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For those who do not remember racism
Aug. 11th, 2007 06:59 pmSigh. Rolanni points out that it is international blog against racism week. And while I tend to shy from such displays, this is one that I think deserves a bit of time. Not in any particular order.
Visiting a somewhat distant relative who lived in Georgia at the time (late 50s, probably) and playing outside with a local child. When the relative called me in for an afternoon snack, I asked if my new friend could come, too. "You don't want that pickaninny in here, do you?" I turned, looked at him, and then told her, "He's not a pickaninny, he's just a little boy like me." My family was sitting in the kitchen, heard me, and laughed heartily at this. I'm not sure whether we were welcome there for some time, but it still seems like a reasonable response to me.
In the 60s, in Damascus, Maryland, as a teenager, I got a letter one day. I still remember it. At the top, a recognizable rifle crosshairs with a silhouette centered in them. The text was rather simple, to the effect that I was in the crosshairs, and would be shot if I didn't stop . . . talking with the only black Boy Scout in our troup, who also went to our high school. Not that we were particularly close friends, but we talked and joked, and apparently that was enough to put me on the hit list for the local racists. I didn't stop talking with him. While nothing happened, this kind of threat was very real.
Somewhere in the 60s (1961 or 1965?) there was a centennial celebration of the Civil War. People seemed to be getting serious about asking whether you were a northerner or southerner. When I asked my mother about this, she explained that I was born in New Mexico, which wasn't even a state during the Civil War. Which seems like a reasonable response to those who want to resurrect those old hatreds.
I still remember visiting my grandfather lived in New Mexico and talking to him about racism. He would proudly proclaim that he had nothing against blacks, and indeed there were black families on the same block in his neighborhood. But mention Mexicans, and he would frown and tell you that they couldn't be trusted, and you definitely didn't want to let them into the neighborhood.
Racism - identifying some people by some label, and then assigning characteristics to the label and magically assuming that all the people smeared with that label are automatically going to have those characteristics - is such an easy intellectual game. And like most ways of simplifying our thinking, it can be hard to recover from the lazy habit. But when you take the people out of the wrapper and really look at them, talk with them, spend time with them, you are likely to find out that like yourself, they are unique and wonderful - and that's a good experience.
Stop for a moment and consider. If someone yells "You smagnertz" at you as you pass in the street, how do you feel? Does it matter whether you really are a smagnertz or not? And how do you respond? Now if a nonsense term like that can cause such a reaction, do you really want to play those games with names which may have some real connotations?
I do not believe that racism is easy to overcome. However, doing what we can, whenever and wherever we can, to overcome it and other forms of irrational prejudice is the only way that we can ever improve. So go ahead, find some racism today in your life - and learn to look beyond that lazy habit to the real people who are living in its shadow.
We need to remember racism, even as we learn to live without it. And we can live without it, because it will kill us if we try to live with it. Spiritually and ethically, and eventually physically, racism is deadly. Don't accept it. Don't make excuses for it, don't let people get away with it, we don't need that poison in our lives.
I remember. And I pray that there will come a day when no one will recognize that ugliness, because it has been put behind us.
Visiting a somewhat distant relative who lived in Georgia at the time (late 50s, probably) and playing outside with a local child. When the relative called me in for an afternoon snack, I asked if my new friend could come, too. "You don't want that pickaninny in here, do you?" I turned, looked at him, and then told her, "He's not a pickaninny, he's just a little boy like me." My family was sitting in the kitchen, heard me, and laughed heartily at this. I'm not sure whether we were welcome there for some time, but it still seems like a reasonable response to me.
In the 60s, in Damascus, Maryland, as a teenager, I got a letter one day. I still remember it. At the top, a recognizable rifle crosshairs with a silhouette centered in them. The text was rather simple, to the effect that I was in the crosshairs, and would be shot if I didn't stop . . . talking with the only black Boy Scout in our troup, who also went to our high school. Not that we were particularly close friends, but we talked and joked, and apparently that was enough to put me on the hit list for the local racists. I didn't stop talking with him. While nothing happened, this kind of threat was very real.
Somewhere in the 60s (1961 or 1965?) there was a centennial celebration of the Civil War. People seemed to be getting serious about asking whether you were a northerner or southerner. When I asked my mother about this, she explained that I was born in New Mexico, which wasn't even a state during the Civil War. Which seems like a reasonable response to those who want to resurrect those old hatreds.
I still remember visiting my grandfather lived in New Mexico and talking to him about racism. He would proudly proclaim that he had nothing against blacks, and indeed there were black families on the same block in his neighborhood. But mention Mexicans, and he would frown and tell you that they couldn't be trusted, and you definitely didn't want to let them into the neighborhood.
Racism - identifying some people by some label, and then assigning characteristics to the label and magically assuming that all the people smeared with that label are automatically going to have those characteristics - is such an easy intellectual game. And like most ways of simplifying our thinking, it can be hard to recover from the lazy habit. But when you take the people out of the wrapper and really look at them, talk with them, spend time with them, you are likely to find out that like yourself, they are unique and wonderful - and that's a good experience.
Stop for a moment and consider. If someone yells "You smagnertz" at you as you pass in the street, how do you feel? Does it matter whether you really are a smagnertz or not? And how do you respond? Now if a nonsense term like that can cause such a reaction, do you really want to play those games with names which may have some real connotations?
I do not believe that racism is easy to overcome. However, doing what we can, whenever and wherever we can, to overcome it and other forms of irrational prejudice is the only way that we can ever improve. So go ahead, find some racism today in your life - and learn to look beyond that lazy habit to the real people who are living in its shadow.
We need to remember racism, even as we learn to live without it. And we can live without it, because it will kill us if we try to live with it. Spiritually and ethically, and eventually physically, racism is deadly. Don't accept it. Don't make excuses for it, don't let people get away with it, we don't need that poison in our lives.
I remember. And I pray that there will come a day when no one will recognize that ugliness, because it has been put behind us.
