Racism is a hot topic these days. Hot as in, it's in the news ALL.THE.TIME. Also, hot as in if you bring it up, you are likely to get burned. I'm white. I'm about as white as you can get. I can barely be in the sun for 15 minutes before I start to burn. I have freckles and a waspy first name. I don't claim to begin to understand the black experience in America. I'm not quite sure I even understand the concept of the "black experience" because in my white experience, every person's circumstances are different and deserve to be treated as such.
I currently live in a town where, as a white person, I am in the minority. My children go to a school where, as white kids, they are the minority (about 30%) of the school population. I understand that there are terrible, hateful people on the planet who treat others in terrible, hateful ways because of the color of their skin (or their religion, or their sexual preference, or the fact that they shop at Walmart).
Here's what I don't understand. If you, Mr. or Ms. POC (Person of Color) don't want to be judged based solely on one thing, why on earth do you judge someone else that way? Are you basing your judgement on your own personal experiences or on something the media or someone else has told you? Racism/hatred/prejudice...whatever label you want to put on it, it's all learned along the way.
Recently, in the town where I live a worker at the high school was fired for making some inflammatory remarks on social media. As a white person, my observation of these remarks was that while they were unwise, she was clearly upset about a news topic and expressed it. Her statements were generalized and directed towards members of the black community who wear their hoods up and pants down (to paraphrase). This woman worked in our schools for many, many years. She was active in school as a parent and in the community as a citizen. People who know her would describe her as kind and caring. Immediately some community activists called for her dismissal and the local school board complied. The same community activists also organized a student walk out at the high school. When I spoke to some of the kids, what I heard from them were things like, "she said she hates black people", "I want to show solidarity", "We got to leave school, why wouldn't I go?", "We want to show teachers that they can't boss us around.". Like most teenagers, they were basically unaware of what happened, but more than ready to jump on the bandwagon.
What I didn't hear anyone say was, what in the world happened that made this otherwise, kind, nice, involved person, say these things? The reality is, this woman was treated in the exact same way the people complaining say they don't want to be treated. No one looked at her as an individual. They just looked at her as "white" and because she was white, she automatically must be a racist, and any criticism she might have cannot be legitimate because she must be a racist and there is no room for dialogue because she must be a racist and she needs to be fired without consideration because she must be a racist and it's ok that her child is now bullied in school because she must be a racist and it probably trickled down and the school district must now provide diversity training because she must be a racist and therefore the rest of the school district employees probably are too.
How do we get to a place where a person gets treated as more than a single tweet or soundbite? How can we take the time to know our neighbors, regardless of skin color, and treat them as our neighbors instead of "them". How do we constructively criticize each other's words or actions without turning every criticism into a racial rallying cry?
I have a lot more thoughts on this subject and like many white people I know, would really like to have an open dialogue with others on it. I'm sure there is much I don't know or understand about cultural dynamics and "you" as a person. At the same time, I'm also sure there is much you don't know or understand about me. If we could all begin treating people as people instead of opportunities to make a point, we'd be off to a good start.
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