I Guess I Must Be a Racist

Over the weekend, I had the honor to see my little sister graduate with an A.A.S. as a Veterinary Technician. Naturally, I spent the time observing the various people that also had great pride in their graduates. I have to begin by stating this, as I don't want to take away from these graduates and their accomplishments. I hope for the best for all those who earned their degrees, my sister most of all.

My observation centers around the lack of decorum by the friends and family of some of the graduates. While there were many people who were obnoxious and loud when their particular graduate took the stage, hooting and hollering like damned fools, the loudest people by far appeared to be black. My observation was that this is exactly the kind of behavior that perpetuates stupid stereotypes and feed the racist attitudes out there. This, along with the "Dog" Chapman situation, got me to thinking. I've noted that there are far too many ready to point the finger of race at people who are not necessarily racist. Too often, these people appear to focus on race to the exclusion of almost everything else. This includes much of the black "leadership" in the country, like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Let me make this absolutely clear: To judge someone by their race, their sex, their religion, or anything else that is something they were born into in any way is the path to true racism. Now I can't say I have never been affected by prejudices that I picked up growing up in a fairly rural white small town. I have been working in a retail store, seen black youths walk in, and catch myself thinking something that, if I didn't immediately know my assumption was wrong, would justify labeling me a racist. But racism is an attitude more than a thought. We all have prejudices that we have learned over the years. To embrace these ideas is the point at which you could be defined as a racist. However, to deny these urges, to embrace the idea of a colorblind society, to judge a man by the content of his character, to remember all that Martin Luther King Jr. said is the goal we must strive for.

Now, to anybody who has the urge to start screaming racism, you are the kind of idiot that will continue to make race more important than people, and therefore are probably a racist yourself. So don't even waste my time. If you have a respectful disagreement with my idea, okay. And if you're a white racist, I know a few places I would recommend you to go and scream the N word at the top of your diseased lungs. If we can get past the stupidity of racism, then perhaps we can have civil discourse over real problems.