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Racism
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Add to FavoritesThe true answer is Both; Racism is a lesson that is taught, I should know I've seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears too many times to say that this isn't so. I have often wondered both to myself and out loud [to my family] "How on Earth did I come from this family without all of the hate, the redneck ways and why is it that I am so normal?" As it turns out, I am not.
My niece actually gave me an answer to this query one time; she said that it was common knowledge that I was the strange one in the group, not any of them. I believe I had just called her and her brother a redneck! That remark certainly took me back, I always thought of myself as more enlightened and more accepting of differences between people. But I am wrong. As a member of the same family, I carry all of their faults within me; I may be somewhat more tolerant, but the truth is some of their views did actually rub off on me. It would be lying to myself not to realize this truth.
I recall walking the halls and in the cafeteria of my high school being terribly afraid of the black girls' there. To say that they didn't like us white girls would be a huge understatement. They loathed us. Their eyes would shoot us daggers whenever we walked by them; they were united in their hate against us. Not all of them, but a big enough group to give any white girl pauses. They terrified me!
Today we have a name for this behavior: Reverse Racism. This phenomenon is not new, it is ages old, and it visited me all four years of high school and kept me in fear on a daily basis. These girls loved a good fight and would get into any scuffle to prove themselves. I avoided them, or even looking directly at them out of fear.
To have a black male friend was to invite their wrath. I tried to explain this to my friend Marcus one day when I was trying to get him to just let me be. I enjoyed his company and our conversations were always enlightening, but my fear of those girls kept me from exploring it further. He knew this too and had some choice words for those girls; jealousy being a common one. I didn't care for their reasons; I just wanted to get through my life unscathed! Thus, I learned racism.
Now, back to my family; We were a good family, a solid and loving family. My father was not exactly a racist, but he had lived a long time and his generation was a vastly different one from my own. My Father was born in 1925; times were very different growing up back then. When he used the word Negro, he was simply using the language that he knew instead of conforming to the modern day word [black at that time]. He had many black friends and one particular girl that I shall never forget, who was just beautiful and thin, who worked at our local Kroger's would see him there and yell "Hey Daddy!"
As I would slink down in my seat or try to disappear into the ground, my Father grinned real big, and would wave back to her from across the parking lot and yell "Hey Honey!"
My Father loved many people, black and white alike; but he drew the line at "those Mexicans" or "those Cubans". He felt the invasion coming way before it actually did, and I am so glad that he is not here today to see it come to fruition.
This was racism, certainly, but because seeing a Latino person was an extremely rare occurrence back then, it never actually sunk in. I had not been aware of any in our locality, certainly; and therefore had no idea why he spoke in a derogatory manner toward them. He was an avid news watcher and perhaps something he saw on there gave him his reasoning. I will never know.
Learned:
Many people, under many different types of circumstances, can learn racism; let us take a look at crime victims who have not learned to differentiate a criminal from a black criminal.
A woman gets held up at gunpoint next to the ATM where she has just withdrawn some cash; the only description she can give to the officers arriving on the scene is "he was a black man" or "there were three black men". This one instance may not make this woman a racist, but it might. Notice that I did not state the color of the woman who was our victim in this scenario: This was on purpose, as racism is not limited to the opposite race.
The scene above has taken place hundreds of times in America in the past twenty or so years. It is not always a black man or a group of black men, but it often is; why our black youths have fallen from grace is an ongoing debate for many. Most feel it is the absence of the Father in their lives or even a Mother for that matter. We look at the number of children in our black community who are being raised by Grandmothers and balk. Who will raise the children of those children? The parents who gave them life didn't want the job and therefore the Grandparent is not the answer any longer. So what becomes of the next generations? We do not know.
Racism is a very real and frightening thing; it festers and it tears lives apart. We become racists out of ignorance and fear and do not overcome these easily. All sides of the color spectrum are equally guilty of racism, as I hope that I have demonstrated here. We must get to know one another, accept one another's differences and lifestyles; embrace one another as people, fellow humans, and fellow Americans.
This country must unite as one people, one American in arms with another; get over the differences, the past and the present. We cannot change that that is behind us, we can only move forward to a new life, a new beginning and acceptance is the key.
To forgive is futile; many of us have nothing in which to forgive, nor to pay restitution for; we are not the past and the sins of our Fathers are not our own.
Learn more about this author, Carrington M. Nye.
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Learned
Racism is learned. Teaching is the act of imparting knowledge. Learning is receiving knowledge. Based on these definitions one must conclude that racism is learned. As any experienced teacher will attest, unless an individual is open to receiving what is taught, teaching would be unsuccessful.
Babies come into the world as a pure blank slate, minus impressions and attitudes. As they grow, they learn through observation what to do and how to behave. Long before they attend school and receive a formal education, they are exposed to myriad learning experiences by observing behavior, speech and attitudes of those present in their environment.
If a child overhears or witnesses his parents maligning an individual or group based purely on racial or cultural differences, the child absorbs the lesson that being different in looks and behavior is not okay. Going forward the child will react with prejudiced suspicion toward people who do not look like him, and the seed of potential future racist behavior is planted.
All lessons in racism are not learned through negatives. Entertainment media often propagates discrimination in a comedic fashion by making jokes about cultural differences. Television commercials are becoming more blatant in their humorous advertising and often the racist reference is subtle and covert. Racism is alive and thriving in the media; often it takes the form of reverse discrimination posing as political correctness.
Racism is most often considered a Black issue, however all races can be victims under specific circumstances. When parents express a preference for their children to date and marry only individuals perceived as their own "kind," they are victimizing their children with racist attitudes.
Society plays a role in the racist lessons learned. Children quickly recognize the implication of Black neighborhoods as opposed to Caucasian, areas reserved for only the Hispanic population and places only Asians congregate. This division by race is becoming less prevalent, but is neverthless, one of the ways children observe and learn racism.
Even applauding the rise of so called "minorities" in the political and financial arenas as successful integration brings attention to the fact that what should be ordinary is in fact considered extraordinary. Weighed against the backdrop of past history this celebration of minority advancement covertly reeks of racism, but as some would argue, "in a good way."
Racism is learned primarily by the following:
* Modeling
A child who grows up in a home where fear or ridicule of others based on their color or cultural differences is prevalent receives the message that individuals of other races are inferior and open to criticism or judgment.
* Observation
Even if fear or ridicule are not openly verbally expressed, the child learns through observing overt racist behavior and attitudes. Schools, the media and the community are prime places for the child to be exposed to overt and covert racism.
* Exposure
Living in an environment where there is constant and repetitive disparaging of groups or individuals aimed at their physical appearance or cultural traditions will instill a mindset to avoid that particular group or any individual encountered from that race or culture. Children will readily mingle until differences are pointed out to them.
* Stereotyping
Generali zed statements about any ethnic group repeated in front of impressionable children will guarantee learned racism, often on an unconscious level. Eventually that learned bias will surface when circumstances match the criteria subconsciously absorbed.
The entertainment media is guilty of perpetuating stereotyping lessons in racism. The belief that belittling or making fun to the extreme will mitigate erroneous beliefs by bringing them out into the open and refuting their validity does not eliminate the issue. Statements repeated over and over, even in jest, are absorbed into the subconscious.
One only has to spend a brief time at any school playground to observe lessons in racism well learned. Children taunting one another in fun will dredge up every ethnic nickname, racial slur, hate word and stereotype they have learned to expand their limited vocabulary and make their point of ridicule.
As long as there are people of color and cultural diversity, a degree of racism will exist. We notice our differences. We have made, and will continue to make, great strides in mitigating the impact of racism on individuals, but we are naive and kidding ourselves if we believe we are indifferent to our differences.
Children learn racism, but they can be taught to accept and respect all individuals in our diverse society, not in spite of their differences, but because of them.
Learn more about this author, Carol Gioia.
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