Racism is Killing America
Racism is alive and well in America.
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JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
Racism is real. Racism is insidious. Racism costs this country billions of dollars in lost productivity and untold litigation. But how do you define racism? How do you prove racism in today's sanitized P-C society? These are questions Black Americans must wrestle with every day. These are questions I have only just come to grips with, as a White man married to a Black woman.
First, let me say that I grew up painfully aware of the predjudice that exists in America. I grew up diminishing Blacks. Not violently reacting, not insulting...just diminishing. My inner thoughts were that Blacks weren't as good as Whites, that they were somehow inferior. Not bad...merely less than Whites. As I matured and became educated, this idea was reinforced by the history I was learning. What could explain the domination of one race over another for hundreds of years...from the earliest colinization of the Americas all the way up to the civil rights movement of the 1960's. If Blacks were the equal to Whites, how could they have tolerated slavery and Jim Crow? If they were equal, how could they be so disproportionately involved with drugs and crime?
Then, I enlisted in the Navy, and for the first time I was thrust into close quarters with Black people. I was living and working with men with whom the only things I had in common were that I was a male American and had chosen to join the military. It was then that my attitude hardened into a kind of resentment. Many of my NCO's and several officers were Black. How could people I felt were less than me, be appointed to supervise me? I came to the not-to-unusual conclusion that somehow they had been given preferential treatment...some kind of affirmative action. While, looking back, I see this as totally ridiculous...at the time it made sense as it allowed me to hang on to my self-ascribed superiority. It also poisoned my outlook as I left the Navy and entered the real world.
But then I found the great equalizer...I entered University. I started attending a small, southwestern university set in a farm town. Any and all socialization took place on campus and I met an even greater cross-section of humanity than I had ever encountered before. I now studied with Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, Native Americans, Indians, Pakistanis and Whites. I saw the same attitides in many of those Whites that I had labored under myself...and through that mirror I saw how wrong I was.
I also saw examples of the way men should live...no regard for color, only respect for ability and intelligence. It was at University that I met and fell in love with my wife. As I got to know her better as we dated, I realized that when I looked into her eyes, I didn't see the eyes of a Black woman...just the beautiful eyes of a woman: a woman with all the hopes, dreams and ambitions of all woman, irrespective of color. And, thank God, she also saw me as I am...not merely the color of my skin.
That was easier for me than it was for her. I had not suffered because of the color of my skin. Though I may have suffered, philosophically, I have not been turned down for jobs, loans, classes, schools, homes, cars, credit cards and all the other things White society takes for granted. My wife has suffered and is suffering every day because she is Black. She has been paid less, has been turned down for jobs, has even been treated differently academically all because she is Black.
These people think they are hurting her and, by extension, helping themselves. That is incorrect. My wife is articulate, ambitious, intelligent, intuitive, productive, loyal, discrete, and did I say productive? Since her most recent job search began, (she's a legal secretary) she has sent out resumes to hundreds of firms, been interviewed by several and hired by none. My wife has experience in several fields of law, can type like the wind and does dictaphone like lighting. She is charming and insightful and interviews well. She, on each occaision, has been given assurances that she is well qualified for each of these available positions. But EVERY time, she has been passed by...the offer is made to someone else. Were they all better qualified? Were they all better candidates. Yeah...and I'm Saddam Hussein.
It may be that some of these employers chose other candidates in good faith. But the galling thing about it is that you can't prove racism was motivating factor. Unlike the bad-old-days when old White men called a spade a spade, now the racists hide behind a labrynth of legalese and excuses that leave one dizzy with confusion.
These employers have lost out on an outstandingly productive and adaptive employee...someone who gives her all, during working hours, to her employer. In turn, they are hurting their clients, and by extension the court system (efficient and precise litigation) and the country (one less taxpayer). This is a great country, but the racists in this land are holding us back from true greatness. God help them.
First, let me say that I grew up painfully aware of the predjudice that exists in America. I grew up diminishing Blacks. Not violently reacting, not insulting...just diminishing. My inner thoughts were that Blacks weren't as good as Whites, that they were somehow inferior. Not bad...merely less than Whites. As I matured and became educated, this idea was reinforced by the history I was learning. What could explain the domination of one race over another for hundreds of years...from the earliest colinization of the Americas all the way up to the civil rights movement of the 1960's. If Blacks were the equal to Whites, how could they have tolerated slavery and Jim Crow? If they were equal, how could they be so disproportionately involved with drugs and crime?
Then, I enlisted in the Navy, and for the first time I was thrust into close quarters with Black people. I was living and working with men with whom the only things I had in common were that I was a male American and had chosen to join the military. It was then that my attitude hardened into a kind of resentment. Many of my NCO's and several officers were Black. How could people I felt were less than me, be appointed to supervise me? I came to the not-to-unusual conclusion that somehow they had been given preferential treatment...some kind of affirmative action. While, looking back, I see this as totally ridiculous...at the time it made sense as it allowed me to hang on to my self-ascribed superiority. It also poisoned my outlook as I left the Navy and entered the real world.
But then I found the great equalizer...I entered University. I started attending a small, southwestern university set in a farm town. Any and all socialization took place on campus and I met an even greater cross-section of humanity than I had ever encountered before. I now studied with Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, Native Americans, Indians, Pakistanis and Whites. I saw the same attitides in many of those Whites that I had labored under myself...and through that mirror I saw how wrong I was.
I also saw examples of the way men should live...no regard for color, only respect for ability and intelligence. It was at University that I met and fell in love with my wife. As I got to know her better as we dated, I realized that when I looked into her eyes, I didn't see the eyes of a Black woman...just the beautiful eyes of a woman: a woman with all the hopes, dreams and ambitions of all woman, irrespective of color. And, thank God, she also saw me as I am...not merely the color of my skin.
That was easier for me than it was for her. I had not suffered because of the color of my skin. Though I may have suffered, philosophically, I have not been turned down for jobs, loans, classes, schools, homes, cars, credit cards and all the other things White society takes for granted. My wife has suffered and is suffering every day because she is Black. She has been paid less, has been turned down for jobs, has even been treated differently academically all because she is Black.
These people think they are hurting her and, by extension, helping themselves. That is incorrect. My wife is articulate, ambitious, intelligent, intuitive, productive, loyal, discrete, and did I say productive? Since her most recent job search began, (she's a legal secretary) she has sent out resumes to hundreds of firms, been interviewed by several and hired by none. My wife has experience in several fields of law, can type like the wind and does dictaphone like lighting. She is charming and insightful and interviews well. She, on each occaision, has been given assurances that she is well qualified for each of these available positions. But EVERY time, she has been passed by...the offer is made to someone else. Were they all better qualified? Were they all better candidates. Yeah...and I'm Saddam Hussein.
It may be that some of these employers chose other candidates in good faith. But the galling thing about it is that you can't prove racism was motivating factor. Unlike the bad-old-days when old White men called a spade a spade, now the racists hide behind a labrynth of legalese and excuses that leave one dizzy with confusion.
These employers have lost out on an outstandingly productive and adaptive employee...someone who gives her all, during working hours, to her employer. In turn, they are hurting their clients, and by extension the court system (efficient and precise litigation) and the country (one less taxpayer). This is a great country, but the racists in this land are holding us back from true greatness. God help them.
Not to flame of course, but as such, Blacks are very skeptical of white America in general... Then to see how Blacks are then analyzed and copied (hip-hop, music, art, lifestyle, etc.)... Or over-glorified because of super-natural skill (all sports except hockey)... Shows how hypocritical white America can be. But then so am I...