To say that one of the things that has lead me to lose faith in humanity and society lately is the blatant racism going on would be an understatement. Across the globe, racism is rampant. In places where racism should be a bad memory is still holds strong. A nation of immigrants cannot move past it.
I'm going to air out a few things now before I go forward. I am a white, 20 something, female who was lucky enough to go to a really good high school and college and only struggled with being in the low income bracket for a couple years. Despite this, I never really judged people by their skin color. I was born in Virginia Beach, VA, an incredibly diverse city and went to a school in Georgia where I was the minority. I learned to judge people more by their self expression (their clothes and hair) and their actions growing up. People do not like to believe me when I tell them this. "You are a white girl." "There is not such thing as color blind." I agree with these statements. They are true. I have always accepted I am not the norm and never will be. I accept that I am privileged, but I know more about the environment I grew up so trust me here.
In my life I have seen a lot of racism. Post 9/11 it was any person who looked like they may be Arabic. During that time I lived in Southwestern Virginia, the most monochromatic place I have ever set foot. I watched as any person who looked vaguely Middle Eastern was harassed and told "to go home, you towel head." I watched people riot and celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. I realize he was an awful human being who deserved to pay for his crimes, but to riot in the streets, to revel in a death, never made sense to me.
In France, the same things is happening. The Burka Ban is something I followed closely in college because it was so blatantly and openly targeting Muslims and Arabs that I was sure it wouldn't make it through. Not in a progressive place like France. No way. But then it did.
African Americans have fought an uphill battle for hundreds of years. First, freedom. Next, the vote. Next, Civil Rights. The problem is with all this progress there are still so many hurdles. There are schools that teach the Civil War as the War of Northern Aggression. It is a point of Southern pride to fly a Confederate flag and wear it on half of your clothing. Those awful "Don't Tread on Me" flags everywhere (that was originally a Confederate political cartoon btw...). The fact that I know who the head of the local KKK chapter was in the town I went to high school with and that you could tell which school had been the "colored" school still decades later.
Now, kids are dying. Children. Are. Dying. Trayvon is not the first African American kid gunned down because he looked "suspicious." He was a high school kid going through the typical high school stuff. No high schooler is perfect... Truthfully, we were all pretty messed up back then, but that's how finding yourself works, right? If a hoodie makes you suspicious and dangerous looking, then people would have called the cops on me starting freshman year of high school and wouldn't have stopped...ever. The problem is that no one really cares until it is some cute little white girl. Then it is a tragedy. She had her whole life ahead of her and it was stolen. That should be our reaction to EVERY CHILD THAT DIES. Not just the cute ones. It should be devastating.
On top of all this, the Stand Your Ground law might be the worst idea ever. It gives people who carry guns with them an excuse to shoot anyone they find threatening because they were defending themselves. All they have to say is "I was scared for my life" and BOOM! Done. No retribution. But, this law is enforced equally either. There is an african american woman who shot a warning shot during an incident of domestic violence in her home last year. She was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The court refused to give her the Stand Your Ground defense. This is a serious problem. The very idea of that law being in place makes my insides squirm. It scares me.
The sad thing in all of this is that there are people who think we have made it past racism. People who believe that we've made it over that hurdle and don't have to work for it anymore. I wish I could live in their little fantasy world because it is a hell of a lot prettier than the reality I have observed growing up.
What we can do now is make sure that this changes. Our generation is where it stops. We make this country a better place. We make the changes necessary. No more sitting around acting like our voices can't be heard and we can't make a difference. WE CAN. There is proof of this everywhere. We just have to stand together and do everything we can to make this country better.
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