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Racism ingrained and alive and well

HeyOK said Jan 24, 2007, 7:09 AM:

Please forgive my directing you back to my blog and then back to here.
Kiri Davis has repeated a study some years ago asking young black children whether they prefer a white doll or a black doll and why. Seems too little has changed at least for my taste. I can't say I'm surprised - I hope someone is… cause every person that's suprised means one step closer to changing this. The Blog Entry.

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Re: Racism ingrained and alive and well

crow said Jan 25, 2007, 9:00 AM:

Hello to everyone here. I joined this pod yesterday, and I would like to share a blog post with you here as well, related to HeyOk's entries yesterday. I won't say more, but I hope you will visit my blog to hear my thoughts. I am hoping that you will see the positive in the unfortunate story I tell, there.

I'm really glad to be here, and looking forward to getting to know you.

bows,
crow

Re: Racism ingrained and alive and well

Patrick [no longer around] said Jan 25, 2007, 2:02 PM:

Hi to all…

I joined this pod because of Heyok's blog.

How do I feel about this issue?

There are certain issues which you think nobody needs to talk about, 'cause everything has been said about it.. but still…it's stil going on….

As I was 18 y.o. I came to live in the US for two years. I rented a flat in L.A. and my first friends were my direct neighbours: two black guys. One of the same age and another of 60 y.o. I invited them to my place, innocently, we ate together.. they invited me to their flats..we listened to music…talked… nothing special. After 3 months I got friend with a white guy… we had fun.. I invited him to my place..he invited me… it was nice. We were all living in the same building.

After six months some white people in the building started to tell me…not directly… but in a disguised manner, that people around were looking at me in a bizarre way, 'cause I was friends with black people in the building.

This was a shock to me. I was discovering America! I was discovering the hidden rules of a country, neighbourood, building! Anyway.. I did not change my way. You know what happened? White people used to come to my flat with black people… but they all (black and white) came in as if it had to be a secret. We had marvellous evenings.

And suddenly, I became colour consciouss! I noticed there were no mixed race couple in the streets! A second shock!

I'm from Switzerand, and racism is well alive here. But mixed colour couples is an accepted fact.

This is to much for my head!

Assholitis is colour blind… so is illumination.

And I have to state here again my “credo”: it has nothing to do with colours, gender, creeds: it is a conscioussness level thing.

After my experience in the US, I went to London for a year. I was a musician at the time. I auditioned for a lot of bands, but I fell in love with an African band. They were from Ghana and Nigeria. It was a good band and I was the only white! They gave me an African name: “Kofi”, due to my day's birth. And we played and played and played…I spent days with them, trying to figure out their cultural rules.
They were all calling each other “brother”, except me. And I didn't know why! I prayed with them, I ate their food (turkey tales…), They hooked me up with a black girl… but still… I was not a brother.

One day, I was so angry at them, 'cause they were all late at the rehearsal. Not late as in ten minutes, but late as in an our and a half (African time is different). So I calculated and said to myself “OK.. I'm going to show up later than all of them: two hours late! The'y ll understand that I'm angry”.

So I did! They were all there! I showed up, full of anger, ready to make a scene.

To my surprise, they all greeted me with a hearfelt “OOH…Kofi…my brother”. I was In!

All my anger went away.. Since then I was ” a brother”. It's funny when you go somewhere and when a black guy introduces you to someone and says “and here's my brother”.

Maybe they greeted me in to diffuse my anger… maybe because I was able to set my watch at African time… I don't care.
Although my life took a different turn, I still have an African family, somewhere in London.

My African family still lives in me through my love for African music (I'm a fan).

But I'm not into idealization either…and I'm a staunch critisizer of black amerian culture as it behaves at the moment.

As for music… check out the marvellous Roberta Flack, and the recent and wonderfull poetess Ursula Rucker.

Patrick

Re: Racism ingrained and alive and well

HeyOK said Jan 26, 2007, 12:36 PM:

Thanks so much for the post — Too much emotion at present for me (makes it hard to see the keys…)

LOL AND I MEAN LOL at “Assholitis is colour blind… so is illumination.” I can use that phrase!

All of of our various assorted individual stories are needed now I think. 1st - to tell each other “yes this is still happening and it's happening (has happened recently) to people we know! and 2nd to tell the children we interact with — “no matter what happens, please KNOW, we are the same — we are one and the same! And you are not alone!!!!”
Blessings to you, David

Re: Racism ingrained and alive and well

Stuart said Feb 24, 2007, 2:35 PM:

Definitely a sobering and saddening video, thank you for sharing it. Did any pick up on the other form of racism going on in the clip? Our societies enslavement of women, specifically that to be considered beautiful, they must conform to a norm observable on any fashion magazine, in any movie, on any cable / satellite / tv show, seen in every public setting. The whole (-ism) is not merely about color. Its about discrimination and subjugation and programming anyone who knows no better, or is willing to conform to ideals that to be (insert positive label), you must be like (insert perpetuated false ideal label). So not only did the video correctly portray the blatant effects and issues still prevelant, but the ones most of us have been programmed to follow or believe without even knowing it.

Love and Light