Racism in America

Remember the 2007 Fiesta Bowl? Boise State had gone undefeated during the regular season and made a great case for why the BCS system is screwed up. Even though they didn't get a chance to play in the championship game, they did get to play against football powerhouse Oklahoma who many had thought would battle for the national championship before they lost to Oregon and Texas in the regular season. Boise State beat Oklahoma and showed people that a team for a smaller conference could compete with the big boys.

To this day, a lot of people still reference that game as one of the best arguments for why we need a better system to determine a national champion. But the most memorable part of that game happened on the sidelines after time ran out. The star football player from Boise State got on one knee and proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend on live TV. She of course said yes and the crowd went crazy. The young couple appeared on all of the talk shows and gave a fairy tale ending to a fairy tale season that was so perfect and cheesy you would have thought Disney wrote it.

What wasn't reported in the national media were the threatening letters and phone calls that the young couple and their families received. The death threats that made police protection necessary and forced them to change the date and location of their wedding several times. You see the football player is black and the cheerleader is white. To be accurate, the football player has a white parent and a black parent and is of mixed race but that is irrelevant to most people in this country. The bottom line is that if you appear to have any black in you, if you have brown skin, then you are black and any other part of your ethnicity is not important.

The fact that just seeing an interracial couple on television incensed so many people that hundreds of them decided to threaten them is disgusting. But the fact that none of the media outlets reported on it is even more disturbing. Sports Illustrated recently ran a "Where are They Now" story and reported this information for the first time to the general public in a mainstream publication. Was there public outcry? Did it become the lead story on the news? Did Oprah do a show about it? No, of course not. Not even a letter to the editor (or at least none published).

What does that say about us as a nation? That such rampant racism exists but isn't reported. When Barack Obama became president I heard a lot of ridiculous talk that this was a sign that racism was no longer a big issue in America. If you don't believe that a large portion of the people who say that the president is Muslim, not an American citizen and all the other bullshit that these protesters are saying has more to do with the color of the president's skin that his politics then you are lying to yourself.

When the Princess and the Frog became Disney's first movie to feature a black princess people said that it wasn't a big deal. These people have obviously never tried to find a black Barbie doll for their child. Mattel only makes some of the Barbie's in black. Many of the special edition and themed Barbies only come in white. As do many baby dolls and other toys that are mass marketed to little girls.

Anyone who believes that Hurricane Katrina wouldn't have been handled differently if it happened in a predominantly white area is lying to themselves. If there is a shooting at a school in a middle class area it becomes a national news story but a shooting at an inner city school is often back page news. When a black athlete or entertainer gets in trouble with the law or has tattoos he is a labeled a thug but that tag isn't applied to a white athlete/entertainer with the same bio.

I experience racism on a regular basis in this country. It is usually fairly subtle. No one is yelling the n-word at me or refusing to serve me but I would almost rather have that. When sales people don't wait on me in the store but ask other customers several times if they need assistance, that is racism. Or when those same sales people show up at the end of every aisle that your shopping in because they think you're going to rob the store, that is racism. When people meet me for the first time after only speaking to me on the phone or communicating with me via e-mail and tell me I don't sound black, like its some sort of compliment, that is racism. When people assume that I'm the secretary when they walk into my office because I'm the only black person there, that is racism. When complete strangers feel comfortable asking me if I'm the first person in my family to go to college despite the fact that black people have been graduating from college in this country since 1823, that is racism. When people assume that I grew up in the inner city, that I listen to rap music and that I have certain cultural and political views solely based on the color of my skin, that is racism.

It is no surprise that there isn't a large civil rights movement in this country like there was in the 1960's. Most people don't even know that this racism exists because it isn't reported. I don't know what its going to take for this country to take a serious look at itself and for people to be outraged. I am almost afraid of what sort of catastrophe would need to happen to spark a civil rights movement

Black American not African American

In my June 7, 2009 Sunday paper there was an article about interracial couples. I was excited to see this article because I myself am in an interracial marriage. But I was disappointed by the way that the author described the people in the article. I wrote a letter to the editor, expressing my views but the paper chose not to publish it. I figured that they had received so many responses that they opted for one more articulate than mine. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

I went to the website for the newspaper and found that several other people had the same opinion that I had but the newspaper chose not to publish their thoughts either. On one hand, I can understand the newspaper choosing not to publish my letter in the print version of the newspaper since the same view had already been expressed online. But, on the other hand, most of the people in my area read the print version of the paper and will never see those comments. The newspaper's decision not to publish my letter was cowardly if it was done to prevent conflict.

So for my own satisfaction, my letter is attached below:


While Ngoc Huynh's article “Three generations, three stories” was well-intentioned, it perpetuates a inaccurate label that has become the norm in this county: All black people are African American. When he describes the two Caucasians, he identifies that they are of Dutch and French descent and Italian, Irish, Polish and Canadian Mohawk descent but the black people are just listed as African American.
An African American is a person who emigrated from Africa and moved to America. The Lost Boys of Sudan are African Americans. There are many African Americans who live in this country who are not black. When you fill out a job application the choices aren't Polish, Irish, Italian, etc. They are Caucasian and African American Why not Caucasian and black? The color of a person's skin might provide some insight into where a person is from but it doesn't define their entire make up. Unless a person is Native American, their ancestors emigrated to this country which defines most Americans.
I don't understand the necessity to marginalize an entire group of people as less American simply because of the color of their skin. When I go to other countries no one ever asks me if I'm from Africa. I have been mistaken for German and Spanish, among other nationalities, while traveling outside of the US and it is a refreshing change. In this country, I would be considered less American than an immigrant from Egypt because my skin is darker than theirs. My ancestors were of German, African and American Indian descent from what I have uncovered from my family tree so far and I honor all of them. My skin is brown so in this country I am just African American. This label denies my rich cultural history and reduces me to less American than my Caucasian counterparts.

The original article can be found at www.syracuse.com/cny