On Race, Racism and What It All Means...

Racism has been on my mind so much lately. It's getting to the point where I'm fighting this intense rage everyday because of racism, and its cronies discrimination and prejudice. Perhaps I'm just tired of oppression in general, but that's another blog and I'm trying to keep this short.

Let me start off by explaining the concept of race. The concept of race is pretty racist truthfully. Race is a social contruction created for the purpose of biologically explaining the infinite superiority of whites over all other people. Human beings were divided into three categories: Negroid (Black), Mongoloid (Asian) and the illustrious Caucasoid (white) - note: please notice the sarcasm. Anyone who is not primarily one of these is a mixture: ie. Latinos (Negroid, Mongoloid, and Caucasoid) and Native Americans (Mongoloid) and so on. All of these classifications are supposed to determine ones intelligence but really only determines ones inherent worth as a human being, with the judge being Caucasoids. Basically, though, what it all boils down to is how you look, because there is no biological difference between the races. There are (duh) physical characteristics specific to each group, but any other differences are the result of outside forces such as history, socialization, and racism.

The concept of racism is trickier yet. Contrary to popular belief, racism is a system of advantage based on race. Racism is not a belief, though a belief can be racist (prejudice). Racism is not an action though an action can be racist (discrimination). Racism is not speech, though speech certainly can be racist (hate speech). All of these are tools of racism and all most definitely perpetuate it. However, none of these, in and of itself is racism.

The difference is that racism is a form of oppression and oppression is a system. Oppression in it's many forms is what makes the wheels turn in this here society. See the difference between discrimination and prejudice and racism is that the former two affect people interpersonally. It's on a micro level. It really hurts when someone dislikes you or treats you badly because of your skin color. I experienced this the other day and it reduced me to tears. However, racism is on a macro level. When Black children are sent to inadequate schools with inadequate resources; when Black people are often unable to secure loans for homes, businesses, etc.; when Black people are disproportionately prosecuted for drug related crimes (read crack vs. cocaine) it's racism. Racism affects an entire group of people, while discrimination and prejudice affect individuals. That's the difference.

So, based on this definition, people of color cannot be racist. Let me say it again, people of color CANNOT BE RACIST!!! They can't be racist towards whites or other people of color. They can be prejudiced as the dickens and discriminate like it ain't nobody's business, but they can't be racist.

Why? Because racism is a system of advantage and until there is a system in place that gives any person of color an advantage over anyone based on their race, white people are the only ones capable of racism. I know someone's saying, "Well what about affirmative action? That's a system that gives Blacks an advantage." IIINNNTTT (imagine a buzzer) wrong! Affirmative action is a tool by the power structure (the system if you will) in this country that is supposed to give Blacks (and other people of color, women, people with disablitities, etc.) a leg up on ... racism (and sexism, ablism, etc) not white people as some might think. Affirmative action is NOT a system, but rather a tool of the system.

As of late, this system of advantage based on race has been weighing quite heavily on my mind. There's the Jena Six, there's Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath, there's the media hype surrounding the Michael Vick nonsense (and the lack of hype surrounding the Jena Six), there's this ridiculous show on Cincinnati's WSTR tv station called American Crossroads with a ridiculously racist and xenophobic slant, there's the racist ass fucker who has my car, there's the racist ass police officer who racially profiled me, and... the list goes on and on. I'm literally bubbling over in anger right now and it's all because of racism.

So really, this little blog here was just a teaser, if you will, meant to set the tone for the other blogs that will follow it (hopefully shortly). All of those issues and more, will be discussed at length at a later date, but this here is just a little water, just a taste, for the mind.

NOTE: Though I focused on racism against Black, all people of color are able to be on the receiving end of racism. Also, this in no way means that all white people are racist (I did at one point believe this but only meaning that all white people benefit from and thus perpetuate racism in that there are certain benefits to having white skin in this society, not meaning that all white people discriminate or are prejudiced against people of color). Finally, also worth mentioning is that just because people of color are not able to be racist, people of color are definitely able to perpetuate other systems of oppression, such as sexism, heterosexism, ablism, and all the many other -isms out there.