I know what your stances on racism are primarily about. There are some of you who continue not to believe that racism is a significant problem in today’s society. There are those of you who claim that any accusations or claims of racism is ‘leftist’ and, therefore, untruthful and to be scorned. And then, there are those of you who believe that black racism is alive and it’s just as harmful as white racism. Yeah, I heard all of these and more, and I want to laugh, but I can’t, because it’s gotten quite dull and pathetic.
I wish there are things that I can say that will open your minds, but I’m not that brilliant in my choice of words. Instead, I’ve allowed your words to cause painful feelings of anger and frustration, your words in the guise of having an “open conversation” where you represent the “other side”. Your side usually defends racism in some way, shape or form masked as an intelligent disagreement or rebuttal to any and all claims and facts that racism is still around and is still hurting millions of people of color in this country alone.
By stating in your words, as many or as few as possible, that racism is not a major factor in today’s world is to allow racism to go unchecked. Whether you want to face it or not, that is part of the problem! It’s like having a disease and pretending that you’re still 100% fine. You’re helping a cancer destroy a country that many of you claim that you love. You don’t want to see this disease. You want to pretend that it’s not there or even have faith that it will go away on its own. But as you continue to convince yourselves and others that lie, that disease is tearing apart the nation that you wave flags for. So, how can you sit there and defend something that is killing many people, including children?
There are mounds upon mounds of proof that racism is structural and institutional. Why do you refuse to take them seriously and instead believe in the falsehood that it’s all hype? I can only guess that since you haven’t really experienced what it’s truly like, you think it’s never there in the first place. You never knew what it’s like to live as a person of color in this nation. And this is not an attempt to play on your sympathies, but this is merely stating a common sense fact that you can never truly know anyone unless you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.
Yet, some of you claim to know me and my people better than we know ourselves. Not only is that insulting but also arrogant and ignorant. It’s another attempt to avoid another person’s truth, a truth you refuse to consider as another dimension to a life that you know little about and refuse to know. I’ve seen it happen many times and it pisses me off.
Many of you will not wonder what’s going on with that person or why is he/she in the state of mind that he/she is in because that’s not in your nature. Many of you don’t care to know what’s wrong with that person like a descent human being should. Hell, you wouldn’t dream of taking an effort to find out how to fix their problems. No. You, instead, would look down and put down that person in all your fury, because you’re too full of yourselves with egotism and rage to care. And a select group of you use that to persuade yourselves that your skin color somehow signifies near God-like superiority.
I know the conservative and liberal lot of you will come in full force to cast me down into the fires of hell for speaking my mind. Like I said, I’m not that brilliant of a writer. But try to convince me that you’re not soulless, mindless douchebags with one track minds, and maybe I’ll listen. Maybe.
Maybe you should start listening to what people of color are trying to tell you instead of crying about hurt feelings when you’re participating in the damage. Maybe you should not make assumptions and just hear the words of people whose experiences you are unfamiliar with. Maybe you should act more like a civilized person and just listen.