Racist or not here I come!

       There are two phrases that should never be said, the first one is "I am not a racist but," and "some of my best friends are."  Being Mexican, I have encountered many people that feel the need to start their sentences with one of these two phrases and once they do, I discard everything they said after because in my head all I want to do is yell at them "shut up you big fat racist!"  Unfortunately my parents raised me better than that so I keep my comments to myself and cut them off or change the subject.  Bonilla-Silva does a great job in explaining how I feel in chapter four of his Racism without Racists book in the section titled Anything but Race, he states that this tool will allow whites to explain away racial fractures in their color-blind story.  Imagine if we could all be absolved of anything we did or said by just adding the word “but” after what we said like “I am not an alcoholic but, I just can't stop after a couple of drinks.”  Would we just accept that you are not an alcoholic because they used the word “but?”  People should just say what they are thinking, “I am an alcoholic because I can't stop myself after a couple of drinks” or in this case, “I am a racist because I don't want my daughter to date outside of our race.”  I would respect someone so much more if they just came out and said this.  People will never admit their faults because as human beings we have the natural desire to be liked and therefore we, for the most part, want to portray an image of being the nicest people in the planet.”
     There was an article written by Melissa Quinn titled Duke professor claims racism the same today as in the 1960s.  She interviews Eduardo Bonilla Silva, who states that racism still exists just not as overtly as it did many years ago.  Bonilla-Silva was a guest speaker at Dartmouth College; he told students that “people often disguise their racism with ‘color-blindness’ and express their prejudice more covertly.” Bonilla-Silva states that a new racism exists, one that is not so easy to see and is clouded by white peoples attempt to minimize or deny that racism exists.   He also claims, “that the only way to remove racism in America is to remove systematic racism.”  Bonilla-Silva stated that the college these students were attending was among the “historically white colleges and universities,” and in order to fight this, “white people need to eliminate ‘the new racism’ and admit they have denied such color-blind racism.”  I was surprised by all the hateful comments that this article got and they were mostly from white people. One of the comments comes from Elizabeth that states, “So, according to this douchebag, if you call someone a racist and they deny it and defend themselves…they’re racist?”  Another comment that bothered me was from Tina and it states “And it’s people like him that start it.  Everyone goes about their lives until some idiot starts digging in the woodwork and starts inflaming it.”  I bet Bonilla-Silva is reading this and just laughing because these white people just reiterated what he said.  White people just want to hide their racism and they are mad that someone is telling it like it is.

     President Barak Obama said in one of his speeches that black men get followed everywhere they go when they are in a store and he included himself in that statement.  This is a blatant example of racism because they don’t do this to white people.  I have also been a victim of this and even though I have done nothing wrong it makes me feel uncomfortable.   There was an article done recently by Barbary Goldberg called Black customers claim discrimination by Barneys New York, police.  There was a young man that bought a $349 Ferragamo belt on April 29, 2013, and was handcuffed and detained for two hours before releasing him with no charges.  While police were interrogating the young man, they asked “as to how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt and that the debit card he had in his possession had to be fake.”  If this is not a racist comment I don’t know what is, because this would never happened if he was a white young man.  Bonilla-Silva is correct; racism is still alive and thriving each and every day. 

Here are the two articles that I referenced in my blog:

http://redalertpolitics.com/2013/09/27/duke-professor-claims-racism-the-same-now-as-in-the-1960s/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/24/us-usa-newyork-barneys-idUSBRE99N12020131024