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Racism in America (Four Minutes to Read)

9/17/2012

 
In my opinion race will always be a dividing factor in our country; it can be improved but it’s never going away.

This only makes sense as mankind has forever needed to be part of a group/tribe. It’s human nature for people to want to be around others who share common characteristics and people who understand what they’re going through. This is why a black person can join a company and it
doesn’t take long for this person to find other blacks in the company to hang out with. I’ve heard whites complain about this but more than likely we’d do the same thing if the roles were reversed. Once again it’s just human nature.

I disagree with anyone who says they aren’t racist because I believe everyone is it’s just a matter of the degree. For example, if there’s a boxing match and one person is black and the other is
white and I know nothing else about them, I root for the white guy. Not that I hate the black guy I just need someone to root for so I’ll enjoy the fight. 
 
Let’s take it a step further. If the same two guys were fighting and I knew the black boxer was a great guy (like Evander Holyfield), I’d root for him. I don’t care who was fighting Evander Holyfield I
always cheered for him. So I do have a degree of racism but character trumps color for me. 

I’m embarrassed by white people who are in my opinion “White Trash.” I often see people on the news who are in my opinion “Black Trash.”  I apologize for using these words as they sound so terrible but I know of no other way to express it. The fact is there are good and bad people regardless of color. As a percent are there more blacks that are bad, I believe so as can be seen in our prison populations. There are underlying causes to this as a higher percentage of blacks are high school dropouts and come from dysfunctional families. This doesn’t make it right for them to break the law but the factors are there.

This is going to be a sensitive topic but I believe African Americans are in general more racist than whites; I’m not saying it’s wrong or not justified, but it is what it is. The reason I say it’s justified is that whites haven’t experienced what blacks have. If you were black you’d have a parent that shared stories of having to use separate restrooms and water fountains among other things. Then your grandparents could tell you about having to get low paying service jobs instead of the better jobs given to whites and how they were told to not look whites in the eyes.

Now you might think it was in the past and they shouldn’t hold it against you but how would you feel? Could you imagine having people you love tell you about how terribly they were treated just
because of their skin color? There’s no way we wouldn’t have an increased level of racism even if things had gotten better.

But the natural feelings they have unfortunately serve to bring them down. Here they have so many better opportunities but they let their anger get in the way of taking advantage of it.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew things would never be perfect he just wanted the door to opportunity to be opened for blacks to pursue their dreams. He expected blacks to walk through the door not to be pulled or pushed through it.  

My company (and I’m sure most) doesn’t care a thing about the color of someone’s skin. Whoever could come in and make our company better is the one who got the job. Surely other companies feel the same way. Failure to do this would undermine the success of the company. The types of
jobs I’m talking about wouldn’t have been offered to minorities years ago but the opportunities exist now; a dream realized for the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Another reason I say blacks are more racist than whites can be seen in the last presidential election. Millions of white Americans didn’t care about President Obama’s race but black Americans did with 95% of them voting for him. I don’t blame them; quite frankly it wouldn’t have
mattered to me what his policies would be, I’d just want the first person of my race to hold the Oval Office. Many white people were upset by the way the votes went down but I feel strongly that if the roles were reversed they’d have done the same thing. Once again, it’s just human nature whether we like it or not. My  hope is that Black Americans will now vote for the candidate who will have the greatest impact on our economy.  
 
Blacks also vote for African Americans a majority of the time regardless of the political position or their record. Take D.C.’s Mayor Berry, he was caught with a prostitute and was smoking crack
cocaine yet he was re-elected. I personally don’t like this level of racism just because of my mentality towards choosing character over race but not everyone thinks this way.

Racism is a sensitive topic and I certainly  don’t think there are any easy fixes to the problem. One thing that definitely helps is when both races spend more time together. When I was in the military
there was no color among my fellow sailors. We were a family and we looked out for each other. This typically happens when blacks and whites play sports together and/or work together. This is really the best way for different races to realize their similarities.

A good example of this is in New York. It is much more progressive so blacks and whites have been working together in executive jobs for years. What do you know; racism is significantly lower there than in the southeast. They slowly become color blind and the best part about it is the
people who are experiencing it can influence the thoughts of other people within their own race. 

My hope is that you’ll take away from this  that racism will always exist there’re just various degrees of it. I also hope you’ll agree that racism is only natural and has existed in one way or another since the existence of mankind. We don’t like it but it’s not going away. I hope you’ll understand why blacks are more racist than whites but there are reasons for it even if it only hurts them to hold onto it. I hope that if you’re white you’ll truly try to put yourself in their shoes because I guarantee you that you’d understand better why they do what they do.

Lastly I hope you’ll agree the best way to improve our situation is to find ways to share time with people of other races. If there are African Americans working with you, invite them out to dinner. If there is a black family living on your street, invite them over for dinner. Anything you can do to
proactively create opportunities to spend time with people of other races will make a positive difference in all of our lives. 


Mike
12/20/2012 11:28:58 am

Honesty...how refreshing!


Comments are closed.

    Author: John Mann

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