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Racism In America
Greetings,
I wrote this a few years ago. I have enjoyed this message board becuase I think ts filled with open minded people and I wanted to get your opinons. Its against the grain of what you may think. But I think that is what makes it interesting. Its kind of long.
RACISM IN AMERICA
In our society today, we have many troubling issues from war to poverty to aids. I think one of the biggest issues facing Americans today is also one of the easiest to overcome if we just did the right thing. Racism is a plague that has been with us since this country was founded over 200 years ago. Many people think it is limited to one race, but it is not. All races have people that portray racist behavior. It is portrayed at different levels and to different degrees. I believe I know why we have racism and I believe I know how we can downsize it. We will never be able to eliminate it because people are individuals and have their own way of thinking and you cannot regulate that. But you can get to the root cause and from there grow and do the right things. So what causes racism? Simply put ignorance.
Now, many people misunderstand this word. Ignorance does not mean a person is dumb or stupid. Ignorance means the lack of knowledge. We are all ignorant about something. I for one am ignorant when it comes to any form of math above algebra. No one can know everything. Ignorance is merely the lack of knowledge. And, in this country we have a lack of knowledge of each others rich culture. Before I go on, I want to express when I say we or they I am not talking about 100%. I never speak in absolutes, because 100% of people never do things alike. You will always have exceptions to the rule. Anyway, People of different races don’t really know enough about each other and therefore they are ignorant about the other person. What happens then is we form opinions about a person based upon what we see. That’s called stereotyping. For instance, if you see a white man with a big belly wearing a dirty baseball cap and a shirt with a confederate flag on it, people come to a conclusion about this person. If you see a young black man wearing a crooked hat and pants down his butt, people come to a conclusion without having so much as a conversation with him. We Judge people based on images we see on TV or see on the news. In my examples both these men could have PhD’s that just happen to choose to dress a particular way. It is a free country after all right?
Americans can be lazy. You see it is easy to hate someone. It takes no effort. To say “well, he’s different from me so I don’t like him” is easy. To love however takes effort. In order to love someone, you have to get to know them. Spend time with them, learn about their background. And that takes effort. In the fast pace instant everything country we live in today, many of us are not willing to learn about someone different than us. I have spent 17 years in the military. I have been to 7 different countries. It’s fascinating to learn about other cultures and people. How they live. How they raise their children. What their value system is. It truly lets you realize the vast world we live in and the similarities we all share. Its actually spiritual to me
In America, we just have a hard time with this. We are in our own world and if you don’t fit in it, then you are different and are to be taken with caution. I have a friend that grew p with me in the inner city of Atlanta. She went to an all black elementary school, all black high school, all black college and presently teaches in a majority black school system. She has never really interacted socially with other than black people. She finds my diversity and ability to accept different people as odd and somehow not being true to my race I find that attitude disturbing but an unfortunate reality. You can’t say that because a person wears a confederate flag on his shirt he is a racist. That’s just as ignorant as saying a person who wears his pant sagging is a thug. Its unwarranted and stereotyping.
One of the people I admire and try to live my life like is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was a man of integrity and had a good heart and a good sense of humanity. Many Americans call him a “black” hero. I call him and “American” hero. He didn’t just fight for black peoples rights. He fought for everybody’s rights. If the tables were turned and it were white people that had their civil rights taken, I believe Dr. King would have fought just as hard for them as he did for African Americans.
So, again, the problem is ignorance. The key to ignorance is education. The problem in America is we are more educated about a particular race than another. If I asked the average citizen names like George Washington, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, they could rattle off who these people are like it was nothing. If I asked them about Benjamin Banneker, Charles Drew, or Benjamin O. Davis, they would have a little trouble. The latter three people played just as much an important ant role in America as did the former three. But because we are not educated about them the same amount, their contributions go unnoticed. That is a problem we have to correct in this country. Benjamin Banneker invented a certain type of traffic light. He didn’t invent it just for black people. He invented it for all people yet he is considered a black hero. Why not an American hero?
We have a lot of separation issues in this country deemed to be one for all. And they are not all the fault of white people. It really hurts me when, in the month of February, we have many black history events, which is good. It helps with the education process. But, when I go to these events, I see mostly black people there. Where are the white people? Where are the Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans? Shouldn’t they be the real target audience? Many people will say well they don’t come because they are not interested. I believe they don’t come because they don’t feel welcome. Here is an example. When I was in college, I was a member of the Black Student Alliance (BSA). Great organization. We did a lot for campus students. Did a lot of community service too. But I had a problem with the name. Black student alliance implies this organization is “only” for black students. Now of course that is not true. No college sponsored organization could get away with such a thing, however, it’s not about what is real, it about what is perceived. If I were a white guy and saw a sign that said “come join the black student alliance” Do you really think I would feel like I was welcome there? I think the National Association for Women (NOW) is a great group, but I wouldn’t join. It’s for women. The name says so. Again, life s mostly about perception and not reality. How can we learn about each others culture if we continue to separate ourselves?
I was deployed to Bosnia with the National Guard backing 2001 People were killing each other over religion. Women and children were starving. It was total chaos. I looked back to my home state of Georgia and what was the big topic? What flag should we fly. I thought to myself, here I am in a country where people are being killed because of their religious belief and in the great land of America, people are arguing over a stupid flag .It just made me think about America’s priorities. Personally, I could less what kind of flag we fly. I am more concerned with helping young people be better citizens. Black organizations like the SCLC, and the Concerned Black Clergy are always on TV when a white person does something to a black person. They get irate about it. But I never see them getting irate about the rise in teenage pregnancy in my community. I never see them get irate about violence in my community. It seems they pick and choose what to get irate about. I think their priorities need a little adjusting. We have teenage girls having multiple children. We have young boys thinking the only way to get ahead is to sell drugs or rob somebody. We need to wake up.
Again, when I was college, we had a forum and a white girl asked the question why do black people cal themselves African Americans? I answered her that we call ourselves that so we can have a connection to our African heritage where we were Kings and Queens since when our ancestors came to this land, it was taken from us. The girl understood and learned. I educated her. I did not blow up at her and call her a racist for asking that question. Communication is a two way deal. If you come at someone aggressively and offensively, they will respond defensively. They won’t have heard a word you said, they just know you insulted them and they are preparing a defense. If you come at someone intelligently, and calmly, they have no choice but to listen. That’s the way we in the country need to approach people.
The bottom line is this. We are all Americans. Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Native. We are all God’s creations. We don’t have to think a like. We don’t have to like each other. But we need to learn about each other so we won’t have these preconceived ideas that are usually false. I am a Christian and believe that God wants us to work and live together in harmony. We cannot do that unless we understand one another.
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