A black person grows up in this country – and in many places – knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone. ~Maya Angelou
I always like to believe that we have made progress with this whole “racism thing”. Then I turn on the T.V. or go to brunch with my girls and it’s the topic of conversation. To NO surprise we all have a story to tell, about a racist encounter we have had recently. My cousin’s story stood out to me the most at brunch. My cousin is very very smart, has a great job at a well known firm, and she is the only African American woman in her office. She has felt uncomfortable at times but all in all it has been a good experience so far. All her employees get together once a month for happy hour. This time at happy hour her boss thought it was a GREAT idea to do “funny” office superlatives. My cousin’s superlative was “Most Likely to Marry a Thug”. Like why was that ever okay? My cousin was very embarrassed and was left speechless, that night. Why would someone with so much going for herself want a thug? She also didn’t know what to say because she didn’t want to go into angry black girl mode. It is very hard as a Black woman to keep your composure and not get “Rachet” when a racist comment are made day to day. It is comments like this that make me believe that not much has changed. I am learning that racism simply stems from ignorance!
Its crazy how these things happen so often and I’m happy that you shared that. I think the more we talk about these kinds of things the more light we shine on how awful they can make a person feel and how ignorant it is. Racism is so ingrained in people they don’t even realize it when they’re acting on it. I just had a conversation with my friend last week. She had to leave her sorority because she was the only POC and she kept being outcasted in these weird, uncomfortable situations. One girl LITERALLY said to her “I wish I was black so I didn’t have to wash my hair like you.” Like???????!? My jaw dropped when she told me that. She also had a bunch of other stories that left me speechless, smh.
I remember hearing this story during class one day ! Wow is the first thing that comes to mind when hearing this. I think that racism is just engraved in the American culture, and therefore is not just something that can be removed or changed. What your cousin experience isn’t necessarily racism itself but more a form of prejudice. This is something that Black people face all the time in today’s society, which is an ongoing problem that happens in a lot of institutions. I’m not sure if the Black Lives Matter picture you put directly relates to this. I think it is very important that as Blacks, we are able to make a clear distinction between some of the social issues that impacts us. Racism, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression are not all the same thing, even though they are all targeted towards black people. Black Lives Matter is an activist movement that campaigns against violence and anti-black racism that perpetuates in America, it shouldn’t be used to justify every injustices targeted towards Black People.
I think that it is incredibly unfortunate that there is still so much racism in society now, and how it is taken so lightly sometimes. A lot of the time, it comes from people who are ignorant and do not even realize what they are doing. I have also experienced racist comments towards me, being an Asian woman. Most of the time, no one is going out of their way to offend me or be racist, but even jokes can turn into something that is not funny at all. A lot of my friends who make accidental racist jokes are usually ones who do not experience racism on a day-to-day basis. I do not blame them completely, but I also feel like they should try to become educated and think their thoughts through more before speaking. I am very sorry that your cousin was treated like that… I hope that society can start to become more careful of what they say.