Are You Racist?

(Preface: this is coming from a place of what I am tired of having to explain to others of my own race (white) in relationship to racism in America)

In the last 2 years or so (Since Obama’s Presidential Campaign began) I have had many a conversation relating to race in America with my white family members and friends. Now that 2+ years has gone by with me being bombarded with questions and ignorant/uninformed statements from every angle, I understand why my African American friends have always said “why is it that white people think it is our job to teach them about racism?” To be frank, it is somewhat annoying when people who haven’t bothered to research even more than about one ounce of information on their own, bombard you with questions and misinformed statements. For this reason, I have come up with a list of things that I think every white person should know/accomplish in order to have an informed conversation with others about race. As a fellow white person let me be candid and say that I am of the opinion that if you have not bothered to go out on your own and become informed about this minimal amount of information relating to African Americans then no matter how nice and sweet you are, no matter how much you believe in equality you are in my opinion still racist, because you cannot help anyone with their efforts to achieve equality until you are aware of where exactly they are un-equal in the first place. On the same token you cannot accurately discuss problems relating to race and inequality if you are not informed as to where inequalities or the lack of them exists. Now that I have said that I will give you my list of what you must do all on your own in order to not fall into that category. If you can’t answer at least 24 or 25 of these questions off the top of your head without research then you need to do some studying.



1- You should have on one of the book shelves in your home a book about African American Firsts
2- You should have on one of the bookshelves in your home at least 3 books on African American topics
3- You should have on one of the bookshelves in your home a book that addresses the history of white privilege in America
4- You should be able to write in your own words a single spaced, type-written description of what defines colonization and how colonization affects various cultures of people
5- You should be able to define in 5 sentences or more the term “one drop rule”
6- You should be able to define in 5 sentences or more the term “one sixteenth”
7- You should be able to write in your own words a single spaced, type-written description of what the phrase “Manifest Destiny” means and how it effected people of color on a general scale making sure to include no less than 3 groups/ethnicities of non-white people
8- Please name the year that white people commonly refer to when speaking of the day slaves were freed
9- Please name the last documented year that African Americans were suffering under the rules of slavery and/or peonage in America
10- Please in at least 5 sentences define the term “peonage”
11- Please describe in at least 5 sentences the history of the term “jumping the broom”
12- Please describe in at least 5 sentences the “brown bag test”
13- Please explain where a “kitchen” is located as it relates to African Americans (hint this is not a part of your home)
14- Please explain what a Mau Mau is and what significance the Mau Mau is to race issues related to African Americans
15- Please give a brief history of Rastafari as it relates to race in America
16- Please list the year African Americans and whites were allowed by law to marry
17- Please list the last state to remove from their books laws related to African Americans and whites being married & list the year that this occurred
18- Which Amendment allowed African Americans to vote & in what year was it ratified by our federal government
19- What was the year the final state in our union ratified the (African American Voting) Amendment within their own state & as a bonus name that state
20- Who is Dred Scott and what is he famous for?
21- During the time of slavery in America could people in states where slavery was illegal still purchase and have rights to slaves under federal law?
22- What year was it determined that states and federal government was required to enforce the amendment allowing African Americans to vote?
23- What was the name of the Act which required enforcement of voting rights for African Americans
24- What African American organization was established in 1917 and is believed by many African Americans to be a spy organization that in fact has a duty of helping the government keep African Americans from true freedom & under constant surveillance?
25- Does the U.S. Constitution still contain language which determines that all African Americans descended from slaves are legally considered only three-fifths of a person?
26- Is there precedent set with regards to the 14th amendment that gives a loophole to whether or not our government is required to give African Americans equal protection under the law?
27- Based on true and factual history as it relates to laws and enforcement of laws in America how many years of a head start does the white race have on equal opportunity in comparison to African Americans
28- Name the most memorable lynching of an African American in the last 35 years or in your lifetime whichever is longest
29- How many African American friends do you have that are in an equal economic status to you
30- Name a common every day phrase or word that originated from a race related place. (example Black sheep of the family)

racism African American white equality white privilege colonization one drop rule one sixteenth

The Unfortunate Plight of White

First, check out THIS ARTICLE about Mitt Romney in the Boston Globe. Apparently there were two separate references made by him regarding he and/or his father marching with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. The truth is that neither he nor his father marched with King, though his father did march in various marches to support the civil rights movement during his time as Governor of Michigan. Obviously as white people of that time they were at least somewhat supportive of the situation for black people at the time of the civil rights movement. As a white person myself I feel I can discuss what Mitt Romney is going through with regards to history and his own history etc. For those of you who don't know it, white people run around much of their lives suffering from a certain amount of guilt. Some of this guilt is their own and some of it has relationship to their ancestors. While many other ethnic groups have various methods of honoring their heritage and their ancestors white people generally don't have any method for this honoring of heritage and ancestors. The average white person likely knows only what some or all of their ethnic background is and does not have much if any familiarity of any cultural rituals that relate to their own background accept the cultural benefits of manifest destiny at the detriment of those of color. We have a history in America of white being the group of individuals that holds more power than those of color and therefore over the last couple of centuries it has been the practice of those who "pass for white" to do their best to whitewash themselves in order to appear more white. People changed their names to appear more white in the eyes of Americans, they hid their true cultural rituals and religions and traded them for hate-fear and violence in most cases. (unless they were fighting against these things they supported them sorry to get "black and white" with my point of view but it's the truth. You don't fight for what is right and educate yourself on what is going on around you then you are supporting what is wrong. It's my opinion so get over it.) So this is "The Plight of White". We as white people suffer from a history where our ancestors as a majority have supported the perpetration of hate-fear-violence on people of color. This means that if we had a culture back when our ancestors first arrived to this country it was likely either replaced with the version of Christianity that existed at that time (which centered much of the time around hate-fear-violence against those of color) or it was replaced with nothing at all. In the end the result you end up with is the America you have today. Today's America is filled with white people and people of color both who have no concept of culture and ritual and a true connection to anything deeper than themselves. We allow ourselves to be pacified by the luxuries provided us by the pseudo freedom we have to run around and purchase items of technology to keep us busy and not paying attention to the fact that we Americans as a majority lack culture completely and that the civil rights movement has not yet succeeded in it's goals for having all people be equal. Black people get paid 60cents to ever dollar white people make statistically to this day. Men make on average somewhere near $10,000 dollars more per year than women. We still see situations in places like Virginia where a woman was kidnapped, raped and tortured for days by a family of white people simply because she was black. We still see situations in places like Jena, Louisiana where black youth are harassed and picked at by white youths to the point that requires self defense and when they defend themselves they are exposed to further political lynching by their community while the white youths receive little or no punishment at all. This is what is still going on in our society day by day. Some of us support it and some don't and then there are a big percentage of the white people who don't that are afraid to admit that fact for fear of losing their privilege. This is why people fight reparations. If there was nothing to lose to give equality to people who deserve it then white people would never argue with it. People like Mitt Romney have a mixture of all of this. Because of his religion he has a little tiny piece of what it means to be judged and oppressed for something that is not necessarily bad and so he feels a bit like he can relate to the black community. Add to this that he has benefited and become more privileged because of the efforts of black people who have always been treated as less than he but because he can relate to the plight of these people who he benefits from he feels helpless to help them without hindering himself and this makes him feel guilty. What does he do because of his guilt? He does the same thing as other guilt ridden white people. He takes things from cultures of color and assimilates them into his own life in attempt to bring back that thing which he always feels deep inside is missing CULTURE. So his children listen to MTV and wear their pants baggy as often as possible and if they don't do that then at the very least they use slang terms commonly used by youths of the current time after they were stolen from youths of color. They benefit from the music past and present, the technological inventions, the fashion and more from those of color and they take it and they make it their own. Why? Because they have no culture. They are empty and without culture because their relatives long before them dumped culture in trade for survival-fear-hate-violence simply because they could pass for white or they were white. Now in attempt to gain the culture that we all feel empty without we do our best to pseudo relate to those people of color who we feel guilty for benefiting from. We as white Americans are all at generally the same place. How do we treat others with respect and equality without losing all our benefits? Well the answer is simple. Assimilate the cultures of people of color to make us seem as if we are all the same and then pretend we don't realize this is what is happening. Later, when someone says the civil rights movement isn't over and people aren't equal we tell those people they are wrong. We run around saying things like "I don't see color" knowing that if we don't see color then we are blind because it exists and it would be an insult to those of color to pretend it doesn't. We tell people we aren't racist despite the fact that none or few of our friends and associates are people of color. We think that because we believe that our country should be a free place where all are treated equal that it means we have done our part. We forget that our part will not be done until we educate ourselves on the TRUTH of what is going on racially in this country and then fight for freedom and equality for all people at the risk of losing our privilege. We have so much fear of losing the control we have over our own lives because we have lost control of the lives of others that we are afraid to admit that we know it would be better. We would benefit so much more from allowing others to be equal to us because at the very least those people would bring things to our culture that we could all share equally and it would come at a much higher rate than if we cherry picked from the cultures of others and stole only that which we liked at the moment that we thought would not erase our status as white people. Just think our music could have more of African and Latin cultures than just their stolen beats. People of color would be exposed with a higher level of education and perhaps we could have more people who think like Obama to run for president or we would finally have something else to talk about during February besides old inventions like the stoplight and the cotton gin and botanical breakthroughs in hybridization. We would benefit. So what are we afraid of? White people are all afraid of losing power and will therefore feel guilty for taking it away from others so that they can keep it. And so the cycle will continue we will keep our power out of the fear of losing control of our own individual lives while we steal the cultures of others and feel guilty for it. So forgive poor little Mitt Romney for suffering from "The Plight of White" and trying to steal a bit of culture by pretending that he and/or his father marched with black people instead of simply for black people (which back then was more than most white people did). FORGIVE HIM BUT WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T VOTE FOR HIM UNTIL HE CAN PROVE HE HAS GOTTEN OVER HIS GUILT BY FIGHTING FOR TRUE EQUALITY INSTEAD OF JUST PRETENDING TO.

Mitt Romney Martin Luther King Jr. civil rights Michigan Black guilt ethnic ancestors lies racism equality truth

Jena 6

How many of you have heard of the Jena 6? If you haven't then you need to watch this video and then click the Jena 6 link above to sign the petition for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the events in order to insure that no one has had their civil rights violated.



Jena 6 petition video civil rights racism