Revealing an Issue: by Samm Brown
"We talk about equal rights all the time and fighting for equality, but equal rights will do us NO good if we never abide by them."
Diversity is a puzzle that we are all a piece in. That’s what I use to tell myself. Diversity, to me, went deeper than just race and what you could physically see with your eyes.
But, now, I don’t only see it as this huge puzzle that we all have a place in. I see it as that small child that comes along and rips the puzzle apart.
I watched a video the other day that very much upset me. The video took place in a court room, and there was a daughter suing her mom for “lost wages”. An important detail for this is that the judge, the mom, and the daughter were all three black but not the same in any way. The judge was a successful woman that had to struggle due to her skin color but still managed to make it in this crazy life. The mom was a woman that lived in Birmingham, Alabama during a time period where she would never be able to receive a proper college degree because of her skin color. So, she became a maid and lived with the white people she worked for, bringing her daughter along with her. Her daughter, on the other hand, was so ashamed that she was black and of the heritage that clung to her that she viewed herself as white so that “she could become successful”. And, at the first chance she had, she left her mom in the dust to receive a college degree.
The “lost wages” part, was that the daughter lost her job because the mom came up to her work to try and talk to her. I don’t blame her. The mom had no other way to speak to her daughter. But, because she caused a ruckus and she was black, the daughter lost her job.
There are few details left out here (like that the daughter was extremely light skinned), but I’d like to point out an obvious thing the video didn’t address:
The mom and judge had to face racism and struggle through the hardship that I and no other white person in America will ever have to go through.
The less obvious thing that really hit was how the daughter felt about herself. She was so ashamed that she was black that she felt the need to live like a “white” person to be successful…. I keep just repeating that to myself and realizing horrible and wrong that sounds. This poor girl thought that she could never be successful if she claimed her heritage. She felt the need to identify or “act” like another race.
It just baffles me. Because of what society and, ultimately and sadly, “white” people have done to her and several thousands of other “black” people, she felt that she couldn’t be successful. Please visualize this and understand what I am saying. Because of how I and my fellow “white people” have treated her and others in the past, she had to rip a part of her away to ease her shame and pain.
“But, it’s not our fault they won’t get off their butts and get a job.”
I have heard way too many “white” adults say this. But, indirectly, it is our faults. Because of how black people are viewed in some parts of our country, they view themselves’ negatively. Please, take this in. I have never seen it this way until it was put plainly in front of me as a video.
And the sad thing is, most of us don’t even do it on purpose! I know, I have NEVER done something racist or wrong to a person of a different race. But, what exactly have I done to make sure they aren’t impacted by the forces out there that does negatively address them? Honestly, nothing.
I have gone out of my way to be overly nice to people of other races. However, that’s just as bad. By doing that, I am setting them apart as and away from other people. That’s giving them pity, and they don’t deserve that! They deserve equality in ALL aspects. We talk about equal rights all the time and fighting for equality, but equal rights will do us NO good if we never abide by them. You can give black people, white people, and Latino people the same pay but until equal amounts of the people are hired, no good is done.
Also, if how we view other races never changes, how they view themselves will never change! We have to stop looking down on them. We have to stop seeing them as different people from us and realize that they are so similar to who we are to the extent that they are so different from each other! Let me explain that mouthful. All three of the woman in that court room were black. Some people would view them as the same because they were all the same race. Some people would even see them as a separated group from us.
Why can’t we just see them as people? There is a mom in there struggling from outer problems she has no control over, and she misses her daughter. There is a daughter in there that is struggling from inner demons that she has allowed to ruin her life. There is a powerful woman of the law that is trying to make a difference in the world.
What does it matter if they were white, black, Latino, Asian, or Martians? The woman of law is just the same as a white woman of the law. The mom is just that; a mom. The daughter is suffering like many college students trying to survive.
“Exactly, Samm! We’re all human! That’s why we should eliminate race!”
Wrong. We shouldn’t eliminate race. Race is what helps make us special and unique. We need to learn to respect it. We have to learn to allow race to be equal in all aspects. We have to begin to view it as a characteristic that holds culture. In this, we can learn about others and begin to understand each other just a little more.
I realize that this is a problem that is not going to change soon. If everyone started right now, we might be able to have it changed by the next two generations. But, not everyone is going to. White people have been taught this since we were born, and it's engraved in our minds. The only way can help is to fight our own minds and show others what we are doing wrong. Most importantly, we have to start by raising out babies right. Teaching them these important things will allow them to have something different engraved in their minds.
Of course, there will always be the forces from outside like history books that say that slavery wasn’t a main starter of the civil war that will contradict what you tell your children. But, you have to explain to them that not everyone sees the truth. Not everyone sees that we messed up in the past, and that everyone is trying to deal with it in different ways. The people that don’t see it as a mess-up, will try to belittle where we went wrong. Or, they may even say that there was no wrong done. But, if you are that one that understands that we did, you can make a difference with just that.
And I want to apologize on my behalf. I never realized what my race was doing until I saw the way that poor girl in the video viewed herself and realized that my race was the blame for that. So, I am sorry. But, now that I’ve pointed this out and realized this is a problem, what do I do? I’d love to just be able to show everyone what I see and them comprehend it. I’d love to just change my mindset and retract what’s been engraved in it. But, it doesn’t work that way? So, people of all races, what do we do?
Attempting to Solve an Issue: By Sean Finn
As I believe people have their own methods to achieving what they want, I can tell you how I have been trying to overcome this issue.
First, there are a few things to understand about my method. I view culture as the main difference person to person. Also, equality is the end goal so when approaching trying to solve this issue, you must remember that there can be wrong done on both side. When one side tries to take more than equality, it creates the problem all over again. Education is also the best way to achieve the solution I have come up with because it allows for people to be given information for them to do as they please. This allows people to truly demonstrate how they feel.
My solution is to stop looking at race as something that can hinder someone. Instead, we should recognize the culture that is behind them. For example, I remember having a conversation with a good friend of mine who was talking about people of color introducing themselves. He said something that resonated with me. What he said was that when a white person introduces themselves, they can say statements like “I am part German, Italian, and Irish.” However, a person of color does not get that opportunity as much because people automatically assume that someone who is from Ecuador is Mexican. If society can get to a place where everyone can introduce themselves as such, then we will be in a much better place with this topic.
This solution does a few things. The most important thing is it teaches people about other cultures (referring back to the importance of education). One of the biggest issues that exists is the misunderstanding of cultures. This can be seen in everything from translation mistakes on content created in other countries or a complete fear of a culture, such as Islamophobia.
Another part of the culture debate is appropriation of other cultures. For example, the hair debates on who revolutionized what styles. While the black culture has always had hair styles such as cornrows, afros, and many other styles, recently the other cultures have been trying to claim these styles as their own. When one uses the culture of another to better themselves, they must give credit where credit is due. This does not happen very often.
Trying to tackle the issue through means of culture is how I have decided to go about this. Now you and many others may have their own solutions, as long as we all have the same goals in mind, we do not have to wait two generations to have this change. We cannot do this alone. That is why it is so important to continue to reach out to others, point out their mistakes in respectful ways, and use our own experiences to make it personal.
This is what separates us from being an anti-racist and a person against racism. You have now began to enter the world of becoming an anti-racist because you have elected to do something about the issue instead of stating what you do not do to hurt the situation. One of your biggest opponents in this battle will not be the ones that are adamantly against you. It is the ones who are indifferent to what you say. As one of my favorite artists, Raury, has said on this topic, “Run in some type of direction because the people going no where are the ones who are flexin’.”
However, the most important thing to understand in this debate is that the ones that you oppose does not feel as if they are wrong. We must keep that in mind because if we are not considering their background and why they feel that way, are we really any different from a racist?
