Musings On Racism - Part II

Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying it's acceptable to be hateful to others, in general we can agree to be civil if we choose. Or not if we choose not. (I'm not above calling a pig a pig, my base nature does get away from me at times...)

I think the problem is that we're truly not capable of walking in the other guy's shoes. I recently reread "Black Like Me" and it had a profound effect on my thought processes. John Griffin had NO clue of what he was getting into. If you followed in his footsteps today, you might find that some things that you think have changed -- haven't.

Then my daughter was watching some stupid race switching show (which in general I thought was idiotic) and the white guy who became "Black" still had a gadzillion misconceptions and blindness about what was and was not racist (or bigoted or prejudiced) behavior. It was as if he really, really didn't see it. Yet he kept waiting for someone to call him "n". Of course it didn't happen, respectful adults don't use that term, esp in racially mixed settings.

I can only assume it was because his whole world viewpoint of growing up white made him incapable of seeing that viewpoint from a different perspective -- that of a man who'd grown up Black and had a vastly different world experience.

We really CAN'T walk in each other's shoes.

And if Neo says anyone can be racist and (for example) Pots says POC can't be racist, I really don't see a true conflict here. Because each one is speaking from his own world experience, from literally birth to the present. Each has a valid truth, from his own unique perspective.

It's as if each one is holding up a sheet of paper, pierced with many little round holes. But when he tries to look through the holes, some of them line up, and some don't. Some are the mutual experiences of being Americans, growing up middle class, perhaps in a suburb, etc. And the ones that don't line up, well some have to do with specifics of their respective races and how the world treats them, and some has to do with the dissimilar experiences, like siblings, intact or separated families, country, suburb, city, projects, Nob Hill, whatever.

Our experiences shape who we are.

(And so does our genetic history, but that's another topic -- I think.)