Racism Today (Post 2)
Last night a friend of mine told me that there was a confrontation at her place of work yesterday during the Presidential Inauguration. The confrontation which ended with a worker going home and the initiator being told off in classic “aww hell naw fashion” was sparked by one white man’s decision to speak his mind.
The comment that sparked this vicious lashing of words was made after Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America. The comment was as follows
“Black people should be glad for this day, because it will never happen again.”
Now I am pretty sure that this older white gentleman was not the only Caucasian having these kinds of thoughts along with other venomous ones concerning black people and Barack Obama, this man was just bold enough to allow the words to escape from his mouth. Obviously he’d had enough of the Obamanism.
I am pretty sure that being that he was bold enough to say that in the company of black people, he definitely would have said more had he not picked the wrong day and the wrong group of proud, black people who just wanted to relic in the joy of their new president.
Recently someone (a black someone) told me that we are about to see a whole new side of white people. We are about to hear things that we knew they thought, but never felt the need to speak. We as black people are about to see how they really feel about African Americans, even the nice suit and tie ones that brown nose them. Even the ones who they play golf with and crack jokes with…even the ones they call friends.
Now before I began writing this post I tried to think things through to try and avoid offending some of my blog readers who are in interracial relationships or who are truly engulfed in the one love one peace one world (you get the idea) type of thinking. But honestly even being cautious I can’t tiptoe too much over the fact that not all white people like black people and honestly some of them wish we would go back to Africa. Just recently someone posted this listing demanding African Americans to head on back to Africa. Now here is my big thing with white people who wish that black people would get back on the ship and set sail to the Motherland. Was it not the Caucasians that brought us here? Did our ancestors just decide one day “Aww hell let’s just go on to America where we can be slaves and be treated less than human” Did our African ancestors willingly come to America to suffer? No, so why now insist that black people go back home when our ancestors had no choice in coming.
Cautious or not, it is hard to overlook the fact that even with Barack Obama being the 44th President that a biracial person can be told something like this
““You don’t seem that black. I have no worries with you.”
Taken from The New York Times article “Talk About Race, Relax It’s Ok.”
The article is quite interesting and gives different people’s viewpoints on Barack Obama’s affect on race relations and whether his Presidency will ease the tension when it comes to interracial communication.
Will it ease the tension that is always so evident between blacks and whites when race is mentioned?
One thing I found in the article that made me go hmmm, is the fact that it is kind of thrown out there that many white people see certain likable African Americans without seeing their race. The examples given were Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan, along with them now goes Barack Obama. In reference to President Obama it was stated that somehow it seems that he transcends race. If he does rise above race, and can be seen for what he stands for and his other wonderful qualities, why is he among the tiny few African Americans that are likable enough to be seen as just humans and not black entertainers or black politicians etc?
(I think OJ Simpson used to be on that list to, so watch out)
Personally I feel that for many people Barack Obama stood for something that countless people of all races had lost and that was hope. They saw his qualities above his color because they were looking for something; these people felt lost and wanted change. This change was not race related. So will having a black president change the way we look at each other, I think not. I do feel that it gives many people a sense of ease when talking about certain topics because now as a country we have something in common. We can relate to each other on a level now that we couldn’t before; we share a president that links us all.
Even with the likelihood that some undercover racists will decide to let it all hang out, most black people are still in celebratory spirits and could care less if their coworker who they have eaten lunch with occasionally really doesn’t like them, it’s ok, at least for now. Right now they are ecstatic. They can finally exhale and for black people being able to exhale and feel good about anything political is wonderful.
p.s. Has anyone read this book ?
Kaleidoscope Lyfe 