Simply stating that racism can’t possibly exist if we have a black president, as so many people do, is ludicrous.
Yes, we’ve abolished slavery. Yes, we’ve made it through the civil rights movement. Yes, interracial marriage statistics are on the rise. These are outward representations of how racism has obviously declined, right? Maybe, but these are not indications that racism no longer exists.
We can’t possibly be in a society free of racism when Eric Garner screams, “I can’t breathe” 11 times while being restrained by police, and a black man in Michigan is stopped on the street for having his hands in his pockets. Society can’t be free of racism when there are five times as many blacks incarcerated than whites and an Indian grandfather is attacked in suburban Alabama based on the color of his skin. These are obvious instances of racism that are happening right now, and yet people choose to ignore these because they may not personally feel threatened or affected.
It’s insane to argue that racism has been fixed. We are by no means in a “post-racist” society; however, I do think we are on our way. Each generation seems to become generally more lenient with their socially liberal beliefs about race, but there are still too many Americans who walk around in self-interested ways, thinking that this race issue hasn’t been a problem since 1968. It clearly has been and remains to be an issue, and on college campuses as well, especially when you consider that sororities at the University of Alabama still hold the right to turn black students away for simply being black.
Bogus statements about equal opportunity existing for all races are built upon years of prejudice and racism by whites imposed on blacks. Racism previously stemmed out of governmental laws and standards. However, in our present society, which no longer directly imposes segregation laws, racism stems from cultural standards. American society is too comfortable with — or alternatively, blissfully unaware of — this passive racism, and therefore chooses to continue this cycle.
Honestly, it’s an embarrassment to the human race that there are people with so much hate for others on the basis of an absolutely arbitrary characteristic.
The current generation needs to actively realize racism is not just a prejudice of the past, and that every individual is still part of the racism that continues to plague our country. Only then will we be able to defeat racism and take it from being a prejudice that has become “better” to one that is finally “fixed.”
My take: Racism will never be fixed unless we acknowledge it still exists. Only then will we be able to make movements toward adjusting our cultural beliefs and actions to end racism.
Reach contributing writer Rebecca Gross at development@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @becsgross
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