Reply #49: This happened to me a few weeks ago. Disclaimer: I'm white (And a few other thoughts on this inside) [View All]

[democrat2thecore]

I was driving through a supermarket parking lot and had one of those awkward moments when I stopped to yield for a shopper to push their cart in front of me. They didn't realize I was waiting, then when they did it was right at the moment I started to go on, they started to go, I braked, they stopped...you know the dance. Anyway, the woman with the cart was a black woman of maybe 35 or so. I went ahead and pulled on through since she stopped again and I immediately heard the woman yelling. I rolled down the window to see what was wrong and she was screaming that I was a racist white cracker who would have let a WHITE woman cross with her basket! I was so taken aback. I told her I was sorry, race had nothing to do with it and I DID try (twice) to let her cross.

You see? One sees what one wants to see. None of us know what's really in the heart of our fellow travelers on this ball of water and dirt. But I know this, there is racism in this world. But I also know this, everything confrontational that happens between two people of differing races doesn't involve racism. I try to be sooo sensitive because as a progressive, I understand history and the righteous anger of the African-American. But some times I beg their understanding that everything that goes wrong in their lives is not due to the color of their skin. Frankly, it's not so much a political/racial issue in so many cases, but a state-of-mind; and, for many minorities, an expectation that will be treated wrongly because of race. I know many white folks fear what they say being misinterpreted - and it often comes to pass - because of the expectation. It's frustrating for both races in a situation like that.

That doesn't mean racism isn't an unfortunate fact of life, it just means all actions "against" a person of color - isn't racism. My anecdotal story from the grocery parking lot is just a simple example. I wasn't sure to feel guilty (though I had not a single racial thought) or to feel sorry for the woman who, obviously, expects racism around every corner. I decided there's too much involved for it to maybe ever be any different and I chose to let it go and not bother me.

One day we'll figure out that some of these things will not be corrected by political discussion because so often - it simply lacks a political component. It will take a look inwards at psychology and a look around us through a prism of deep philosophical thought and who we are as (1) people first and (2) racial beings second. If only Socrates were here to ask the right questions.