When you tell someone they are being too sensitive…or they should just suck it up or you just dismiss what they are saying; you’re probably in the wrong. You and your privilege need to stand down, stop and think before you continue.
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3 comments
January 4, 2012 at 1:59 pm
bleatmop
Makes me wonder what would I do. I’d like to think that I would be colour-blind, I suppose I’ll never know until put in that situation. Although, for my situation you would probably have to put a Blackfoot person there in place a black person, as they are the people I was socialized to fear and mistrust while growing up.
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January 4, 2012 at 4:37 pm
Reneta Scian
We all place cultural bias, this is totally agreed. Even if we resist even resent racism, or other forms of discrimination its difficult overcome the first impressions you are given especially if placed when you were young. The problem with this is that a long line of “fixed” mentalities about people, not just dark skinned persons but other considerable minorities results in the institutionalization of racism… Racism, Sexism, Ableism, et cetera all get institutionalized in our thinking by fear. It’s the mentality about certain groups that then creates a fear, the fear fuels discrimination, the discrimination causes duress and disadvantages the target of it, and at a disadvantage people do what it takes to get by, which then reciprocates and reinforces the fear.
Discrimination is a vicious cycle that plays on our fears and survival instincts. Clannish behavior is common in humans, and tends to follow visible characteristics, like skin, height, appearance. Just like species of animals will reject members of it’s ranks that are different from it, human animals do the same with other humans who are different. However, these divisions are contorted by culture, amplified, and are far more dangerous than just rejection alone. If we want to stop discrimination the best bet is to stop passing the torch onto future generations, and mitigate the effect it plays on our children. That being said it is institutionalized in our school systems, churches, synagogues, courts, public services, and everywhere people gather. The system is built around passing on that torch.
I don’t think that racial divisions will ever completely disappear unless we all blended into one race, which won’t happen anytime soon. That is unless of coarse and overwhelming uniting force that makes the differences between us pale in it’s comparison. I truly want to believe that people can get better, that people can change, but the evidence speaks to the contrary. I feel this will end either when the differences decrease, when our culture is equal enough that everyone is on equal footing, or when we are faced with a global epiphany (alien visitation, catastrophe, world altering event). It’s an unfortunate truth about humanity that we have a tendency to only change when we have to… Our dependency on fossil fuels is a perfect example. Only when faced with crisis do we change, but we can change.
Maybe one day we will institutionalize reason and end all of our problems for good, to make culture of finding the answers and adaptation.
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January 4, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Vern R. Kaine
I’m surprised Al Sharpton didn’t jump out of the woods right there and try to lobby for more dollars for his useless and self-serving crusade on the spot. haha
Regardless, I live in a predominantly latin-American community in the U.S..Any white men or women who think for a second they’re too PC to be racist can try and walk a 3 block radius in my neighborhood at about 11:00pm and see how automatically trusting they are of all the latin American boys and girls chatting them up as they pass them by. Even your most “I’m so not racist” person $hits bricks taking a walk of that type, which makes me believe anyone who tries to say they aren’t racially prejudice to some degree is a liar. Try, too, taking a walk around downtown Atlanta or Dallas at the same time and take a wild guess as to what percentage of the hustlers and petty thieves are white.
I TRY and not be prejudice because for the most part, I believe one sad reality of it is that it is a fear that ultimately becomes self-fulfilling, but to think it comes from people of privilege against those of no privilege is a liberal joke – it comes just the same from all sides. In my neighborhood, however, forget worrying about racism – it’s simply not smart to assume the latino kid is a thief whereas the white kid isn’t. Like women assuming all men are potential rapists, you just have to automatically all kids in your neighborhood are basically there to steal something from you until they are able to prove 1:1 otherwise.
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