I often have discussions of race and inequality among my friends. I argue terribly because, well, I'm not a bullshitter. I don't do the, "My opinion is right & I know it is, no matter what facts you can pull up" thing. I prefer to think before I speak. I prefer accuracy over loudness. I prefer to use experience + facts + intuition in a discussion & that culmination of things is hard to gather together in a random argument, so, I suck @ it. I'll usually end up giving up or feeling cheated for time somehow. So, I am reclaiming my time with this blog and making an effort to prove MY point.
This particular entry is a list of different arguments I have been in that talk about race, mostly about Black people. During these arguments, though, I found that my friends had a habit of saying things that, basically encouraged racism. In fact, they pretty much used the same arguments used by the people who made the racist laws used to uphold slavery & Jim Crow laws. Since all of the people I argued with are Black, I thought it was important that they come up with a better argument. I think I will also have a mention of why the Feminist movements were necessary as well. I have a feeling that this is going to be a long blog, so I may post it in parts, hopefully no one minds too much?? Well, let's hop to it!
Argument #1:
This one annoys me the most because, it's something my mom said, but I take into consideration that my mom was born in 1954 and experienced racism first-hand for many years of her life, so she's quite biased. This argument is easiest described as: If I'm good, they're evil. These words aren't the words used, of course, but rather this is the general idea expressed behind the argument. Had a discussion with my mom and sister. She mentioned how many racist blogs she had come across on Craigslist. She stated that she had read how White people were saying that Black people are so dirty for not washing their hair every day. When that was said, I got annoyed, of course. And so did my mom. My mom, then proceeds to say that “White people are the dirty ones, they HAVE to wash their hair everyday….[blah] [blah] [blah]. Me and my sister interrupted her because, it was an ignorant statement as well. I love my mother, but because she was a DIRECT receiver of the oppression exhibited in this beautiful country we live in… her heart and mind are hurt. This leads to my point. In order for my mother to justify why these white people were wrong for thinking the way they thought, she had to insult them and make them deviant in some way. In order for Black people to be okay, normal (whatever that even MEANS!), White people had to be bad, unusual. That’s not how the world works. Sorry. The fact is, we ARE different.
Our hair and skin look and act differently, but it has NOTHING to do with being unnatural or anything like that. White people just have fine hair in the hair texture spectrum and Black people have more course hair. Therefore… while white people’s hair can go about a max of 2 days?? Before the natural oils in their hair affect its functionality and smell… Black people, whose natural oils are actually not enough to make it functional, can go upwards of a month before our natural oils affect our hair (although when our hair is natural we SHOULD wash it every 2 weeks and once a week when it is relaxed). In fact Black people normally have to add oils of some sort to our hair more than once a week to keep it functional. Another important factor is that there are PLENTY of Black people close to the fine end of the spectrum and they sometimes have to wash their hair a maximum of every 5 days. We’re lucky in some sense because we get to spend a little less on shampoo and conditioner. Then again, Black hair products are actually MADE for our hair are JUST now getting highly marketed, so we are still technically learning what it is we can do.
Needless to say me and my sister told her this and we made sure that she was aware of the dangerous line she had crossed. She was being no better that the racists. In my women’s studies courses I learned that the oppressed population can’t fall into the “-ist/-ism” category because they were oppressed so there is a reason for them to feel prejudice against the oppressor, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t prejudice; it doesn’t make it okay. So my mom isn’t racist, but she has a CLEAR prejudice against white people. I still love her, but I call her out on her ignorance as well. After all, the only way to overcome ignorance is love and knowledge.
These VERY false binaries are going to kill us. When I say this I mean, the myth that something is either, good OR evil; black OR white; quiet OR loud; even man OR woman. It’s killing us because if you “know” that you fall at one end of the spectrum, then you force someone who is different from you to fall on the other end (i.e. if I am Black and good then she is White and evil). It is something that needs to stop and this was my effort towards that effort, but I would LOVE to hear what you think.
Leave a comment. Am I justified for thinking such a way?
No comments:
Post a Comment