Warning: I'm going to write a similar post on Blogher this week.........
There have been a few 'incidents' post- the Obama Presidency that have made me think about whether a brother in the White House is going to change anything. Up until last night, when I was at the gym, pausing between machines and sweating like a Mo'Fo, I was thinking about writing this huge, investigative piece about the subtle racism that has permeated people so much that they don't even know what they are doing / saying is racist - or rather, racially divisive. But last night I had a moment of clarity:
Who cares?
Really. What is one article that would (hopefully) be published in a major newspaper really do? It's not going to change years of behavior; It's not going to really going to cause people (who would have to admit that they harbored some racist thoughts) to miraculously see the light. It's like someone telling me that I should really like Britney Spears's music immediately. Not going to happen.
But from the stories I have heard from friends and acquaintances, I am a bit nervous...well, more angry and....well not really angry, per se, but resigned to the fact that some things will never change.
One of the stories I heard was a Canadian white guy who was quite angered that they 'let' 'a black' into 'The White House.' There is more to the story but I can't repeat it here. This man was a client, talking to a complete stranger - one who happened to be black - on a business call, who later told me the conversation. Actually, I heard this type of situation twice in one day, the second coming from a co-worker ( who'd better hope and pray that we never have to work together). Another co-worker/ friend told me that story later but admittedly did nothing to challenge his opinion.
The black person who had the phone conversation did nothing to correct the client, either. I told her she should have told him that he was talking to a black person and to watch what he said. She just said that she felt sorry for him, that he was ignorant. True, but the couple of seconds he would have paused and then backtracked would have been priceless.
It's not that people have differing views on race relations than moi that piss me off.....it's that people who know ( and who tell me, whom they know is quite 'opinionated' on the subject) do nothing. They do not bother correcting or challenging the person's behavior. They. Do. Nothing.
Once upon a time, when I was a kid, I let several people say things and do things to me and did nothing and I have spent the last couple of decades wishing that I had. Maybe then, I would have a better opinion of myself - maybe I would have a better sense of self. Sure, I would have ended up in jail (just joking) but it would have been worth it. When people are not challenged on their ignorant views - views that if acted upon might hinder the rights of others - it means that what they think / do is okay. And that ain't right.
Now there is a time an a place to call people on their shit. Later on the same day that I heard about the above situations I was walking down the hall to my apartment and bumped into my next-door neighbor. She is anolder woman from India and was asking me for some legal advice about her noisy neighbors. The people who live directly across from her are Asian, and she made a few racist remarks about 'all the Asians' that have recently moved into the building. I said as nicely as I could that their ethnicity had nothing to do with the fact that whether they were noisy or not, and that there were lots of Asshats (I didn't quite use that word) of various ethnicities in the building who were even more annoying - like the crack den down the hall, perhaps? See, I corrected her without using foul language and without busting her upside the head. She didn't seemed bothered that I was not agreeing with her, and I told her to check out a website and went to my apartment. See? It can be done.
I am not a saint, though. I have let a lot of shit slide through one ear and out the other. But with 'a black' in 'The White House' - even though that house might be across the border - maybe it is time for people to start correcting others on their racist crap. Thoughts?
