How racist are we?
I was in my parking garage last night and I was speaking to a friend about the fact that I still had no blog topic. For the last three days I have been saying to her and others that I would write my blog today. So goes that notion.
So as she and I sat in her car finishing hot dogs from IKEA, I reached into a bag of nearly finished kettle chips. She stops to inform me that there are no more, when I noticed all that was left were the small brown remnants that almost no one eats. You know the ones with skin that was not fully removed or slightly over cooked. At that point I commented to her that she was truly racist, she immediately replies, " so do you eat the black jelly beans?" I answer yes and we both laugh as I realize my new blog topic.
How appropriate in the current political climate, where no one is allowed to cynically or satirical indulge I a racial stereotype or two. At time where more White Americans are concerned with Black racial stigma than Blacks.
Granted we are all aware of the cliche representations of black negative images; Black Magic, Black Hackers, Black Sunday, Black Monday, Black Male Suspect. I could go on for months, but how often do we think about how much we are subconsciously programmed to hate black? On a very innocent level I began to analyze the idiosyncratic racism that exist in me, a black male. Sure, the black Caddy truck is Gangsta to me. If the same GM body were a Suburban model then I would think FBI or Secret Service. I have been taught to make coffee palatable you must add a white substance such as cream and sugar. It wasn't until I traveled to Africa and the Middle East that I was educated that coffee was meant to be taken Black. Even the Italians enjoy their coffee Black. Pun intended.
So I begin to really consider the thought of why so many people shy away from the colour black, subconsciously? Now none of this is backed by scientific data, nor academia but I wanted to just put it out there and see what you guys thought. 88 days from the most historic, racially charged election in world history, I would love to know how my fellow Americans see themselves.
Cleopheus
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
1 comments:
Well, here's one Republican who only eats the black jelly beans and only drinks his coffee black. The only beer I drink is Guinness, which is jet black. I wear black shirts quite frequently, too. Sorry, I'm still not voting for Obama though. ;-)
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