Ever been followed in TJ Maxx because you are not white? I have. Ever been told, “You aren’t Mexican, you are too light. You must be Spanish?” I have. Ever have your former in-laws complain about all the “stupid Mexicans” they encounter? I have. Ever have someone tell you, “Well, you are light-skinned, not like those dark-skinned Mexicans coming over the border – for all I care, they can all die out there?” I have.
The racism I have faced took me a while to understand. I first faced what I call passive aggressive racism from my former in-laws. I say it took me a while to understand because I grew up in an affluent, predominately white town. Although it was in California, and at any given time, I could drive a few miles away and see my Mexican brothers and sisters picking fruit and vegetables, I couldn’t really relate to them on that level. Frankly, until I met my former husband’s parents, I had never felt any racism toward me as a Latina and person.
I won’t belabor the former in-law saga, but, when they talked about all those “Mexicans” in California and Colorado, as if I wasn’t even in the room, I often wondered if they did so because they thought that somehow, because I am light-skinned, that their criticism didn’t bother me. Did they categorize me as “better” because I wasn’t one of “those migrant workers?” Now that I am removed from this scenario I see the situation in a new light—their racism and bigotry was directed at me and their feelings about me, but their hatred was really directed at all those other “dirty Mexicans.” How unfortunate for them that they thought this way and more, that myself and my former husband never said a word to them. We were too compliant–because they often said these things in front of our daughter.
I picked this topic because of the recent photo floating around on Facebook and other social networking sites that is of a bumper sticker that is frighteningly racist. It states, “Don’t Re-Nig in 2012.” At first site of this post, all I could muster was “Really?” But, then, I got mad. We have already gone through the “Obama is a Muslim” rhetoric and my response to that was and still is, “And…what if he was/is…does that matter?” And, we have heard racist remarks delivered by many people about the President as well as the First Lady, yet, this bumper sticker, I feel, hits a new low. I wonder once we get into the thick of the Presidential race, what else will surface.
This bumper sticker, I feel, is passive aggressive racism as well. Sometimes I think I live in a bubble. Security must not be following me in TJ Maxx because of my skin color, are they? People don’t really still use the “N” word any more, do they? People don’t really think like what this bumper sticker says, can they? Then, my perfect, idealistic world is shattered, the bubble pops, and I realize that yes, there are racist people in the world. In fact, there’s a lot of them.
I am here to just ponder – why? Why is racism still a sentiment here in the United States? Why is it OK to feel superior just because you are white? I am perplexed by this. I am in a quandary over this. I am outraged at this.
What is even more intolerable is that there are still acts of blatant racist aggression in our country. After the violence of the Civil Rights movement, things did improve in the USA. However, we are far from a racist free country. There are hate crimes carried out against people of color and different religions every day in America. As difficult as it is to believe, there are still crimes reminiscent of lynchings as well.
You might recall James Byrd, Jr,. back in Texas in 1998, where three white men beat up Mr. Byrd and then dragged him, still alive, behind their truck until his arm and head were severed. There is an even more recent incident from less than a year ago, in June of 2011, where James Craig Anderson was purposefully beat up, run over, and killed by several white teenagers in Mississippi. This crime is especially horrific in nature because the teenagers admit that they were searching for the first black person they came across to, “… mess with.” After they finished, one of Mr. Anderson’s teenage killers laughingly bragged, “I ran that n-gger over.” The video is extremely graphic, so be forewarned before clicking through, but it illustrates the heinous nature of the crime, and the unadulterated, pure, racist hate.
When I encounter a bumper sticker such as the one mentioned above, or I hear about someone like James Craig Anderson, it provokes many questions for me – Is racism taught? Is racism ignorance? Is racism nurtured, or are we born racist? Is racism a choice?
We hear about hate groups such as Prussian Blue, made up of Lynx and Lamb Gaede: two, white, racist, very young, sisters, who sing about their racist beliefs. Racism literally runs in their family, with a Grandfather who wears a Swastika for a belt buckle, they play video games such as Ethnic Cleansing, and another game called, Dance Around the Swastika. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Hate and racist groups are alive and well in America.
In all of this, I have come to a conclusion: Racism is not going away. So, then, what do we non-racist people do about it? I could say, what should we, educated, less ignorant people, do about racism? Yet, the reality is that many of the people involved in these racist actions are educated. Who am I to say that it is people’s ignorance that causes them to be racist? Does ignorance always lead to racism and hatred? Not necessarily.
I think racism is fear. I think racism is the inability to recognize those that are “different,” as human. We may all have different skin colors, but inside, we are the same. We all have the same body parts and we all have souls. We all have dreams. We all feel the same emotions – sad, happy, love, anger, and excitement. We are all human beings first and foremost. The color of our skin is secondary, yet, that is what we first see when we come upon someone.
Is this visual encounter so predominant in us as humans, that some of us cannot see past color and into that particular human being, who is so much more than the color of their skin?
I could write a book on this topic, all because of a bumper sticker that provoked my anger and I had to write this piece. I conclude with these thoughts… There is no excuse, reason, or rhyme to carry racist tendencies toward anyone. I am tired of people who think they are superior over others because of their skin color. I am even more endlessly tired of people trying to use scripture to support their racist rhetoric. I think I can say with utmost certainty that God does not hate “fags,” blacks, Jews, Mexicans, Muslims, lesbians, nor does God hate whites. Who are we as humans to say that God hates anyone? Please, racist haters, do not use God as an impetus for hate, for it is you that hates, not God.
Photo courtesy of wikimedia.org and can be found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bezhnoznik_u_stanka_US_1930.jpeg
Have you noticed any signs of racism from any other ethnicities? After reading this, it appears that racism is only perpetrated by Caucasians but I can tell you that’s not the case. Racism occurs in all ethnic groups against all others. Please stop hating on white folks… that’s just racist.
Thank you, Allan, for your comment.
I could point out the obvious to you, that all the hate crimes I reported about were white people targeting people of color. Quite honestly, I searched for hate crimes against whites and this is what I got… A story out of DC that says attacks against whites are up, but it is not clear if they are up because of skin color, or sexual orientation, or gender… http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Hate_Crimes_Against_Whites_And_Latinos_Rise_In_D_C_-125134819.html.
Then there is this fundamentalist website, http://battlefieldamerica.wordpress.com/category/hate-crimes-against-whites/, that is full of rhetoric and blatantly racist, yet, claims in its “Archive for Hate Crimes Against Whites,” a whole lot of conspiracy theory type garb.
All I could find were these types of examples…
If I may be frank, I have yet to hear of a modern day “lynching” of a white man by people of color. If you can give me a recent case here in America, I would be interested to read it.
The fact is, America has racist roots that began with the colonization of this country, by white folks, and that racist sentiment is still alive and well.
Thanks again,
Karen
Actually, Allan isn’t completely off but you’d have to step outside of America and quite possibly the western hemisphere to see what he means.
Thanks, Janie! I wholeheartedly agree…
Best,
Karen
Well written article and actually falls in line with some studies (one reported in Newsweek several years ago) that say kids do notice differences early in development based on skin color but racism is more taught. The bumper sticker you talk about is very disturbing.
Thank you, John, for your comment! I have actually read a few of those studies but did not see the Newsweek article. If you have the link, I would love to read it!
Thanks again,
Karen 🙂
ah, yes, children! i was a preschool teacher in a class of primarily white children. it struck me when the two questions that the caucasion children had for their black classmate was (1) “are you black all over?” he said “yes, except the palms of my hands and the bottom of my feet.” and (2) “can i touch your hair?” to which he responded “yes. i want to touch yours!” curiosity. pure curiosity. and they asked questions about freckles and glasses and anything that was different. i found it most fascinating that their curiosity was squashed most readily and overtly by adults when the children asked their pure questions of my friend in a wheelchair. he was fine with their questions, but one parent batted the back of her child’s head when the child asked what happened to his legs. (the hitting her child was another issue, not for here.) the parent hissed that it was rude to ask. people with disabilities are the ones who are most incidiously discriminated against and it has little to do with color, race, religion, sexual identity, gender or age. ( i acknowledge that the most heinous descrimination tends to be older black women who have a disability.) we collude in our silence about alot of discrimination.
Karen,
Thank you for this article. I appreciated your comments about passive aggressive racism, as this is something that I have also experienced as an Asian American (1.5 generation) within my own extended family – when they make racist and xenophobic remarks about immigrants in my own presence. In my case, I did not say anything because we were at a holiday dinner, and I rarely see the otherwise. I also wondered what they meant about these comments, and whether they realized that I identified with these groups – despite having a white father. When we hear comments such as these, we shouldn’t have to be compliant, even if we are lighter skinned or have greater socioeconomic and educational privilege than the “others” whom they think they are referring to. How can we confront these issues and engage in dialogue when these instances happen?
Hi Kelly!
Thank you for your comment.
That is a good question, indeed. I think all we can do is not be compliant. I wish I would have spoken up to my former in-laws, but, I didn’t. They were racist toward others as well. They call Sikhs “Towel heads” and so on. So, sometimes I think you can point out racist tendencies to people, and then sometimes, I think you can’t. I am sure your relatives don’t think they are even being racist, just as the woman and manager I confronted in TJ Maxx when they were following me, claimed they were not profiling me. Yet, when I pointed out to them who all their security people were as we stood there, and the fact that all of them were watching/following people of color, it was a wake-up call to the manager. I can only say that when it happens, try to say something, but, circumstances being what they are, sometimes leave us with no choice but to be silent.
Thanks again for your comment,
Karen
What I think in the connection of racism is that one of the major reasons behind racism or the perpetuation of it lies in the hugely racially connotative English Language Dictionaries. Just have a look words and expressions like “this is not fair”, dark mind, black heart/sheep, blacklisted, blackmail, black mark(a record of disapproval for a misdeed), black market, black out ( a period when supposedly white lights are turned off), black magic (done for inviting evil spirits); furthermore see, “please write legibly on a clean white paper”, white witch (a person who uses witch-craft to help others), white lie (a harmless lie told to avoid hurting someone’s feelings) and the list goes on…. Also give a look at the synonyms of FAIR- bright, clear, honest, legitimate, lawful, respectable, pleasant, unbiased etc.; And for UNFAIR- unjustified, unwarranted, wrong, partisan, undeserved etc. The point is very clear the first lesson that “Fair is pleasant” and “Dark/Black is bad” comes automatically to our mind as children (of humans) and stays consciously, subconsciously or unconsciously till we depart! The reasons are manifold. On a lighter note, “If Dark Africans/ Dark Asians had colonized the world, the situation would have been other way round! Solution- I believe it can be eliminated by spreading real education to the children, grounded in the idea of value-based,balanced, neutral language, words and expressions, which is non-judgmental on what is white/fair and black/dark…. Racism can have no future only when well educated parents and schooling institutions make children learn about the racism free language and words! Real education can eliminate this problem!
Best!
Ashish Kumar
Ph.D.Candidate
Faculty of Law
University of Delhi
Delhi
Dear Ashish,
I agree wholeheartedly that our language is based very much on the idea of light and dark. A neutral language would be welcome, although, how that would occur seems overwhelming. Hopefully someday, it will be a reality.
Thank you for your comment and be well.
Karen
Thank you for wiring this article, even though years have passed. As a Mexican-American that gets mistaken for Spanish or even Asian on occasion, it basically mirrors my thoughts about racism. However, we must be wary of and fight off the anti-blackness that exists within our own culture Some of it is blatant, such as the casting of soap operas and the fact that the Mexican government just recently added ‘Afro Latino’ as an option on the census, marginalizing a portion of their own citizens for so long. Much of it is hidden, though, in the minds of our own relatives, and it’s really quite ugly when it shows itself. I remember watching several matches during the World Cup back in 2014. Soccer/football is a big interest, especially with my grandfather and my mom, so i thought it’d be more fun to watch them all together. Well, whenever a match was on where there were teams from countries with significant African or African descent populations that reflected the team (i can only remember Ghana and Nigeria at this point, not to mention teams like France and Brazil couldn’t even field a squad without these players), nothing good came out of the mouths of my grandparents, with some being branded the dreaded ‘mono’, being likened to a monkey, instead of a human. I was horrified, and more than a little flabbergasted, that people in my own family held such ignorant beliefs. Not to mention that even now, my grandparents and others of their age (or younger, unfortunately) think black people are inherently lazy, and ‘don’t work as hard as they do’. So as much as I agree that everywhere the white man has gone, he’s spread hate and fear of other people that don’t look like him, remember that people that have cared for us all our lives may hold these beliefs as well, effectively keeping them alive.