brilliantbrown

This week, I’m putting my relationship articles on hold. We’ve been discussing the unfortunate Michael Richards incident for the last couple of weeks, but I think we should understand that the true issue is much larger than Richards. Over the past few days, it seems like the whole of the black community if focused on the n-word and racist thinking.

You wouldn’t think it from talking to me, but I come into contact with racism every day. I didn’t always see it, this way. If you’d asked me in High School, I’d have told you that racism was dead or dying. But the more I deal with it, the more convinced I am that racism is still very prevalent in the United States and in the world.

This will be the first of a series on the issue of racism. I’d like to discuss some of my experiences with racism and I’d like to invite others to share their experiences.

Avoiding Reverse Racism

While we are discussing racism, it is important that we are not careful to not become racists ourselves. This means that we must remember that we’re discussing a portion of the white population that is racist, not the entirety of white America. We’re not even limiting it to white America, because people of color can harbor racist sentiments as well.

There have always been and will always will be white people who are firmly opposed to racism and will fight against bigotry just as fervently as any black person you’ll meet. It is important that we do not alienate these important allies. You can’t tell a racist just by looking at them.

The 21st Century Bigot

The days of “lynch a nigger in the town square” have passed, but the feelings have not. Today’s racists are discreet and subversive, or they hide behind anonymity and technology. You never know who is harboring racist feelings and it’s easy to forget the issue or, alternately, become paranoid about it.

The thing is, all racists are not dumb caveman rednecks. Some of them are actually quite intelligent, but they allow their fear or hate to cloud their logic. These are the worst kind of racists, because these are the ones with the potential to be US Senators, Judges and Presidents. They back up their bigoted bullshit with “scientific” studies and statistics.

They are the Strom Thurmonds [wikipedia] and Trent Lotts [wikipedia] of America. They’re the racially profiling Police Chiefs, District Attorneys and Judges. They use this twisted logic to advance their hate filled agendas and rally others to their cause. These are the kind of people we should be looking out for and keeping out of power.

Chat Room Racists

I’ve been dealing with what I call “chat room racists” for a few years now. I guess I’m something of a glutton for punishment, because it would be incredibly easy to ignore them by just not reading their garbage. But I do. And I engage them in discussion, if you can even call it that.

For example, the other day I was watching a police video on YouTube. The suspect in the video was black, and racist statements were popping up down in the comments section. This is actually pretty normal, but there was this one guy, TexasN00b, talking about studies about brain size and IQ vs. race. I couldn’t just let it slide, so I made him my target. I asked him to cite the studies, so I could check them out. He quotes a study by an Dr. Arthur Jenson that stated that black children had lower IQs than whites. [Wikipedia] I read about it and find that Jensen himself doubted the study’s findings and attributed the difference in scores to outside factors (in this case, the black children were uncomfortable around the white doctor).

Of course, I pointed this fact out to TexasN00b and he fires back with crime stats. I point out that crime isn’t a black issue, rather a poverty issue and that perhaps the issue isn’t the race of the criminals, but the fact that they’re disadvantaged. So he moves on to brain size studies, to which I respond with neural density studies. We went back and forth for a while before he ended up talking about Third World Nations. At this point, I realized that I wasn’t going to reach him and that I’d pretty much been wasting my time. So I informed him that I wouldn’t be responding to anymore of his messages… of course, he went on for a few more rounds, but I wasn’t there to reply.

XBOX Live!

Chat room racists can be found outside of chats and bulletin boards. The internet is everywhere and with the anonymity it affords, most closet racists let their true colors fly. One example of this that I’ve encountered is the XBOX Live! online videogame community.

I’d log onto XBOX Live! to enjoy a fine afternoon of mobile video games and goodness. For those who aren’t familiar, most games are voice enabled… meaning you can talk to the other players during the game. Well, there wasn’t a day that went by where someone didn’t call me a nigger or darky or other racial slur online. It’s gotten to the point where it’s just out of hand.

For a while, I’d argue back. It had gotten to the point where every game was just a shouting match, but I quickly realized that they were mostly angry/stupid teenagers who were just out to push people’s buttons. There’d be no getting to them, no changing their minds… this is of course the Jackass generation. Being offensive is cool and there’s not much more offensive than outright racism and bigotry. So with that revelation, I left XBOX Live! and no longer play online.

I’m not the only one who complains about these things.
[Racism on XBOX Live via the Will Effect]

Discuss

These are just a couple of my experiences. Some people may just dismiss these stories because they happen online, but don’t forget there is a little bigot on the other side of the world wide web. One day, that person could grow to a position where they directly affect your life. So I feel this merits discussion.

I encourage all of our readers to share their experiences and discuss solutions to this problem. Join me next week when I’ll be discussing my theories on the reasons people become racists.