Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist

Isn’t it strange that before the election, I was so proud of the fact that we didn’t make a big deal about Obama running for president, yeah, a BLACK man running for president. Maybe the American population was a lot more mature than I thought. But then immediately after he won, there was a huge deal made about his race. He’s black, he’s black, he’s black, all over the radio. Yes, our president is black, what’s the big deal? In fact, he’s half black, half white, oh no! Not only is he black, but he’s the result of an interracial relationship! What is the world coming to?

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think that hate crimes that result from racism are terrible and what has happened in the past to the Jews, Chinese, African Americans, and all other races that were enslaved was just awful. However, our world is progressing very quickly to something better and we need to move into a new mindset.

As a person of color (what color? I’m not telling), I can personal vouch for being on the receiving end of racist remarks, generalizations based on my culture and the country that my parents came from. My looks were different from caucasians and I was very often called ugly because of it. It gave me what I thought to be a very traumatizing childhood.

I realized very very recently though, that these are not big deals at all, and by taking them so seriously, I feel as if I am almost encouraging the behavior by giving people someone to pick on and hate on since I had a response! Maybe they don’t even mean it. I’ve heard plenty of people be “racist” against their own race jokingly. Maybe the key part of this whole thing is to not take it so personally if it’s not a hate crime. I am in no way shape or form justifying the actions of someone who hires a white man over a colored person even though the colored person is more qualified. I am however, saying that the little comments here or there should be ignored. Idiotic statements deserve no responses.

Maybe, just maybe, we should stop focusing on the negatives in our past, and look forward to the positive future. Realize that we’ve made a lot of progress, and that most of the time that things like hate crimes based on race, isn’t racism as much as it is just people wanting something or someone to hate. People bond together when confronted with an adversary and they especially do so when they do not understand what exactly their adversary is. In today’s day and age where there are so many opportunites to learn about different cultures, I no longer feel that what I went through growing up was traumatic. It was a big of a learning experience, but I think by dwelling in it, complaining about it, and focusing on the fact that it made me feel bad was more of a hinderance on me than what they said.

That said, don’t hate the dumb racist things or gender-specific rude comments that you may hear on the streets, that’s just dumb and doesn’t deserve to be acknowledged. Hate the hate crimes, and remember to love everyone, because by loving everyone, you become hard to hate.