The greeting was friendly and the woman was cute. In spite of that, Josiah and I shook our heads with grimaces on our faces, ignored her friendly smile and guiding hand gestures, and simply walked towards the registration table at the far end of the room.
When a friendly girl trying to help me is met with hostile emotions and irreverence, it illustrates a larger narrative on racism. After a lifetime of swallowing assumptions and stereotypes, it's difficult to accept "good intentions" when they're paired with ignorance. Just as drops of water gradually penetrate rock, each racial encounter erodes our willingness to turn the other cheek or understand their true intentions. It's this erosion of will for people of color that needs to be addressed. How do we maintain the mental posture to see the individual's good intention through society's racism? I don't know, yet. What I do know is this: People of color have accepted this erosion of will as inevitable identity development. It seems that the innocent child who loves the questions about their looks will eventually become jaded and uncomfortable with similar questions as they develop. Is it possible to maintain the innocent coping mindset of children? Would we want to? Not always. But sometimes.
$5.95 steak and eggs at Binion's after 1am.
2 comments:
I feel the same way every time somebody assumes that I am a Republican just because I play tennis. I can be good at hitting forehands AND care for the homeless and civil rights for fuck's sake.
I totally know what you're going through, Choidog. Totally.
I lead a study group at church. It's a bunch of old ladies, and we're reading a book about the church and social issues. This week's chapter was about racism. The discussion was painful.
Of course they insist that racism is a horrible thing, and then talk about how it is a thing of the past. They say things like, "Why can't people just get beyond color?"
Then they complain that they have a (white) son who was denied admission to their college of choice because of affirmative action.
I assigned them extra homework.
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