There are people who believe that racism is as American as apple pie. I'm one of them.
There are others who live in the delusion that we are approaching, or living in a "post-racial" society.
I beg to differ.
It should be patently clear to anyone who just went through the trauma of one of the most racially vituperative presidential elections in recent history that racism hasn't magically dissolved into the ether. Doubtful it will get better in the next four years if the millions of racists in this country have anything to say about it.
It really isn't about racist politicians. They are only a symptom of the disease. They got elected by the racists who voted for them. Those same racists will be voting in the next election.
We have a black president for the second time. That has done little to diminish the outpouring of racial hatred here, and in some ways it has only inflamed it.
This is no time to do a victory dance where racism is concerned. It is however, time to ask a serious question.
What are you doing to stop racism?
Since a majority of people in the U.S. think of themselves as "white," I'll address this question to those who are part of that socially constructed group.
According to the 2010 census there are 196,817,552 (63.7%) of people in the U.S. who are classified as "white people." They are not Latinos or African American, Asian or Native American.
But let me narrow it down quite a bit more.
When I look at a headline like this: "Eighty-Eight Percent of Romney Voters Were White," I'm not talking to those whites. This is addressed to the 56 percent of whites who voted for President Obama.
To narrow it even further, this is really a plea to those white people who consider themselves to be progressive. I have no idea what percentage of that 56 percent think of themselves in those terms.
But if you are one of them, this is written to you. You have to become part of an anti-racism vanguard.
Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans didn't make this a racist country. Not one of these groups has the power to maintain systemic racial inequality. Before you can overturn 400 years of racism built into the foundations of this nation, you have to first change those who keep the system in place.
None of us'meaning people of color'can fix you. The only person who can begin to right these wrongs is you. Most of us don't live in your neighborhoods, nor do we work with you, or even go to school with you. Most of us aren't married to you. Most of you have white children, parents, in-laws, cousins and co-workers.
Few of you get up each morning and say as you look in the mirror while you brush your teeth, "Today, I'm going out to do battle against racism." You aren't driven by that, your whole life is not shaped by being the wrong color, and though you may get outraged from time to time, when reminded by the more heinous offenses against us, it isn't your rallying cry. You expect us to lead the various poc civil rights movements from our own segregated spaces and you'll join in from time to time, or perhaps make a donation to "our" worthy causes. You don't wake up in the morning each day and say to yourselves'I have white privilege, and that's not alright.
You still go to family celebrations with racists. When at gatherings with none of us present rarely do you confront others there with you about their racism. What makes it harder is that you rarely look at your own unconscious acceptance of a world that allows racism and privilege to fester, boil and erupt.
I really don't care what you have decided your main cause is'the environment, climate change, Occupy Wall Street, feminism, gay rights, health care, education, the war ... all worthy.
This is not about causes. This is about ending racism.
It starts and ends with you.
Before you get all bent out of shape and respond with "but but but ... I am not a racist," that isn't my point. My point is you are probably not an anti-racism warrior.
Until all of you are, racism will go along its merry way destroying us all.
If the most progressive among you aren't part of the solution, the problem of racism stays with us.
This isn't an impossible task. I wish you could try being black like me. I manage to live work, eat, sleep, play, laugh and make love every damn day being black, feeling racism, reading racism, hearing racism. But you can't. You are white like you, and virtually immune to what you see as my problem.
Not every person of color is a part of the battle either. But every single person of color knows they are "not white." Even if they try to delude themselves or are crippled by self-hate. And before you say, "But, but, but 'X' group is racist too ..." stop. Not one person in "X" group has the power to change white America. Not one person in "X" group maintains the systems of racism.
There is no such thing as being racially "colorblind." Try taking the Project Implicit social cognition test on race, which is online.
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