Last Updated on: 14th March 2014, 05:37 pm
Something really pissed me off the other day. I was at this volunteer training, and part of the training is talking about helping people who don’t come from this part of the big blue planet we live on. In the room, there were white people, some black people, some people from Asia, people from the middle-east, and some East-Indians too. There were people from pretty much everywhere, which was cool. We got talking about racism, and how some people don’t realize they’re being assholes until someone points it out. I agree with that, some people have thought those things so long that they seem like facts rather than stereotypes and prejudices. But here’s when I get mad. I said that I didn’t think I was a racist. I think that I have a pretty open mind and I will call racism when I see it. But the first thing out of people’s mouths was, “You probably don’t realize you’re being racist, but you probably are.” And the funny part was other white people would say similar things, and they’d get that comment, but not the people who were black, Asian, or whatever. Ok, let me earn the racism tag before you stick it to me, please. If I say something to offend you, straighten me out and then call me a racist and I’ll except it. But if you’re already judging me to be a racist before I’ve said jack shit, isn’t that, um, just as bad? Isn’t that racism? It’s damn judgmental anyway.
I left the training session feeling like it was pretty intense, asked other people if they felt the same way, and they said they didn’t. So either I’m a freak or they’re all afraid to say what they really think. Either way, I think it’s pretty sad that the way some people have decided to fight racism is with something just as bad.