So my turn on graves is winding down. This has been, well, not a lot of fun. As sad as it is, it seems I have finally become accustomed to this shift. I actually sleep until three in the afternoon. Not that I feel rested. All the same, I will be glad to be off this shift. I have, however added a bit more to my story because I have had the time. If you want, check the link to the right.
I have had a few thoughts running through my head for a while and I think I would like to share them. Those of you I have talked with regularly may have heard some of these, to the rest of you this will be new. These are my thoughts on "racism" in America. Why did I put it in quotes? Not because I don't believe there is racism, but because I believe we make it a bigger problem than we ought to. Think about it. How many nations out there feel it is necessary to list race in any story not involving a white person? How many countries out there ask for race on surveys, tests, and as a measure of diversity? The fact is, that most nations don't. America leads the world in this. Think about it. How many people refer to themselves as African-Englishmen? How about Latino-french? The fact is, that no matter how much we celebrate our diversity, we encourage racism by the very labels we use.
Think of it like this. You go to work and you are labeled as a male/female-American day in and day out. Does this indicate diversity, discrimination, or simply labeling? The fact is, it is a form of discrimination. We label things so that we can categorize them. If we were to drop the extra part and just label everyone American, we would find that a lot of the discriminatory practices would go away. I am not saying racism would be eliminated, but it would certainly be on the back burner. If you eliminated all references to race, sex, religion, etc. that are used to discriminate, the only thing left is who that person is. That means that you are hired or not for who you are. When you go into a job expecting to be treated a certain way because of some label you have, you are propagating that stereotype. When you decide that you will accept the label someone else has placed on you or on another, you are propagating discrimination. The only way to reduce discrimination is to minimize the labels which breed it.
Note that I am not saying that you should not be proud of your heritage or that you should deny what you are. I am simply saying that by using extraneous labels to define people by how they appear or were born, we condone discrimination. Don't believe me? Watch the news and TV. Tally up the number of times a black man/woman is described as African-American versus the number of times they are referred to by name. I am not talking about descriptions of suspects, that is one where you can't really avoid it as it is part of an identifiable trait. I am referring to stories where the race of the person involved really has no bearing other than as to highlight/disprove stereotypical traits. You will be surprised. For instance a story about a successful business man might read something like "John Smith donated 100 hours of community service." This is how it should read in all instances. Yet when a non white man is involved, it suddenly reads, "John Smith, an African American success story, donated 100 hours of community service." By comparing the 2 sentences you find a contrast so startling, you should be offended. Is the first John Smith less successful? Is it so amazing that an African-American can be successful? Unfortunately, we are trained from an early point that this is how it should be.
If we are not allowed to discriminate in business, why are we allowed to discriminate in the press? The funny thing is, I have been castigated and called out for these views. I have been told that I am minimizing the importance of the minorities by saying these things. I have been called a racist jerk for saying that race has no part in how we describe people daily. Yes, I am white. But does it really matter? Is what I wrote any less true because of it. Or did you just read the parts that said African-American and from that decide that I was racist? Let's drop the unnecessary labels and just be Americans.
Well, that wasn't a Christmas post, but I felt it needed to be said. Thank you for reading and, as always, have a nice day.
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