Reverse Racism

Daily Kent Stater

Posted: 3/22/07

We like to think we’ve come a long way.

Our generation would never stand for segregation. We know the n-word is taboo.

 Do we know the N word is taboo? Having grown up with a majority of black people, several variations of the N word has not been forien to me. Black friends often use the derogitory term towards each other, they seem to find a way to relate just in it’s very existance.

Nigga and Nigger, I’ve been told have to different meanings, both commonly used in my old neighborhood. Sometimes the latter is an insult of the first kind, sometimes, merely a greeting.

The first time my little girl said this word, and to my knowledge the last, she was about 4, and called out to a mixed girl friend “What’s Up Nigga”.

I don’t know where she heard the word to this day, if someone were to use either variation in front of my children, I’d certainly remind them to watch their mouths around my impressionalbe children.

The greeted was yelled across a parking lot, to one of my very best friends daughters, the girl was 12 and mortified. I think from the greeting used, it’s fairly safe to say the statement wasn’t intended to be racist or hurtful, something a white little girl heard, because someone else was irresponsible.

Slavery is a smear on our nation’s past for even the least open-minded of our citizens. We even devote a whole month to learning black history - we’re educated, right? Those dark days of our country are in the past, and it’s high time to move on, right?

Wrong.

The coverage of Hurricane Katrina illustrated that our communities are still vastly separated by race. Sen. Joe Biden described presidential candidate Barack Obama as “articulate,” as if that was some kind of surprise. Walt Disney just announced its first black princess ever.

In the past year, Kent State has seen alleged acts of police brutality aimed at blacks and ignorant awards given to the “blackest” white sorority girls. Just this past week, some students cried foul when a black man lost a campus election. Our local high school received a new paint job of an appalling variety.

Shouldn’t this all be in the past? Didn’t we cover this in the ’60s? Isn’t it time to move on?

No.

Racism still exists, but people are often reluctant to discuss it. If a black person does, he is accused of “reverse racism,” of turning everything into a “race issue,” of being stuck in the past. ‘We’re equal now!’ the public cries. ‘Why can’t you just see that?’

Another minority group can’t bring it up. ‘Why aren’t you fighting for our rights?’ others ask them. ‘We already fixed the blacks’ problems.’

Whites can’t talk about it either. ‘Talking about it is what keeps it in the present,’ they assure themselves. ‘If everyone could just ignore race, all the differences would just go away.’

Ignoring race problems is what got us here in the first place. Sure, blacks and whites share classrooms now. There are no laws that keep them from marrying. Legally, no employer can turn anyone away on the basis of race. Our parents’ generation took care of those barriers.

 Did they? I’m 30 years old, and just today heard a woman of 58 years say that she didn’t care to play poker at a particular bar because of all the blacks in it, the man she was talking to agreed, and said that he knew exactly what she was talking about.

Funny thing though, before I got pissed off and opened this blog, I’d have sworn at leaste the majority of the United States was over at leaste “American Racism”. Just as sure as I am that racism occurs on a daily basis to those in America that are not American, or of American desent, most especially those with language barriers.

Now comes the hard part: We have to be the generation that changes the inside of our country. The outside has come a long way. The insides of many have not.

Face the facts.

Have you ever heard about a white presidential candidate, a white church, a white studies degree? No?

That’s because, at least subconsciously, people just assume ‘white’ is the norm when there is no adjective. They still make that distinction when the adjective is ‘black.’

Agreed, insert black football coach.

Tensions run high below the surface at Kent, in both the city and at the university. It’s difficult to address because the tangible instances are few and far between and, when they occur, most people quickly forget about them. They want to think these examples, like the students who painted Confederate flags at Theodore Roosevelt High School, are the exception.

In terms of outright discrimination, they have been. But racism, as well as sexism and heterosexism and any other -ism, still exists. And they will until people clear their minds of prejudice.

Discrimination is an act against someone. Prejudice is the mindset.

And there can’t be true equality until there is equality in everyone’s minds.

Racism isn’t a ‘black’ issue. It’s a human issue. - Amen!