FollowDefinition: Recognizing racism is the ability to discern the presence of negative racial stereotyping and its response/reaction and relevance to the current situation presenting itself.
Our second post on the American Racism 101 Blog is the continuation of concrete examples of racist’s behavior, incidents, exhibited in America. See if you recognize some of these incidents.
Dare To Be Heard!
13. When it takes about 55 bullets for the police to” stop” and question you in the front doorway of your home and you are unarmed. That’s racism.
14. When you are pulled over by the police, are handcuffed, have your car searched, are then released and haven’t been given a ticket for any crime. That’s racism.
15.When all the police practice shooting targets are Black. That’s racism.
16. If four years later after the hurricane you are still living in a FEMA trailer in New Orleans. That’s racism.
17. If you tried to leave the Superdome after the Katrina Hurricane because people were sick and dying around you and it was legal to detain you there without food or water, by gunpoint. That’s racism. THAT’S HATE.
18. When the African American President’s television address to school children on the “Value of an Education” is boycotted by parents and schools as governmental interference and indoctrination while the previous white president was informed about the 911 attacks on the country while personally speaking to children in a school classroom, without criticism. That’s racism.
19. When an elected Congressman from South Carolina yells out in a derogative manner calling the Black President a liar during a televised Presidential address to the nation and the world, the first time ever in this nation’s history. That’s racism!
20. When a former white President of the United States from Georgia says that the African American President is being attacked by many white’s strictly because he is Black. That’s racism. Called out!
21. When it requires a hail of bullets directed at you by the police, that have been called by family members to assist you because you lay unconscious in your car, to “awaken” you for questioning. That’s racism!
22. When you meet an old friend you haven’t seen for thirty years and you have been married and divorced twice, have a granddaughter who is entering college and you have traveled around the world several times and the first thing she says to you is “What have you done with your hair? You NOW have a short natural and your friend NOW has a long straight weave. That’s racism, internalized.
23. When you hear family talk about a problem between each other and it is referred to as “Nigga, Nigga Shit.” That’s racism, internalized.
24. When you hear prominent Blacks during the presidential campaign being critical of the African American candidate as not being “Black Enough” because of his family background. That’s racism, internalized.
25. When you epitomize the “Crabs in a barrel syndrome” where when one crab gets too close to successfully escaping the imprisonment of the barrel another crab beneath him grabs him and pulls him back down into the barrel of imprisonment. Therefore when you write a book about a very successful, internationally respected, and beloved Black celebrity as an exercise in total negative bashing, a public lynching, highlighting only perceived problems never confirmed by law, psychologically analyzing behaviors and assigning diagnosis without any credentialed expertise, and without the inclusion of medical evidence as truth, and doing so with little mention of their phenomenal successes, their humanity, or most profoundly, and inexcusably their talent, to apparently guarantee, justify and cement your own professional status in another’s community, for “dissing” one of your own. That’s racism, internalized.
TO NAME JUST A FEW (in my opinion)
I hope this helps.
Please comment on these examples with suggestions for Solutions in the Comments link below.
Our, American Racism 101’s, first discussion begins with my working definition of “Recognizing Racism.” This definition is followed by twelve sample situations as “evidence” of the continuing presence and good health of racism in American society today.
Please read, reflect and respond to any/all of the examples in the LEAVE YOUR COMMENT link (below this post) with a suggested solution about what we as individuals can do to eradicate these behaviors and, in time, attitudes. Feel free to add one or two additional concrete example from your own experience, as well, for possible inclusion in next week’s post.
We have begun!
The ability to discern the presence of negative racial stereotyping and its response/reaction and relevance to the current situation presenting itself.
Recognizing Racism
Concrete Sample Situations
So how do you recognize Racism?
These are a few of my clues to racism yesterday, today, and tomorrow …
- If you have ever been called or referred to by members of other racial groups with ethnic slurs and/or name calling. That’s racism.
- If you’ve trained a white person for a higher paying, more prestigious position, doing the same job you do, and/but you have never gotten promoted or received the same raise. That’s racism.
- If you are in a line and a white person speaks up behind you and gets
service first or, just walks up to the counter in front of you and starts talking as if you aren’t there, (“invisible,”) never apologizing or explaining the rudeness and, they are helped first without explanation or apology. That’s double racism. - When you are the last to be served in a store or even have to ask for help because you are (“invisible”) and every other “white customer” is greeted at the front door. That’s racism.
- When the teacher never calls on you or any of your Black friends/students when your hand is raised in class. That’s racism.
- If a white man, woman, or child accuses you of a crime, and you are automatically presumed and treated as guilty, even if you are never arrested, and never charged. That’s racism.
- If your interest rates are higher than your white equal’s. That’s racism.
- If your Harvard educated, democratically elected, President is racially attacked on his qualifications to be President. That’s racism.
- If nooses were hung from a tree on a high school campus where you, a Black student had recently sat under. That’s racism.
- If a prominent recognizable NFL player is detained for a traffic ticket in the
emergency parking lot of a hospital to which he is rushing to, trying to see his dying mother, and this is verified by hospital staff present at the scene. That’s racism. - If a certified ambulance driver is pulled off the road and detained by “chokehold” for a traffic ticket while his emergency patient inside the ambulance is screaming for help. That’s racism.
- If children who have paid to swim in a club pool are asked to leave after all the white children get out of the pool because they have changed the “complexion” of the pool. That’s racism.