Jackie Summers has identified the most troubling thing about racism these days: no one ever admits to being racist.
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I’m 17 years old. I’m visiting the home of my friend Chris in Staten Island. We read comics, and his mom makes us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cut diagonally. The next day, someone paints on his garage–in big red letters–”nigger lover.”
This is not the most racist thing that has ever happened to me.
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I’m 28. I’m working on Wall St., in the energy sector. It’s 10 A.M. and I’m just settling into the stack of reports requiring my attention. The news sweeps through the office like a tsunami: OJ Simpson, not guilty. The Senior Analyst of the Oil and Gas group comes up to my desk and asks, “Is it okay for white people to start looting now?”
This is not the most racist thing that has ever happened to me.
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I’m 30 years old. My date looks like she put on her dress with a spray-can. We’ve finished playing pool, and now we’re having a drink at a pub. Her mouth is writing sweet, filthy promises that I believe her body has every intention on cashing. The large burly gent next to us seems to be having a good time as well; so good in fact that he–quite accidentally–bumps into my date. Her gin and tonic splashes all over her new dress, ruining it, and the mood.
“You goddamned, stupid, fucking nigger” he spews. “Do you have any idea where you are!?” He’s drunk and angry and looking for trouble. It’s clear I’m about to get some action, just not the kind I had in mind.
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I tap “Burly” on the shoulder. “I see you’re having a good time with your friends,” I say, “and I don’t want to interrupt. But you–accidentally–bumped into my date, and spilled her drink all over her new dress. I’d appreciate it if you apologized.”
“You goddamned, stupid, fucking nigger” he spews. “Do you have any idea where you are!?” He’s drunk and angry and looking for trouble. It’s clear I’m about to get some action, just not the kind I had in mind.
A minute later and the five of us are outside: myself, my date–who just wants to go home and is cowering behind me–Burly, and two of his friends. “Okay you stupid fucking nigger” he shouts, “what are you going to do now? There are three of us, and one of you.”
“This is easy” I say, pointing at his friends. “I can either beat all three of you up, or I can just beat HIM up. You two are free to go.”
His friends–who’ve clearly been pressed into “take-care-of-our-drunk-loudmouth-friend” service before–apply the better part of valor, and leave. While I’m taking off my coat, Burly throws a haymaker in my direction. My martial arts training kicks in; thirty seconds later and I’m sitting on his back, his wrist–agonizingly twisted the wrong way–in one hand, and a fistful of ginger hair in the other. He’s spitting venomous epithets at me when it occurs to me that, should a police officer wander upon the scene, I’m likely going to jail, despite not being the aggressor. I end the fight and leave.
This is not the most racist thing that’s ever happened to me.
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I’m 32 years old. I’ve just left my car–a canary yellow 1972 Buick Skylark convertible–at my mechanic in the Bronx. I’m walking to the subway when three police cars screech to a stop around me. Six officers jump out of their cars–guns drawn–and suddenly I’m trying to think clearly enough to answer the questions that are being yelled at me as my legs are kicked apart and my face is shoved into a wall.
I’m calm. I’m polite. I think of the (then) recently deceased Amadou Diallo, and curb my genetic tendency towards sarcasm. The officers check my identification and make sure there are no warrants for my arrest. After it’s been determined that my story checks out, I ask the officer closest to me why I was stopped. He tells me that I “matched the description of a suspect,” and as he answers, he notices me taking note of his badge number.
Without explanation, I’m handcuffed, unceremoniously stuffed into the back of a police car, and taken to Central Booking, otherwise known as “the Tombs.” I descend a staircase deeper than the pits of Avernus and am placed into a holding cell. It’s unclear if I am being arrested; in fact I’m never told what’s going on. There’s a phone but it’s out of order. Four hours go by. I’m surrounded by genuinely dangerous people, who for reasons beyond my comprehension, are leaving me completely alone.
Eight hours pass. By now I’ve missed work. Twelve hours after I drop my car off at my mechanic, an officer comes down with a stack of papers and begins to call off names. I’m being released; apparently no charges were filed against me. My property and my freedom are returned. I receive no explanation and no apology.
This is not the most racist thing that’s ever happened to me.
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The wonderful part about the experiences I just described is their overtness. Once, racism was men in hoods burning a cross on your lawn. It was separate entrances and separate water fountains and the back of the bus, and if people didn’t know their place, it was okay to remind them who’s in charge. The great thing about those folks was: at least you knew where you stood. A man with a noose has clear intentions, about as easy to spot as a harvest moon on a clear autumn night. In a best case scenario, with a bit of discretion, you could avoid these people entirely. In a worst case scenario, you could at least defend yourself.
The problem with today’s racism is: nobody ever actually admits to being a racist. Refusal to acknowledge a problem is in fact, tacit compliance.
Modern racism is the insidious undercurrent that keeps classism aloft. It’s city planning that isolates certain neighborhoods, depriving them of civil services. It’s public schools in “low income neighborhoods” with overcrowded classrooms and dangerously outdated facilities. It’s the bank loan for the new business that you don’t get even though your credit is good, because you’re “high risk.” It’s using Jay-Z, Oprah, and Michael Jordan as examples to prove race-based income disparity no longer exists.
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Modern racism is the insidious undercurrent that keeps classism aloft. It’s city planning that isolates certain neighborhoods, depriving them of civil services. It’s public schools in “low income neighborhoods” with overcrowded classrooms and dangerously outdated facilities. It’s the bank loan for the new business that you don’t get even though your credit is good, because you’re “high risk.” It’s using Jay-Z, Oprah, and Michael Jordan as examples to prove race-based income disparity no longer exists.
If overt racism is a noose, institutionalized racism is carbon monoxide: just as lethal but more pervasive and far harder to detect.
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My best friend in the world happens to be an insanely wealthy, drop dead gorgeous blonde. Not long ago, I was conversing with her husband about a recent case in Auburn, Washington, where a (black) man was arrested for attempting to deposit a bank check made out to him. “Your wife,” I said, “has walked into a bank, kindly explained to a teller that she’d forgotten her identification, and walked out with pockets full of cash.”
“That’s true” he said, “but you can ride the subways at 3 A.M. and not have to worry about being attacked.”
“That’s probably true,” I conceded. “Want to trade?”
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Touré, a novelist, journalist, MSNBC personality, and contributing editor at Rolling Stone, currently has an essay on The Atlantic entitled “The Most Racist Thing That Ever Happened to Me.” Unsurprisingly–at least to me–when 105 interviewees were posed this question, the most common response was, “the answer is unknowable.”
I’m wont to agree.
Recent events have seen incidents of racism rise to caustic levels. The Editors at GMP would like to invite you to use this safe space to document such episodes as they happen.
Tell us your experiences in the comments, and let us know how you’re keeping yourselves and each other safe.
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The moment I understood the perniciousness of racism: I was a graduate student, living in Lansing, Michigan. It was the 1990s. My wife and I went to the Quality Dairy, the local equivalent of a 7-Eleven. As we were getting out our car, we saw a police car pull up next to us. We saw a teenage boy hopping the fence behind the Quality Dairy on his way into the store. He was black. The police officer was white. The officer ordered him to put his hands on the car for frisking. The boy complied, although he did wonder why… Read more »
The most racist thing that ever happened to me took place in the spring of 1981 when I was asked to leave a campus Christian fellowship whose umbrella ministry operated a separate one specifically for African-Americans. (Since this particular ministry works in and with churches and most black students did attend black churches, the thinking was that black students would be better served there.) The trouble was that I’ve always attended white churches because that’s where I grew up, so that didn’t apply to me — the real reason I was asked to leave was because I had befriended one… Read more »
Years ago we had a Japanese exchange student, and she had hair usually seen on black people–except it had a reddish hue. She was EXTREMELY self-conscious, as Japanese people LOVE to all look the same, and she stuck out from everyone. She said her family has ancient Japanese roots, and that not all Japanese are the
“accepted” look. But that didn’t influence the amount of acceptance she longed for.
Most “black” people in America aren’t really “black.” They are a mixture, just like most of us. The govt forces us to self-identify, from a young age, as we fill out forms. We unthinkingly judge ourselves and place ourselves in a certain group, and do that enough that eventually we think like that. Durng the days of slavery, a person could be “freeborn” if they had only 1/16 of “blackness” and today we are still imposng that same type of judgement on ourselves. A person has to “qualify” as white or black by living a certain way–as though skin color… Read more »
“The theory of Evolution” was created by racists, to promote racism, and…though things are discredited scientifically, they continue to be printed in textbooks and eugenicists continue to demand that ONLY evolution is taught in schools–eugenicists would lose all their power to shape society if people believe in God having created the universe and that all men are the descendants of one couple created by God. We are all one blood, and one skin color. We have different amounts of melanin in our skin. I grew up in Congo, where each tribe hates the other, even though they are all black.… Read more »
The Most Racist Thing that Happened to Me: In Portland, Oregon, three young white males pull up next to me at a red light. I’m alone. The passenger turns to me and says, “White Pride…kill everything that isn’t white.” They wait for a reaction. I don’t give them one. I drive away.
Well put. Thank you.
You’re right, modern racism is hard to spot. Here’s a quick guide to help people spot if they’ve said or done something ‘casually’ racist: http://alltogethernow.org.au/news/10-signs-of-casual-racism/
PARDON MY CAPS. JUST THE WAY I TYPE. I BELIEVE THAT MY “GOD” MADE US ALL EQUAL. SO WHO GIVES A DARN. WHAT RACE , COLOR, OR CREED YOU ARE. SOME OF MY DEAREST FRIENDS GROWING UP WERE OF A DIFFERENCT COLOR SKIN THAN I HAD. WHEN I GO OUT SHOPPING I CHAT WITH EVERYONE. WHY NOT. DO YOU THINK THERE GONNA PULL OUT A OOZIE AND SHOOT YOU DOWN. RIDICULOUS ! SOME OF MY BEST DANCE STUDENTS ARE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. AND BY THE WAY. I’M A DEMOCRAT. VOTED FOR MR. OBAMA AND I’D DO IT AGAIN.… Read more »
I’m 26 years old. My boyfriend is black and I am white. We’re killing time around the corner from the movie theater, looking at magazines at the corner grocery. The aisle is about 8′ wide and a woman strides down the aisle and bumps into me, even though I’m very far off the center, nearly leaning on the magazine racks, reading. I smile and say, “Oh! Excuse me, I’m sorry,” kindly but my warm response is met with a scowl. My boyfriend lurches upward, stiff and angry and frowns at this woman who says, directly to him, “I don’t know… Read more »
It bothers me that I still see color. I try to tell myself that I don’t, but it has been so ingrained in me, and our culture, that it happens without me consciously noticing. And when I realize that I am judging that young black man on the street simply because he is a young black man, I am completely ashamed because it is against everything I believe. But, there are things that give me hope. I picked up my 4-year-old daughter from daycare the other day, and spread out in front of her was a variety of small dolls.… Read more »
Great article. I do find that in terms of daily life racism has improved, but I think because of Facebook, more racists feel empowered to speak their minds. Anybody can make up an account with little or no personal information and spew ignorance. I have been trying to ignore these people. I’ve also found that more and more people want to ignore it by saying ‘I don’t see race – just the human race’ etc.
Great article! Quite the experiences and the your ability to describe them was masterful.
I am white and male. That pretty much puts me statistically at the top of the American food chain. I enjoy boatloads of unearned privilege and am quite aware of how that privilege comes at the cost of others who are not like me. I admit to being a racist because of this unearned privilege. I never have to worry about wearing a hoodie, walking my daughter to school; finding foods at the store that are ethnically and culturally white; or having to worry when a white police officer stops me. I regret that we live in the most unacknowledged… Read more »
It’s not that nobody ever admits to being racist, but that those generally accused of being racist (mostly whites, sometimes justly in individual cases) have decided that racism no longer exists — ever, under any circumstance, unless in the reverse — and that they collectively don’t want to hear about it anymore. Any discussion of racism is generally shut down immediately with statements like “well, that’s happened to me a bunch of times”, “look at all the programs dedicated to fixing this”, “oh, hear we go again”, or “this is PC run amok!”. To be fair, those too quick to… Read more »
This is a great read. Really wonderfully written and thought provoking. Personally, I’m white, I don’t know what it’s like to experience racism toward myself. I did however live with racism in a way and that has made me resent the concept that everyone’s racist. My father is a stereotype of what everyone expects racism to be. Hearing the constant berating of absolutely everyone because of their skin color, religion, financial status, sexual orientation, life decisions etc. You name it, he will very vocally tear it apart. The kinds of things I heard daily are things that most racists say… Read more »
One of the funniest questions I was ever asked came from a black woman who said, “I don’t want to
sound racist, but why do white people need so much ammo?” I was accused of being anti-Semetic
because I questioned foreign aid to Israel. My response was that I feel the same way about Iraq,
Afghanistan, South Korea and Colombia. Does that make me a racist ?
I noticed this once I went through a feminist phase, I realized that I had been sexist against myself. So, i took that thought and realized that I was also racist (including against myself – I’m a quarter south american with none of the culture and the rest of me is assorted sources of white). So I manned up (so to speak) and started saying I was racist, it’s helped a lot. First admit that you have a problem, then you can fix it. I really sincerely believe that people that want to fight racism need to start sharing their… Read more »
Let’s eat those white gummy bears!! 🙂
Your writing is powerful. Being white, the only way I can relate is that I am a woman. But, mostly that I am loathe to admit I am a racist. Humans are meaning making machines. It seems impossible to remain innocent.
So I’m just going to share a story from the other side of this equation – having an “Oh snap, I said something racist!” moment. I’m about 20 years old, 2007, working in a newsroom as a web content producer. The newsroom has a very open layout, and on the night shift with many cubes empty, it’s pretty quiet – we’re accustomed to shouting over cubicle walls to each other. My assignment that night was to compile a photo gallery of the red carpet at the NAACP Awards – always good for clicks. It was wintertime and bitter cold in… Read more »
I think this is part of the problem as well. You didn’t make a racist statement. You probably have racial bias’ – it’s almost impossible not to in this country. What would have been more helpful if the gentleman just spoke what was on his mind.
Even though I am not a POC, I was given a taste of racism, and it took me five years to figure out. Not that ‘reverse racism’ crap, but genuine racism, because I was perceived to be a POC. My boyfriend is Latino, and has a hyphenated last name, consisting of his parents’ names. One of them is French in origin, and he told me he will fill out job applications using the French name only, and he will get many more callbacks, because he will not be read as Latino. It made me think of a stretch of time,… Read more »
Most racist thing that ever happen to me was in high school where I was beat up in my Freshman year by three other students. I kinda figured that it was planned because strangely enough, a “friend” of mine offered to carry my books that day. He disappeared and left them on the ground. That was back in 1969. Once fellow students got to know me, things changed after that. Sophomore year they nick-named me “The Great White Hope.” Didn’t I mention that I’m white and I went to a predominantly black school? We often laughed back then about how… Read more »
According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 31 percent of blacks think that most blacks are racists, while 24 percent of blacks think that most whites are racist.
Among whites, according to the same Rasmussen poll, 38 percent consider most blacks racist and 10 percent consider most whites racist.
Broken down by politics, the same poll showed that 49 percent of Republicans consider most blacks racist, as do 36 percent of independents and 29 percent of Democrats.
29 percent of Americans as a whole think race relations are getting better, while 32 percent think race relations are getting worse.
The latest one to appear on BBC News in England, is the whole town who won’t admit to being racist. A black woman had to put a sign outside her cafe to warn people that she ‘doesn’t bite”. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-23260860
I am 5 years old 1957 … my teacher is African American and day 3 in school my mom notices who MIss Hyde is inside the school…. we go home and mom tells dad …. He says ANOTHER NIGGER ! Mom says NOW DAD… THEY’RE colored… she turns to me and says YOU BE SURE AND CALL HER COLORED I answered I CALL HER MY TEACHER …. this is not the most racist thing happening to me 843-926-1750 @AtheistVet