Racism: Not American nor Black and White - Granite Grok

Racism: Not American nor Black and White

Racism is real. I know it is. I’ve witnessed it from a few different groups against a few others. Personally, I think it’s brought about by embracing ignorance and illiteracy, but that’s my opinion based on nothing but my own observation.  Racism is not a one way street. And it is not only white against black or vice versa. I’m talking about real racism where one group holds another group as inferior simply for being of a different race or several races.   This definition may not please some, but who cares.

I know the racist pimps mostly (exclusively?) on the left that make money off of white and black friction like to pretend that racism is only centered around black and white people.  It’s not.  That’s a falsehood perpetuated either out of ignorance or deceit, but a falsehood nonetheless.   But the pimps are not alone, many believe that myth.

It’s also not an exclusively American phenomena, but, again, some like to pretend that it is.  Remember when Obama used the “N” word last year?  Do you remember what else he said?

The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives — that casts a long shadow, and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on. We’re not cured of it,

Oblunder saying the “N” word, to me, isn’t a big deal.  But I find this quote offensive.  He’s implying here that racism is an American phenomena.  He’s right in that racism is a part of “our DNA” but not because we are Americans but because we are human.

He’s not alone in this sentiment; very often when I hear others discussing race it is centered around America.  This might be due to the myopia of the people talking about it or it might just be because we all happen to be American, so our natural focus is on the immediate. Regardless, I get the feeling that many Americans believe racism to be a problem if not exclusively American, more intense and severe in America.  It’s not on both counts. It is very intense in other countries.

Racism, it’s everywhere.

In China, racism is pretty dramatic.  This advertisement for detergent swirled around the Internet a few days ago for its blatant racism and for the response of the firm behind the advertisement telling its critics to “lighten up”. Indeed, odd choice of words to use rebut the charge.  But they don’t care.

https://youtu.be/Xq-I0JRhvt4

There are  stories about people bleaching themselves in India just to be shades lighter. Here is a story, from just the other day, talking about the “harmful rays of the sun” that will mar the whiteness of a woman.

In Mexico, racial discrimination is extremely severe against “indigenous” people involving even the military.

The United States actually is more racially tolerant when compared to other countries around the world.  That is not to say that racism does not exist here or that any level of it should be acceptable; it should not be and should be stamped out and driven from society when found. It is simply to put America’s racism problem in context of the world.  Here’s a map that shows the “Share that answered ‘people of another race’ when asked to pick from groups of people they would not want as neighbors” and America is in good shape when compared with the rest of the world:

Credit: Washington Post
Credit: Washington Post

 

So, as is usual, Obama is mistaken.  Racism occurs everywhere in places like the United States, India, China, and Mexico  because it is indeed in the human DNA.  It is something that needs to be understood and risen above through education and not to be as a cudgel against your political opponents.

>