“I hate white people.”
It was that
simple statement coming out of the mouth of a person that I consider a good
friend that rocked my entire world. “Treat others the way you want to be
treated.” “Treat other races as if they’re white.” These are the statements I
was taught as a child. Those statements are healing, full of life and breath,
acceptance and understanding… right? or have we been incredibly mislead? Have
we missed the true cause of the great black white divide that continues to this
very day?
It was a
few years ago when I had my great hate. I despised my white self. I loathed
myself for what systematically happens to the kids I work with, just because of
their skin color. It wasn’t until I recognized my skin color, and what white
means that I was able to formulate how race impacts people.
I have my own culture; I have privilege out of
my own skin color. I have a more tangible right to liberty, safety, justice,
education, and income security. If life is a race, the day I was born, I was
already winning; I was sprinting past these students who surround me as 7th
graders. I was running past their whole families, but yet I was only a few days
old.
So what do we do, Steven?
How do we even address the problem of race when we thought the problem was solved?
This is what I’ve come to know.
1. Being white,
means you are white, and your culture is white, and you talk white, and you
live white, SO ACT WHITE! Don’t walk into other cultures and try to be them.
They will respect you for who you are, if you act yourself. No one likes an
impostor.
2. Stop saying
that people should get over the racial divides of the past, or slavery, or any
other injustice. Just because past injustice isn’t our reality today, doesn’t
mean that it isn’t still affecting people and culture today.
3. The “pull
yourself up by your boot straps” method is crap. When you’re born, your skin
color helps dictate where you land in the race of life. If life is a hallway
with everyone starting at the back, and a prize at the front, white skin color
means you get a head start. Some people deserve some help to level the playing
field.
4. Don’t try
and solve the racial divides, we are all different. Attempting to answer all
the questions of inequality, racial divide, cultural divide, will only lead to
more heartache as no one has a clear nonbiased perspective. Your own culture,
race, economic class, will get in the way of your understanding and problem
solving. Learn to love people for who they are, give help when asked, offer
help often, seek to learn, ask questions.
5. Remember
that we’re all human.
The Sun is Rising
