My thoughts on Racism

To me my race, or better termed ethnicity, is just another identity in a long string of words that define me and other people. I myself am a gay cis man, with a Japanese and European ethnic background, although I pass as white, who’s fat and well past my prime. I’m not claiming that “I don’t see race,” or that “all races are equal in my eyes.” In truth I am racist, I am biased and prejudiced, and I’m so tired of hearing people claiming that they aren’t.

I believe very much in the sociological construction of race and race identity in society as basic as stereotyping is a form of racism. A stereotype is simply a common assumption associated with any specific identity, like tired stereotypes ‘blonds are stupid’ or ‘ginger people have no soul.’ So if we can agree that stereotyping is a form of racism we can see how everyone is racist in one form or another. I mean if basic stereotyping is racist then imagine how police profiling is or any other profiling that might happen, say at a bank when people apply for loans, or for a college acceptance committee.

I’m not here to try and badmouth “conservatives” and praise “liberals” in truth everyone is to blame with how things are being perpetuated in our racist society. We as humans, sociologically, have been tribally identifying with our immediate family and community against anyone who is not “us,” and “othering,” anyone who doesn’t fit in. You see it organically play out in every elementary play yard and demonstrated in any media that involves education. We are hard wired to be prejudiced against conflicting identities and there is no easier cue for that than a visual one, and thus making racism, ableism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, and body shaming all the easier.

Conservatives on a daily basis are racist by the very definition of conservative, as they represent the majority and try to keep the status quo, so I might avoid talking about the obvious and blatant racist things that are going on in our country by these individuals, as there would be hundreds if not thousands of racist incidents done by conservatives today; Instead I would like to point out a very controversial action done by many Democrats in reaction to the injustice over George Floyd’s murder. Nancy Pelosi and many other Democrat politicians wore Kente cloth to honor George Floyd and to possibly show their solidarity with the Black community. Kente cloth is from Ghana, George Floyd was born in North Carolina. This sort of action is similar to the racial terms we use, to call Americans of various decent by adding the continent of their ethnic origin, (like African American or Asian American, and yet white Americans are not referred to as European Americans, as possibly being the major continental ethnic group they don’t need as extra moniker to their American identity. Personally I hate all kinds of ethnic terms in America as it just groups people, erasing their diverse ethnic identity and swapping it with a color or shade, without any regard to their cultural identity let alone their complex identity as a human), it might have been done in good faith at the time, but it shows a disconnect with George Floyd’s identity for he was as American as anyone else can truly claim to be. If Democrats wanted to use something as a symbol of support for the black community why not go with something that is a part of Black American history such as jazz, but they wanted something visual and stark, and went with something that really has no bearing on Black American culture. This moment shows that racist disconnect where allies generally struggle, they didn’t ask the appropriate groups what they would have wanted and chose something that had no meaning to Black Americans and would have meant nothing to George FLoyd. At the very least it shows they tried, but trying, as they say, only matters in horse shoes and hand grenades.

We as Americans need to accept that we are racist and prejudiced, as like in therapy, once you accept it, the real therapy can begin. We need to have frank and public talks about inequality especially when it comes to race. America has a very murky history when it comes to race relations, that many seem to try to pretend it doesn’t matter, which only exacerbates the issue.

I mainly decided to write this as I continue to see people using othering language, demonizing one large group of people and claiming they are doing one thing or another, when there are plenty of people within that group that act independently of it (who knew). I’ve lately seen many people of color using language and examples that imply racism is simply from white people with power over people of color, lumping all victims to be people of color, when I personally have experienced racism coming from people of color toward other people of color, or in some cases people of color toward white people, not to imply that I have not seen “white” on people of color racism as I obviously have. This on it’s most basic level ignores the thousands if not millions of allies within the “white” community that does struggle but at least tries to support people of color. To imply that there is such a thing as reverse racism, or racism towards white people doesn’t exist is well naïve and problematic, that is just simply more racism. I’m writing this not just to point out the problems with conspiracy-theorist, fearmongering sociopaths like Marjorie Taylor Green but also people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who uses othering language demonizing the whole of conservatives or Republicans, even in the face of a handful of defectors from the party going against Trumpist ideals. I understand that AOC and people like her might be trying to use the most simple, buzz word, SEO language available for wider understanding, but these are people with power and influence and they shouldn’t be using vague gestures and othering language just because it is simple and might get their point across. Our leaders should be using their time and energy to try and be better communicators as that is what we need; tough sometimes complex language to truly get the point across. Using vague, lump sum language is confusing and often needs clarification and when it comes to an already murky job with tons of misinformation, conciseness and transparency is key.