. I happened to be coming home from work when it happened and I rushed him and his mother to the hospital. We arrived around 6:30p.m. at the emergency room. Jonathan started saying he was really hungry but the hospital wouldn't let him eat because they were unsure what he had damaged. The emergency room was not busy that evening and people that arrived hours after we did left well before we did. We left the hospital at 12:30 that night and received horrible service. Jonathan had not been allowed to eat this entire time and was not given anything for the pain until I started yelling at people. I yelled at the doctors and nurses in the area telling them to either give him something to eat or diagnose him so we could go get him a burger. My initial thought was I could not believe how poorly this child had been treated because he was Black, but then after going through everything that happened that evening I realized it had nothing to do with him being Black it was worse, it was because he didn't have health care coverage. I remembered they attended us immediately and asked about insurance, once his mom said she didn't have insurance was when suddenly we started being ignored.
I realize there are cases where people make things up or use racism to try and change a story or maybe to gain something to their benefit, but we can't let those cases make us think everyone is like that and that racism doesn't exist. I was having a conversation with a Black APD Officer last night and he was telling me of a story where he was treated unfairly because he was Black, but then he went to the same place in uniform and everything changed. I could be naive and say he is just imagining things, yet when I asked about the officer involved shooting that recently took place in Austin, Texas he stated that he felt it had nothing to do with race. That it didn't matter what color or race you were, if you drive around shooting guns in the air and reach for the gun in your pants when getting pulled over you are most likely going to be shot. Maybe his respect for a fellow officer is stronger than his ties to his race? I doubt that.
The reality is that racism continues to exist and we need to have open discussions and teach our children differently. We need to let go of hatred from the past and move forward. We can't let words put us down, hurt us or impair us from moving on. I hear Whites say that Blacks just use excuses, and Mexicans are taking their jobs, Blacks say they can't move on because Whites won't let them, and Mexicans are lazy taco benders, and Mexicans say that they can't move up because Whites control management jobs, and that Blacks are lazy people who watch them do all the work. It's the blame game, everyone points the finger the other direction. We are all guilty. We need to move on together and not be afraid to voice our opinions or have discussions about race or racism. Communication is key.
I agree that whether we want to believe it or not, racism still does exist in the U.S. and it is shocking that it is still around. It should not matter what race or ethnicity we are, but yet sometimes it still does effect whether we get the job or not, getting into college, or grades, customer service, etc..
ReplyDeleteI too get the stereotypical jokes, like "Aren't you like a human calculator?" or "You probably don't have a life or any fun cause all you do is go to work and school" just because I'm Asian. I would not say that they are being racist, I would say that they are just carrying on the stereotypes. I personally do not feel comfortable enough to make jokes like that about other races, just because you never know who you would really offend.
I liked in your article "Race!" you talked about taking your friend to the hospital and he was treated poorly just because he did not have health insurance. It is a good example of prejudice in another light. It reminds me of sometimes when I go to restaurants I would notice that another table, older, probably good tippers, that our same waiter would give them top of the line service and give me the bad end of the stick. Just because I'm young and I don't order like 1000 drinks, the waiter probably thinks I'm not a good tipper so what is the point of giving me good service.