Where
did we go wrong? It’s a question that I
ask myself repeatedly from time to time.
And before I get too far along in this editorial, I have to preface it
by saying that certain paragraphs are going to come off as politically
incorrect…perhaps even racist.
In
re-reading this publication, I may come away with that same impression even
though I believe with every fiber of my being that I don’t have a racist bone
in my body.
But
things have changed. Racism has returned
to the surface full force and it’s an issue that must be dealt with. We are not afforded the luxury of saying that
it doesn’t exist even when we know it does.
We are seeing more evidence of blatant racism now than ever before.
It is
said that the more things change, the more they remain the same…and never has
this been more apparent than in 2018.
But racism has morphed (or is in the process of morphing) into something
else. People of color are not being
lynched from trees the way that we were one hundred years ago. We are not being arrested for vagrancy
because we don’t have money, property or jobs to go to as they did freely in
the Jim Crowe era. We are not being
incarcerated at an alarming rate under the guise of declaring a war on drugs
when it really was a war on people of color.
Instead,
our institutions are being steadily eroded to the point where right is wrong
and wrong is consistently being made right all in the name of an ideology that
somehow, white people have been forgotten and in that left behind. It doesn’t matter that this has been the
experience of people of color for entire lifetimes and generations.
It
doesn’t matter that in every major corporation that I have ever worked for, the
ratio of people of color in managerial/supervisory roles were disproportionate
to the people working in roles that would be considered subordinate.
It
doesn’t matter that what is important to me and my well being is considered to
be inconsequential to people that don’t look like me. I say this with honesty as this has been my
experience foremost of my adult life.
In the
era that we are living in now, the institutions that have been put in place to
protect us have been turned into weapons.
Some white people have been emboldened to use the words nigger, chink
and wetback in an effort to demean and belittle; as if the target of these
words were somehow not capable of feeling…or even worse, that they deserved to
be called it in the first place.
We are
living in an era where people of color are looked at with more disdain and
mistrust than ever. We are watched with
suspicion in stores, told where we can and cannot be and labeled as drug
dealers all in the name of an ideology that somehow, the forgotten white
people…white people that feel as if they have been left behind is right and
justified in their feelings and that everyone else is wrong.
It is
the same demographic of white people who feel as if they are having their
rights infringed upon which
coincidentally are often the same ones that will call the police because they
feel as if a person of color isn’t accepting or acknowledging that somehow,
they are superior and how dare we forget that.
They
frequently use terminologies that would label themselves as patriots and that
somehow, most people of color don’t get that concept because we did not
originate from here. Or we don’t know or
understand the concept of sacrifice when we have, in fact, making sacrifices
all our lives. They tell people that
don’t look like them that they need to get out of “their” country and go back
to where they belong; as if somehow they are the only ones that have the right
to lay claim to this country.
After
all, the term “black/brown” flight does not exist. But you can look up the definition of “white
flight” in the Mirriam Webster dictionary and it is there for you to see:
Definition
of white flight
: The
departure of whites from places (such as urban neighborhoods or schools)
increasingly or predominantly populated by minorities
This
issue goes much farther and deeper than the subject of where some people choose
to live. It is a reason why they make
those decisions in the first place. It
is not just the desire of wanting to live among their own kind. After all, that would be tribalism. The real question is the reasoning or “whys”
of white flight in the first place. And
one of the simplest reasons for this is the word, “equality.”
Some
white people have no desire to learn anything about anyone else’s culture,
traditions, needs or wants. The farther
away the better because if they get too close, they may be forced to reckon
with the fact that people of color are just like them. That we feel…just like them. That we love…just like them. That we care for our children…just like them.
That
indeed, we are no different than them.
But some
of them are clinging to a notion that they are better. They are holding on to the ideology that
equality can exist as long as they get the best and first fruits of this
country and everyone else gets what’s left over. And the sad part about that thought process
is that it is this concept is not equality at all. It’s like saying I don’t mind getting old
just as long as I look the same.
And yet,
some have murdered, maimed, tortured, raped and imprisoned in the name of a
superiority that never existed.
But when
you put the paint to the wall, how superior are you really if you have to maim,
torture, rape, murder and imprison to prove to yourself and countless others
that you really are superior? It’s
ironic that truly superior people don’t have to infringe on other people’s
livelihood to substantiate their value.
Superiority is a concept made up by man to present to his fellow man’s
role as being one of servitude.
I am not
a radical. I am a realist. I’ve always been a person that disagrees with
every fiber of my being that one race is not greater than another. I believe that everyone has value. I’ve believe that everyone is entitled to
that positive sense of self-worth and that it does not belong to one race of
people to withhold or deny.
I’m not
a racist. But given our current
political and social climate, I can see the inclination, although it will never
be directed at the white men and women that love me for everything I am as well
as everything that I am not.
I am
angry at the ones that see me as somehow being “less than” and “less
deserving.” I am angry at the ones that
look at equality, not as a tool to give everyone equal say in our society but
one of oppression.
It
annoys me that you can’t acknowledge me when I nod my head to acknowledge you
in passing; that your way of acknowledgement is to not acknowledge me at all by
looking past me as if I didn’t exist. And
I cannot tell you how much it bothers me that these same people will say that
they aren’t racist when in fact, they are.
Perhaps,
what is the most disturbing is the reference to people of color being
animals. That immigrants seeking safety
from persecution on our shores are being referred to as people that aren’t even
human at all; and therefore deserving of any punishment they receive. Because it’s not that they are breaking the
law. A defined path should be outlined
and made available.
Men of
color have been deemed a societal threat since we were freed as slaves. We are viewed as the main perpetrators of
violent crimes when statistically; this isn’t the case at all.
1.
I enjoy
a very close, tightly knit circle of friends from various racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I have revealed things
to these people because I know that what we have supersedes anything that
society says we should have and be.
These people have laughed with me; cried with me; rejoiced with me,
leaned on me and I in turn have leaned on them because we have something that
is so powerful and beautiful in its simplicity that it is very much worth
sharing…we love one another.
But in
order to have this, it really is time for us to stop seeing our differences and
instead see our similarities. We need to
figure out ways to stop the senseless hatred and instill peace in our lives. People aren’t born to hate. Hatred is taught. But it takes effort to hate. It takes a concerted effort for people to not
see others as human beings.
Because
at the end of the day, every single life has value and every single life
matters.
~ J.L.
Whitehead
Resources:
We understand that once
you hold your head down, you are giving that person power over you. And I can’t do that…not anymore.
