would love to hear you guys' thoughts on the following...
my friend, this white girl from NC i befriended in Chile...wrote this note on her FB.
in case you don't feel like reading, she basically was like "why is race such a big deal, all it does is divide us. nobody trips over people's eye colors' being different."
I was reading this shit getting so annoyed. knowing full well i was going to write a reply, while also completely not feeling the energy to give a real sharp response.
Race in the United States
So.
We are at an unprecedented moment in the short-lived history of the United States, where a guy with dark skin could become the president. Who cares that he is fairly young, very eloquent, has an interesting, worldly background and upbringing? He's black. That's the number one thing we know about Obama. That, and his middle name is Hussein. And I have to ask myself, why does that matter? I know that in the historical context of the United States and the world, a black man becoming president is huge. I'm not belittling that. What I'm trying to point out is our incessant need to focus on people's skin color.
It always seemed strange to me when I was younger that we had to put our "race" on the standardized tests. They had the little bubbles for white (non-hispanic), hispanic, asian, african american, native american/pacific islander, and probably some others. Kids aren't born racist; they are raised to be that way. Kids don't even notice race. But if you make them distinguish and define themselves by it every time they have to fill out a form, you can be sure it's going to start influencing their thinking. Am I different because I am white? Or black? Or native american? Why do they need this information? These seemingly unimportant moments aren't going to turn anyone into a white or black or native american supremacist, but they do start to make you at least take note of other people's skin tones.
It seems strange that in such a diverse country, with people literally from all over the world, we still insist that our children learn to define themselves by something so trivial as their color. People would scoff at the idea of writing your hair or eye color on anything other than your driver's license, and if we had to, I can guarantee you we would start separating ourselves based on those criteria as well. Play it out in your mind. We constantly enforce the race divide. There are polls that show who blacks are voting for and who whites are voting for. What issues matter to blacks and what issues matter to whites. If we could drop the constant race-based rhetoric in our every day life, we might actually be able to do something about the deep-rooted problem of racism.
I guess my point is, I'm really stoked that we've finally come to a point where at least over 50% of the nation can get behind someone without letting his race, whatever it may be, cloud their judgment. My question is, why are we still even focused on that?
yah. so i wrote a long ass reply. in which i basically said she was exhibiting white privilege. and that in the case of most black people i know, obama's race is a big reason why we are excited to vote for him. and i said some other shit about how you have to remember the history of why skin color ever mattered anyway. there was so much to say. i didn't say it all. perhaps i'll have a more thoughtful reply at a later date.
in case you don't feel like reading, she basically was like "why is race such a big deal, all it does is divide us. nobody trips over people's eye colors' being different."
I was reading this shit getting so annoyed. knowing full well i was going to write a reply, while also completely not feeling the energy to give a real sharp response.
Race in the United States
So.
We are at an unprecedented moment in the short-lived history of the United States, where a guy with dark skin could become the president. Who cares that he is fairly young, very eloquent, has an interesting, worldly background and upbringing? He's black. That's the number one thing we know about Obama. That, and his middle name is Hussein. And I have to ask myself, why does that matter? I know that in the historical context of the United States and the world, a black man becoming president is huge. I'm not belittling that. What I'm trying to point out is our incessant need to focus on people's skin color.
It always seemed strange to me when I was younger that we had to put our "race" on the standardized tests. They had the little bubbles for white (non-hispanic), hispanic, asian, african american, native american/pacific islander, and probably some others. Kids aren't born racist; they are raised to be that way. Kids don't even notice race. But if you make them distinguish and define themselves by it every time they have to fill out a form, you can be sure it's going to start influencing their thinking. Am I different because I am white? Or black? Or native american? Why do they need this information? These seemingly unimportant moments aren't going to turn anyone into a white or black or native american supremacist, but they do start to make you at least take note of other people's skin tones.
It seems strange that in such a diverse country, with people literally from all over the world, we still insist that our children learn to define themselves by something so trivial as their color. People would scoff at the idea of writing your hair or eye color on anything other than your driver's license, and if we had to, I can guarantee you we would start separating ourselves based on those criteria as well. Play it out in your mind. We constantly enforce the race divide. There are polls that show who blacks are voting for and who whites are voting for. What issues matter to blacks and what issues matter to whites. If we could drop the constant race-based rhetoric in our every day life, we might actually be able to do something about the deep-rooted problem of racism.
I guess my point is, I'm really stoked that we've finally come to a point where at least over 50% of the nation can get behind someone without letting his race, whatever it may be, cloud their judgment. My question is, why are we still even focused on that?
yah. so i wrote a long ass reply. in which i basically said she was exhibiting white privilege. and that in the case of most black people i know, obama's race is a big reason why we are excited to vote for him. and i said some other shit about how you have to remember the history of why skin color ever mattered anyway. there was so much to say. i didn't say it all. perhaps i'll have a more thoughtful reply at a later date.