The tiring, pervasive pain of racism
Related
Top Stories
- Delhi sealing row: BJP alleges leaders attacked at meeting with Kejriwal, AAP says everything on camera
- It's AAP vs BJP again as CM Kejriwal plans to move Supreme Court over sealing drive in Delhi
- Murshidabad bus accident: Six more bodies recovered, death toll rises to 42
- ICC U-19 World Cup: India sweep Pakistan aside in 203-run thrashing
- President Kovind in House, PM Modi outside say time for simultaneous polls
Black Americans are angry about the Zimmerman verdict as most have known such racism
If nothing else, the first black president should be good for explaining to white America exactly what it is that makes black folks tick. In a speech many of us had been waiting for, Barack Obama explained why so many people, especially black Americans, are devastated and angry about the not guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. He delivered a long overdue wake-up call: racism is still a problem. As he told it, as black folks, we see the racism in Zimmerman's actions because most of us — including himself — have experienced that racism. We do not believe justice was served in this case because American justice has existed to put black America in its place. We are not angry because we are out of control, but because racism is a tiring, pervasive, helpless type of pain.
Perhaps Obama's "trust me, it happens" depictions of racism will bring a few heads out of the post-racial sands in which they've been buried. Maybe it takes the president to convince racism-deniers that people still see (and act on) colour, and that most black folks are not bent on "playing the race card". So, if someone racially profiled Obama, then it must really be happening and it must be wrong. But Obama shied away from the root: race is only a problem if one race is presumed to be vastly better. I don't mind — and in fact hope — that you see my colour, as long as you don't think I'm a problem because of it.
Our president dismissed a national conversation on race, and rightfully so. America doesn't need it. America needs a conversation on white supremacy and how the stereotypes, fear and privilege that grow from it poison the thinking of every American. As we've inched closer to equality, many Americans have come to believe white supremacy only takes the hooded, cross-burning form. However, it is white supremacy that has almost every culture stereotyping its darker members as criminal. Meanwhile, the white race enjoys the privilege of not having to think much about such things.
... contd.
The taper tigers
