Are We Keeping Racism Alive?

With the recent uproar in the African American community regarding the illustration in the New York Post I started to think about all the other "racist" comments and illustrations aimed at African Americans. Then I asked myself, do African Americans keep racism alive?

Before I offer my answer I want to say that, I am not going to belittle the former slaves and civil rights individuals who died for my current opportunities, by saying racism was not alive and fiercely kicking 500 years prior to my birth. What I will say is that in 2009, we are breathing life into an energy that is keeping racism alive. I refer to racism as a tangible, living being because that is how we, people, treat racism. The sad part of the matter is, I think African Americans are all too eager to point out displays or expressions of racism. How do we combat racism if we continue to entertain racial injustices? By publicizing our negative feelings toward racism, are we giving the power to the actions that are created to emotionally and mentally harm us?

I was always taught that a mean comment or action toward me is only successful if I allow it to effect me in a negative way, because that is the attempted outcome, to hurt me. If I opted not to entertain it, then I would be taking away the "power." Words are a touchy thing, I get that but they are only words. As a child I never understood why kids were so quick to fight over, "yo momma" comments. The word that upsets me the most is the word "nigger". It is as if a light is switched on inside of African Americans when we hear the word nigger come out of the mouth of a non-black person. But why? We know the true meaning of the word, which describes an ignorant person, but yet and still we are offended by it to the degree of wanting to have a physical altercation. I think African Americans are showing ignorance by fighting over a word that does not describe who you are, or does it? But as I got older I discovered that we, humans, give too much power to words and labels. Personally, I have been called every racist word from A to Z while living, working and going to school in North Carolina and Atlanta. But not once, even today, have I felt hurt, disrespected or indifferent about the context in which the word was used against myself.

But the vice grip we have on racism is not limited to words but is extended to the lessons we teach our children, more specifically is race dating. For two years I dated a beautiful Brazilian/white girl but I caught a lot of backlash from some of my closet friends. Sure they were cordial to her out of respect for me but behind closed doors my choice to date "outside my race" came up more times than I care to count. To top it all off, in public I received unpleasant looks from members of my race with the most coming from the elderly and African American women, both young and old. But I never understood why.

One woman in particular, my mother whose opinion I respect and value, told me she'd much rather have me date a woman in her image. So I thought about it, what is a woman in her image? My mother is caring, strong, loving, strong integrity, independent, and hardworking and compassionate. She is also African American. So which image did my mother want me to be with? Was my mother referring to the race image or the complete package? My girlfriend at the time embodied all the traits in my mother's image; she only didn't have the physical image. Thus, according to my mother, I should have passed on her to find a black woman. That does not make any sense. Why would I pass up a woman who embodies everything I want in a woman, plus being beautiful simply because we have different skin colors?

Some would say that is a form of reverse racism. I hear it all the time; "Don't bring him/her home if he/she can't use your comb."

So how does racism die if we continue to teach our children such things or allowing simple-minded words and illustrations affect us? We have to change our thinking. I recall during the last presidential election, African Americans were upset because they thought Barack Obama would not be elected president because of his ethnicity. Also, on election day, as I talked to people in voting polls (I did not vote) some expressed their plan to riot and do bodily harm on white people if Obama did not win, suggesting that his loss would be due to white people neglecting to vote for a black man. Those thoughts and premeditated actions are the very things that keep racism thriving. Children hear and view these from parents and friends of parents and digest them. If heard and viewed enough, a child can grow up to think the same subsequently passing those same thoughts and opinions onto his or her child. This continues the vicious cycle.

It is my opinion that African Americans walk around thinking that everyone non-black; white, Hispanic, Asian, etc, are thinking and waiting to treat them in a racist manner. When racists act, whether verbal, physical or literary does take place, the individual's thoughts are falsely supported. It is this thinking that does not allow racism to go away on either end. I am speaking from an African American's standpoint because my race seems to be the most concerned with racism. We fail to realize that we have the power to stop it. Racism is like a car, if you don't put fuel in a car it does not move, it has no power. The same is applied to racism, the fuel we give it are the protests, our thoughts, the verbal outcries and the values we pass on to our offspring.

If we think that everyone is equal and view people, as we would like to be viewed then we rid ourselves of racism. If we ignore the ignorant and mindless displays of racism then we take away its leverage to be effective. But more importantly, if we teach the up and coming generations on how to think, treat and love everyone openly and equally them possibly one day we may not have incidents like the one displayed in the New York Post. Instead of thinking about the act as racism, why not think of it as poor taste in humor? And what do we do with poor taste in humor? We ignore it. But just because a word, illustrated depiction or a noose is the symbol of something that once put fear and anger in African Americans does not mean that symbol has to be relevant today. It is intended to be relevant but it is our reactions that solidify its relevance.