Racism is something we laugh about, but through W. Kamau Bell's comedy, I learned and laughed about a topic many do not care to discuss.
W. Kamau Bell, comedian, television host and writer spoke to a packed auditorium at H. Ric Luhrs Performing Arts Center at Shippensburg University on Sept. 26. He joked his way through discussing racism, and how any level, we should be teaching each other not to do it.
Bell talked about how we are racist sometimes and do not even realize it, and it is being taught to our kids. Through something as little as a cartoon on a cereal box, recently depicted as a darker brown Kellogg's Corn Pop doing janitorial work. How could that be racist you say, well, all the other light Corn Pops are having a good old time, while the brown one is cleaning up everyone else's mess.
It is little things like this that slip past us every day, and build up over time. They turn into black people having to take the brunt of white people's blatant ignorance, and stupidity. Bell talked about how black people "handle their business" better than white people, meaning they keep them out of trouble and support them. Instead, us white people somehow let people like Trump run our country, a man who acted as if he did not know members of the Ku Klux Klan were endorsing him for president.
Bell of course discussed this comedically, and sometimes comedy has a way of making everything too real. But that is good. It is a wake up call, and it was to me. Racism and racial inequality are high as ever in the United States, and I am currently taking a social inequality class where we have been studying how black versus white wealth is extremely unequal, and Bell also mentioned that in his discussion.
Racism is not a thing of the past, it is such a blatant problem, and until big things happen in the news, we do not really talk about it. It is swept under the rug until something happens, and that should be different. We need to be having these discussions. We need to be watching what we teach our kids, our families, our friends, coworkers and peers. Any level of racism is just bad, and it is making white people seem more and more ignorant to it.
Sometimes I go on social media, and I hate even identifying with white people. Some things people say, it makes me cringe. But we do need to get a handle on our business, on our people. We need to support each other, and spread positivity. Instead we are more concerned with ourselves, instead of fixing the problem of racism.
Bell also talked about the Colin Kaepernick controversy, and for someone who did not know a lot about it, I applaud Kaepernick for sticking to what he believes in. And I learned that "The Star Spangled Banner's" third verse is quite disturbing and mentions slavery, and yes, we should find a different song to sing about American pride.
We get so caught up in the idea of white America, we refuse to acknowledge that it is not just white people who built this country. We are a melting pot of people, wonderful people of all races and ethnicities, people who have fought long and hard to be considered American.
I was really inspired by everything Bell said, and I laughed a lot. He surely opened a lot of eyes and ears, and we all could take his advice. Teach each other the good, spread the good, try to understand each other and be nice to anyone you meet. That is the only way that racism will ever turn into an idea of the past.
