I know what you’re thinking, “What would you know about racism?” While I appear Caucasian, with my red hair and skin that’s on the fair side, I do have African American genes in my family. You can see this more in my dad, my brothers, my sister’s curly hair, or my grandpa.
Something I hear all the time is that racism is not an issue anymore. I think this is mainly coming from people who have been privileged enough to not experience it. I’m not just talking about “white privilege,” just privilege in general.
The thing is that we tend to view the time when it was really bad as though it was so long ago. We never experienced it, but we know it happened. Segregation, unequal voting rights, slavery. What we forget is that it is more recent than we think.
As we all know, Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. His “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the most popular speeches to date. He was assassinated in 1968, my father was born in 1969.
My grandfather was an African American, and he was alive during this time. This photo of my paternal grandfather was taken in 1964, the same year that MLKJ won the Nobel Peace Prize.
What we forget is that our grandparents lived through this. They faced these struggles on a daily basis.
What we forget is that there are still people out there who believe in segregation. There’s people who won’t employ those of color. There’s people who use derogatory terms for those of different races.
What we forget that it’s not just African Americans who fall victim to racism.
What we forget is that there were hundreds of years of mistreatment upon many races, and we still have to work every day to make it better. It’s still an issue, stop forgetting that.
