Does Racism exist? Yes. It does. There's no running from it. It's been here and has been here for centuries. Especially here in the south. To argue it, is stupid. To deny it, is ignorance. To ignore it, is intolerable. To tolerate it, is insufferable. And to suffer it, well, that's a form of denying it.
See what happened there, folks, it's circle logic. We, as Americans, have been stuck in this circle of cruelty to one another for far too long. We didn't start it. No one alive today started this madness, but honestly, for generations we've continued to let it slide.
You want to know what started it though? Fear. Plain and simple. Fear of one another started racism long ago when white European explorers landed in Africa and came face-to-face with a group of black-skinned African natives.
Just picture it, two brand new cultures stood before each other for the first time and gazed at each other in what, I hope, at first was wonder. Imagine the curiosity, the beauty, the extreme “awe” as the two cultures looked at each other. They must have seen the similarities between them simply by sharing the title of human. They let their minds wander as they pondered each other. Then they started to see the differences between them. And then, right then, folks, we as humans had a choice. We made the wrong one. Instead of thinking of our differences as being strengths to grow together to become a better species, we let fear dictate our actions.
To this day as people, we fail at this daily. Most of the time when people are faced with things out of their experience, they tend to be afraid of the unknown. Fear drives us to commit horrible and inexcusable things. Across all nations, cultures, identities, religions, and faiths, so often it is fear that leads to hate.
They, those ancient ancestors of long ago, started us on this perpetual cycle of hate, filth, apathy and neglect. They were human, just like us. Were their actions justified? Nope. Not one single bit. Let's not let the fact that we understand their actions blind us to the fact that we know it was wrong. That's how we grow. Instead, let's face it. Let's say it bold, “They feared. They hated. They failed.”
So if we can apply that same concept to America in the 1950's at the height of segregation. Again we see fear, hate and failure.
We had centuries of white people and black people being together and never learned to stop fearing each other. Segregation “ended” in Alabama in 1956, yet we all know it continued long after the knell of the Judge's anvil banged case close. Yet, that fear continued with protests, walk-outs, sit-ins, arrests and more death. A decade later, as we as a nation accomplished the great success of landing an American Lunar Lander on the surface of a foreign heavenly body in 1969. We metaphorically, reached the stars and were bold and brave and willing to learn, yet with each other the fear and hate continued.
New generations were born. More and more biracial families emerged, yet, even the sight and hope of the merged skin colors, drove on fear and hate to shun those families from both sides of the race divide.
New things to fear and hate emerged, the prevalence homosexuality and AIDS. We just added those to the long and ever-growing list of things to not understand or have the compassion to care about. Countless accomplishments, achievements, cures, celebrations and reasons to have national pride and celebrate with each other came and went.
And yet, the fear, hate, misunderstanding and mistrust remained.
Here we are in 2020, launching a new set of astronauts to the stars from American soil, and yet, as a nation we faced the shocking televised broadcast of the death of George Floyd by the knee of a white cop. We heard the sad story of Ahmaud Arbery gunned down unfairly as he was simply out for a run in a small town in Georgia. And let’s not forget the wave of hate and suspicion that swept the country in the wake of COVID-19 –the ‘Chinese virus’ –against those Americans with Asian decent. Sure seems like that fear and hate are alive and well.
Now, I'll give it credit, on the surface it looks pretty cleared out of the system. Looking at kids in schools, people on the beach, in restaurants, work places, neighborhoods. Races mix together and things seem to be pretty equal. It can appear that perhaps that fear is gone for good. But no, sadly, it just has learned to hide itself, and like the virus that it is, it mutated.
It appears in moments when we humans are scared. When adrenaline picks up and we are forced to make a decision to have empathy or fear when faced with the unknown. The blessing and curse of our species, the ability to think things through to come to the conclusion that things different and unknown from us must be dangerous. It's still the fear, hate, intolerance, injustice, and in the end, racism that has hold of our hearts.
Claim that we are not all racist? Do it. I’m not saying that all Americans are haters of those that are different than they are. Simply look at the younger generations and maybe they are finally starting to get it right. But I do and will always believe that when we as a society let even one person through the 'gap' to be racist and take another person's life simply because of the color of their skin, then we all have failed.
I have a hope that years and years from now racism really and truly will be a thing of the past, and we won't have to watch hate crimes play out on newscasts or read about them in the local paper, but to get to that point, it falls on our shoulders to stop the cycle. Break the circle, no, shatter the damn thing once and for all.
And to start that process, we must not pretend that we don't see it. We must not hide from the reality as harsh as it is to face it. We can't deny it anymore.
Does Racism exist? Yes. It does.
