Thursday, May 14, 2009

black racism

so in my sociology class my white lady teacher told me that non-white people can't be "racist" because they don't wield considerable power over society. and that whites are racist because the system that was created forever benefits them to the detriment of all the other melanin-enriched people of the world. i guess if you go by that system that's true.

but i think my mom is a racist.

and i feel like a hypocrite because i just find it funny. like if you heard a middle aged white woman say that 'black people are so nasty and they never wash their hands' you'd be offended. but my mom just thinks that whites are the nastiest people ever. she grew up in the country of nc and went to de facto segregated schools and an hbcu. she's friendly to white people but she doesn't really trust them and she finds them extremely unattractive. i don't think she'd ever get close enough to a white person to call them her friend. the way i was raised i thought that black people were better than everyone else. i know this isn't good or right, but i guess it's better than growing up thinking i was inferior.

i just thought of this because a few weeks ago my mom came into my job and was talking to me and my friend. she retold a time when i was in middle school and i had a sleepover and all of my friends who came over were white. [i was the outcast black girl, none of the black girls liked me and the white girls were cooler anyway]
she was just so confused and hoping that a black girl would come through the door but she didn't come. she was relieved when i got to high school and got a black best friend [the de facto diverging of races in high school is another blog entirely]

to make a long blog longer, this whole talk about race was brought on by her seeing my [black] friend with her [white] boyfriend. now my mom is not really a fan of interracial relationships at all. but she said "the lord had to deliver me from that because i know you're probably going to bring one of those white boys home"



i guess that's progress?

2 comments:

Margaret said...

This was very interesting. I've never met anyone like your mom, but there has been progress! And there is always room for more! I liked reading this:)!

Creative Silence said...

Very interesting. I am also taking a sociology course but the professor thus far has taken the safe route by noting the systematic racism by the powers that be, not so much the individual side. I know several black people who feel the way your mother does about white people, especially when it comes to basic things like smell and washing their hands, lol. I, on the other hand, grew up in a neighborhood that had a bit of everything, from Italian to Haitian to Irish. I'd like to say I'm pretty open minded and realized that in order for us to get ahead in this society, we have to learn how to deal with and walk amongst white people. We can't live in a bubble of ignorance like so many of us do, then wonder why we haven't progressed over the years. In order to master the game you gotta play it with those who are already in it...While I don't trust most people anyway (white, black purple) I respect people who have a bit of everything in their circle. It's a big world out there...you never know when that Chinese or white friend will drop a piece of knowledge on you that will one day make you rich, lol. Just my 2 cents. Dig your blog by the way!

C.