Yes, folks, I'm back with more of an insight on post-racial America. I already dissected this term before, so I won't delve into it again, but for those who have never read my blog before (or might become so enraged that they won't revisit), post-racial simply means "after a period of racism" and suggests that racism in the United States has ended, primarily because now we have a black president. I am here again to say that the United States is still just as racist now as it was before Barack Obama was elected president. Some of the interesting events this week show why.
In the lovely world of sports so far this year, we've had the pleasure of hearing player for the New York Knicks Jeremy Lin called several racial slurs because he is one of few Asian-Americans on a NBA team. This week, however, Twitter was blown up with the cutest usage of the n-word by several disgruntled hockey fans. Joel Ward, a light-scoring winger for the Washington Capitals who happens to be black, made the winning score on Wednesday night's game against the Boston Bruins which was followed by a lot of praise and a lot of good ol' hate. My favorite tweet: "Can't believe Boston just let a sand nigger beat them #gobacktothejungle" - @abrownn36. Isn't that cute? She used the wrong racial slur and everything.
As racist comments 360-spun their ugly heads in the Twittersphere, somehow they found their way on Facebook from the most unlikely source: an editor at Essence Magazine, the historic black women's magazine. Before several of my sistas start burning copies of the revered magazine, that editor was a white man. Yes, a WHITE MAN. He has now resigned. However, an earlier outrage with the hiring of a white woman (who probably knows better not to post racist comments on the internet) is happily still in her position as fashion director.
It did, however, take a white woman, Lindy West at Jezebel to be exact, to address the issue of racism in white America, which she has cleverly dubbed as "Hipster Racism." One thing she noted, many use (mild) racial comments to make themselves seem not racist when, in fact, they are being very racist (white readers who think they are not racist, please note):
"There's been a lot of talk these last couple of weeks about "hipster racism" or "ironic racism"—or, as I like to call it, racism. It's, you know, introducing your black friend as "my black friend"—as a joke!!!—to show everybody how totally not preoccupied you are with your black friend's blackness. It's the gentler, more clueless, and more insidious cousin of a hick in a hood; the domain of educated, middle-class white people (like me—to be clear, I am one of those) who believe that not wanting to be racist makes it okay for them to be totally racist. "But I went to college — I can't be racist!" Turns out, you can."
I've said this for a while, but I'm just seen as the radical black man who doesn't understand a joke or is taking it too seriously. I'm glad someone who is not black also sees this as what it is - racist. I think if we ALL notice this, regardless of skin color (because we are all guilty of it, but white America is always pointed out because they are historically and in many ways presently the oppressor in this country), racism can become a thing of the past. I'm not saying we should ignore the social construct of race and reality of ethnicity, but instead educate ourselves to better understand them.
I attended the Nobel Peace Summit this week (which was AWESOME, by the way) and one things that Prof. Jody Williams, one of the Nobel Peace laureates, most notably for her work to ban landmines through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, told the audience of mainly comprised of high school students that staying in school and being well educated and hearing all sides of the story are compulsory to become an activist for peace. Sean Penn, during his emotional speech after receiving his award, talked about how Americans do not travel, which alludes to another for education that is not restricted to being in school, but to also being in world and surrounding yourself with diverse populations and people of different backgrounds other than your own.
In the United States, we are one of several countries that are lucky to have people from so many different ethnic and religious backgrounds, but yet we do not take advantage of this precious resource that could lead to world peace. A post-racial society would be one of peace, but are we there yet? Nope.
No comments:
Post a Comment