On Race...

Need I mention that the whole concept of "races" is really quite illogical? The term itself, races, implies a special separation that simply doesn't exist! And while various groups of humans sub-evolved and adapted to their climates, the DNA itself that we all share is 100% the same--superficial distinctions like the amount of melanin in one's skin, the shape of one's eyes, or the texture of one's hair are simply like the various colors a Great Dane comes in. Nothing more.

That said, knowing that what we all are, despite our various superficial variations, why is race such a primal motivator for much of our country's--dare I say, much of the worlds?--issues and problems?

Being that human beings are illogical and irrational even on our best of days, I am reminded of a cover on a magazine one year... I wish I could remember the magazine, or find a copy of the cover, but, in essence, it showed over fifty squares that just showed patches of skin, and asked in bold letters, CAN YOU IDENTIFY WHICH RACE EACH SKIN BELONGS TO?, or something to that effect...

Of course, I couldn't. One shade led gradually to another shade which led gradually to another shade, showing the myriad of colors present in each and every "color" of human skin, much like paint chip samples in WalMart.

It was eye opening...

Sometimes you feel the racist inside, screaming at the people of color on your television speaking of the unfair system, the unfair balance, and how inequality isn't there, and it screams, "Get off your lazy asses and get a job!!" Or, "It's all in your head! Reverse racism!!" My mind knows this is a lie, a lie of comfort that says, "It's their fault." Or, "It's them, not us--full of excuses." A lie meant to sooth the primal part of me that fears difference, that fears anything remotely unfamiliar.

In these times, I am so ashamed of myself...

Anyone who says racism isn't alive and well also hasn't been watching their television. What one stupid white kid in the town of Jena did in a moment of heated fear, by hanging a noose from a tree where one black student had expressed an interest in sitting with his fellow human beings, has started a chain reaction: a Home Depot in Illinois, Colombia University in New York, the University of Maryland, a police station in NY, two Coast Guard locker rooms, in a North Carolina high school, a South Carolina high school... The list could go on... And who knows how many person's of color haven't reported finding nooses, fearing for their safety...

I have to wonder, how many more empty nooses will we find?

We Yankees like to think we're above all that--or, at least, most of us do. I'm sure there are a few who openly wear their racism like a Boy Scout badge... I am related to at least one that I know of. But when we hear of racism, we automatically think of the South. After all, we reason, they're the ones we had to fight to free the slaves in the first place. But the truth is, where the South was quite open in their hostility for blacks, we Yankees just hid it better, and blamed them afterward for being unable to make a living like we could--in our country, in our culture, in our lives and at our behest...

I have no idea what it feels like to walk into a room and count how many other whites are present. I just assume they'll be more like me there. It never even crosses my mind to think I may be a minority, until it is night time, I am in the city, and I think I may be lost. Cliche? Part racism, part reality. And the reality was created, for the most part, by inherent racism.

I know I personally like to think, perhaps wrongly as Journey Woman hinted at, that this whole "racism" thing is in the past--an original sin that, while there are some ramifications, it's nothing of consequence and mostly atoned for, and everyone just needs to get over it... This is the racist in me.

I don't know what it's like to worry about finding a noose on my front door, except from what I fear from mostly my fellow whites in regards to my sexuality--and, while there are parallels, isn't the same at the core... (I can hear the right-wingers now, yelling, "See? We told you it wasn't the same, but you insisted! No marriage for you!"--I'll take care of y'all later...)

I challenge all of you to take a quiz: A quiz that pits what you think you know about skin color, and what it means about a person. At PBS, there are twenty-five people, and five "race" categories--you have to match the person to the race with which they identify. I got five right--and none of which I expected to be right about... The quiz is here.

I don't know if it will be as eye opening for you as that magazine cover from the forgotten past was for me, but I remember that being the moment that I stopped swallowing the easy answers that both my mind and society came up with for why people of color still suffer in our country...

And started looking for the truth as to why they DO still suffer inequality...

I don't have all the answers. I know I still have a racist in me that screams to come through--we all do, no matter what color or creed we may be--that's the ironic thing about racism--it's color blind in the opposite way in which it effects all of us...

Perhaps Journey is right, and speaking about her anger and my fear and guilt as a society is part of the healing process--or maybe it prolongs the suffering--who's to say?

What do you say?