I wrote this post 2.5 years ago and unfortunately it is as relevant now as it was then. Police are still killing Black men without cause, Trump is still an active political force, and our country is still struggling with racism. Oh, and the person who inspired this post is still a racist.
The death of George Floyd has put the issues of racism and police brutality on the front page, again. It has engendered people to write their raw reactions on Twitter and Facebook, often revealing their deep seeded anger, lack of empathy, and racist views. A country that elected its first black President just 12 years ago is going through a severe backlash, showing that racism is still with us, rearing its ugly head from just below the surface.
The banality of racism has hit home on a personnel level through several recent exchanges my husband has had on Facebook. What do you say when someone you were friends with in college repeatedly posts extreme views? Racist views? Hateful views? What do you say to someone who has spent the last 4 years singing the praises of the president, claiming that he too is a job creator (although his off-shore business dealing sound more like worker exploitation). What do you say to someone who believes the police are always justified, and allowing undocumented immigrants into the country will increase crime? After all of this spew, what do you say when he denies that race was a potential factor in George Floyd’s death? What do you say when, after all of that, he claims he is not a racist?
If you find yourself having to say “I am not a racist”, you probably are. Almost no one thinks of themselves as a racist. In fact, hate groups typically go out of their way to claim they are not racist. People say to themselves, “I haven’t punch or hit anyone, I even have black friends (well, actually acquaintances), but, how can I be a racist? If you have to defend your position on race, it is because someone has (or more likely multiple people have) told you are a racist.
Racism is not limited to taking violent actions against a group of people based on their race, it is about how you feel and think about others. The definition from Oxford Languages is,
“a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.”
By definition, claiming you are a job creator to justify your exploitative behavior when you employed Jamaicans to work in your business to avoid US taxes and labor laws, boarders on racism. You think interacting with African Americans, such as having dated black women, proves you are not a racist. But when you think you are inherently deserving and smarter than those that you exploit, you are a racist. You fancy yourself as someone who is superior in the vain of the protagonist in Bond Fires of the Vanities who thought:
“… he was among the victors! He lived on Park Avenue, the street of dreams! He worked on Wall Street, fifty floors up, for the legendary Pierce & Pierce, overlooking the world! He was at the wheel of a $48,000 roadster with one of the most beautiful women in New York—no Comp. Lit. scholar, perhaps, but gorgeous—beside him! A frisky young animal! He was of that breed whose natural destiny it was…to have what they wanted!”
Are you a baseball bat carrying racist? I don’t think so. But in some ways you are more dangerous. You think you are superior to other groups, born of privilege, but believe you are self made and deserve wealth. You claim everyone gets a fair shake as you personally have never experienced discrimination and refuse to believe it still exists. The unspoken conclusion is that people who don’t succeed are inferior. An insidious racist and loyal Trump follower.