This may come as a surprise to you, but I've never been black. I've also never been Native American, Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, Hispanic, or anything else that I had to check a box for. So, as you can imagine, I've never known what it is like to be a minority; to feel like my mere existence was threatening (or threatened).
Although it's been due to somber situations, I appreciate that my timeline has been featuring intelligent articles correlating race and abuse, race and employment, race and police brutality, race and objectification. My friends, the so-called lazy millennials, are having a beautifully free and open dialogue about something our parents often like to pretend doesn't exist.
I've seen some friends comment that they're sick of talking about race. The people who say this usually have good, non-hateful intentions. They believe that the need to ask, 'is it racist?' is indeed racist itself; that if we keep making it about race, then it will always be about race.
Well, yes, in some way it will always be about race. I understand race is a made-up concept (this is a discussion for another day and another blog post), but our physical features are always going to be visible, and our natural psychological reaction is to categorize. We like to note your height, your weight, your demeanor, your smile, your confidence, your hair, your skin color, your nose, your lips, your clothes. We gather all this data, and within seconds we come to a conclusion about you.
I fear that many people inherently absorb racist ideals that are perpetuated by societal views. These are the ignorant racists; the people who experience prejudiced thoughts, and subsequently actions, with no intended or understood harm. Kind of like the people on 'What Not to Wear' who think that vests are cool, or my step-dad who thinks it's appropriate to refer to African Americans as 'colored people': they just need to be schooled. You kind of feel sorry for them, but they mostly just make you angry. Don't lose faith, we can work together to enlighten these folks.
In the U.S., racism isn't alive and well due to people stomping up and down the street, screaming the 'n' word and accusing Middle Eastern people of being terrorists. Yes, these people do exist and they really suck. They're at a hate and fear-induced point of no return. But modern racism lives in our everyday interactions, every time we categorize and box someone up.
When you walk to your car at night, do you hold your keys a little tighter as you pass an African American gentleman?
You see a woman of color at the store, paying for groceries with an EBT card. What remarks do you make to yourself?
When you see an older black man with a younger white girl, what do you assume about their relationship? Does it make you uneasy? Suspicious?
Pay attention next time you're watching a movie or music video; are women of color objectified or fetishized more?
Did Darren Wilson leave his house that morning, hoping to kill a black boy? I highly doubt it. Did he feel threatened because he thought Michael looked like a 'thug'; that he matched the description of someone he should fear, and who is likely to be carrying a weapon? Perhaps. Did he wrongly assess the situation and his level of danger? Maybe.
Unfortunately, we're seeing a new Michael Brown every week, in Cleveland and across the country.
Race, in its improper definition, will always be apparent. So instead of ignoring it and claiming to be 'color blind,' let's learn about one another, engage in difficult discussions, and understand and celebrate our differences. These racist impulses we experience exist at a subconscious level. We can override our mental software by challenging one another to think outside the boxes we create. Maybe we'll even save a few lives.
EDIT: I'm in no way defending terrible, awful, racist people. There are many people out there whose intolerance is evident in recent cases of brutality, in shootings and in the deaths of children. I'm addressing the difficulty of understanding the intentions of someone who was guided less by hate and more by ignorance. I'm hoping to inspire people to look more closely act their beliefs, actions and reactions, and ask 'why?'
