This is totally going to sound racist ...
Hi there!
They say that whenever someone qualifies a statement with: "This is going to sound racist", or "I'm not a racist, but..." that you should automatically assume that they probably wear a white sheet and burn crosses on the weekends.
Nonetheless, this is going to sound pretty racist. Enter with caution.
So I hope I'm not racist in saying this, but there is one very important thing that I believe about this new Presidency, something that people seem to be skirting around, probably for fear of sounding racist.
I know that I was born and raised as the "default setting" for American Society. I was raised in a middle-class, White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant family with two loving parents. I have never known discrimination. When I walk into a store, I usually see friendly faces asking me if I need help, rather than suspicious glares. When I go to see a movie, I can be reasonably sure that the dashing hero will look like me, will definitely get the girl, and will probably survive to the end of the film. I know that if I were a successful actor, that no one would ever refer to me as: "One of Hollywood's Most-Respected White Actors". If I'd been a writer, the flyleaf of my latest book would not read: "Celebrated Anglo-Saxon-American Author Craig Anderson brings you a tale of life in the middle-class suburbs ...". I know that if I'd looked at the (now discontinued) flesh crayon in my box of Crayolas, that it would look a lot like my flesh. I know that taxis will stop for me, that employers will seriously consider my application, and that no one will make a total ass of themselves trying to be "Down Wit'" me.
But what if I'd been born differently?
What if every time my eyes met the gaze of one my fellow American citizens, they saw: "CRIMINAL" and then quickly looked away? What if Congress had to pass laws to FORCE employers to hire me? Would I be able to hold my head high when I went into the office and listened to my co-workers tell me that they saw that new Ice Cube video yesterday? What if a significant majority of the music of "my people" was a celebration of how very GOOD it feels to be a gangsta? What if the only heroes that I had to respect and admire came pre-packaged and marketed directly to me with the words: "THUG LIFE" tattooed across their abs? If I couldn't get society to respect me, could I get it to fear me? If I walked outside in a bulky hooded Raiders jacket, would people cross the street to avoid walking next to me? Would I buy into that image? Would that be my model? Would I be sitting on a porch in Neptune, NJ right now sipping a 40 of St Ides? What if that's all I HAD? What if the best that I could hope for was to be a Menace II Society?
Well right now, on this day, there's a kid somewhere in the projects with a do-rag on his head, gold chains around his neck, and a poster of Tupac on his bedroom wall, and this kid has just been told that one day, he could become the President of the motherfucking United States.
I think that's something, isn't it?
They say that whenever someone qualifies a statement with: "This is going to sound racist", or "I'm not a racist, but..." that you should automatically assume that they probably wear a white sheet and burn crosses on the weekends.
Nonetheless, this is going to sound pretty racist. Enter with caution.
So I hope I'm not racist in saying this, but there is one very important thing that I believe about this new Presidency, something that people seem to be skirting around, probably for fear of sounding racist.
I know that I was born and raised as the "default setting" for American Society. I was raised in a middle-class, White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant family with two loving parents. I have never known discrimination. When I walk into a store, I usually see friendly faces asking me if I need help, rather than suspicious glares. When I go to see a movie, I can be reasonably sure that the dashing hero will look like me, will definitely get the girl, and will probably survive to the end of the film. I know that if I were a successful actor, that no one would ever refer to me as: "One of Hollywood's Most-Respected White Actors". If I'd been a writer, the flyleaf of my latest book would not read: "Celebrated Anglo-Saxon-American Author Craig Anderson brings you a tale of life in the middle-class suburbs ...". I know that if I'd looked at the (now discontinued) flesh crayon in my box of Crayolas, that it would look a lot like my flesh. I know that taxis will stop for me, that employers will seriously consider my application, and that no one will make a total ass of themselves trying to be "Down Wit'" me.
But what if I'd been born differently?
What if every time my eyes met the gaze of one my fellow American citizens, they saw: "CRIMINAL" and then quickly looked away? What if Congress had to pass laws to FORCE employers to hire me? Would I be able to hold my head high when I went into the office and listened to my co-workers tell me that they saw that new Ice Cube video yesterday? What if a significant majority of the music of "my people" was a celebration of how very GOOD it feels to be a gangsta? What if the only heroes that I had to respect and admire came pre-packaged and marketed directly to me with the words: "THUG LIFE" tattooed across their abs? If I couldn't get society to respect me, could I get it to fear me? If I walked outside in a bulky hooded Raiders jacket, would people cross the street to avoid walking next to me? Would I buy into that image? Would that be my model? Would I be sitting on a porch in Neptune, NJ right now sipping a 40 of St Ides? What if that's all I HAD? What if the best that I could hope for was to be a Menace II Society?
Well right now, on this day, there's a kid somewhere in the projects with a do-rag on his head, gold chains around his neck, and a poster of Tupac on his bedroom wall, and this kid has just been told that one day, he could become the President of the motherfucking United States.
I think that's something, isn't it?