Question Of The Week
Should white people continue to get the pass, “they don’t even know it’s racist”?
I vote no. Why? Because if they wouldn’t say it or do it to their white friends or coworkers, then they shouldn’t say or do it to their black ones. Easy.
I saw a video clip that Trevor Noah had on his YouTube channel of people of color who experience racism. A woman in the clip told the story of how her manager told her that all of her genius must be in her big hair, and then the manager grabbed her hair. Who does that? How is that not racist.
In my travels, I have been asked by white people more times than I can count if they can touch my braids, my curls, my whatever style I chose for my hair. Every time I smile and say no. Some give dirty looks, others laugh uncomfortably, and some ask why. The last one makes me laugh. I don’t give a response to it. They know why.
I say we stop making a pathway to racism. I say that if they want to know us, then they should be our friends and we should be theirs. If you want to know what my hair feels like, then as children, we should have played together, and as little girls often do, we would have combed each other’s hair.
We missed that opportunity, but there is hope still for the younger generation if we give them a chance.
The Writer
