The Modern Face of Racism
Direct racial hatred is… it’s not dead. Not even close. But it’s a lot closer to dead than it was even 10 years ago. What we have left is… I won’t say worse, but it’s not better. It’s fairly pervasive, and damned near unconscious. In American Society, in 2008, “white” is “normal”. Michelle Obama gave a fantastic speech the other night. Here was some of the reaction:
The evening ended with the candidate talking to his wife from the giant screen, as Ronald Reagan did with Nancy Reagan during his nominating convention. It was a beautiful family tableau with the daughters interrupting to tell their dad they loved him. The whole bunch seemed straight out of Central Casting. That’s a cliché, and for the first black family with a realistic chance of living in the White House, becoming a cliché is a big win.
The assumption that most White Americans make is that African Americans have to prove themselves. African Americans are “other”…
The thing is, it’s possible to be blinded to non-white Americans while still not being racist. It’s what we call “systematic racism”. Another example? Carnival Games. 2k (as far as I know)* isn’t staffed by people who want to hurt blacks, kill them, deprive them of economic opportunity. What they did was to make a game in which a player could have any face they wanted as long as it was white. African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos– anyone not strictly White would find it impossible to find themselves represented by the game. Racism by oversight!
Of course, pointing out to people that their actions are… racially insensitive
is a good way to start a fight. Nonetheless, we need to be aware of it; only by constantly challenging our assumptions can we make our society better. For everyone.
*Which is a shade past “not at all”, actually. I’ve got a friend there (who I hope doesn’t read this…), and have been to their offices. I can safely say: not one person in Klan robes
