Reply #164: We don't need enabling, just equality

[linazelle]

I think one should think of how they can MAKE IT in America, rather than bitch about past racism that simply doesn't exist past the kind they also feel for whites. It's ridiculous how people know these things, but are afraid to talk about them. I will NOT be an enabler for black Americans who want more protections, preferences, etc. rather than having to stand without crutches.


I applaud you for your honesty and I agree with you in some ways. For instance, I'm not in favor of the free handouts that I see going to way too many blacks, I believe they are crippling.

I also think Bill Clinton did a good thing by starting the welfare to work programs which are weaning these types from government payrolls. I know of too many able-bodied young, black people who should be working and are receiving handouts. I have an aunt in Philadelphia who phoned my mother last week. Her son has never worked. He's in his forties.

The trouble is, that when whites see most blacks, they think most of us are like my cousin and they react accordingly by dismissing us, being condescending and in other ways. You say racism simply doesn't exist past the kind they we feel for whites. While we all have prejudices, racism goes much further. It is about power--the power to hire and fire and jail and educate. When these powers are exercised, blacks frequently lose out. Simple prejudices become overt racism when whites, or other races, make decisions about blacks based on prejudices and they often do.

Racism is alive and well in America. I live in Chicago, the most racially segregated city in Northern America. You go to stores and neighborhoods and you see the difference. I was in Wal-Mart yesterday in a black suburb. The floors were dirty, the shelves disorganized. I go to a white suburb and it's the total opposite. Why should I have to become an activist and write to complaikn to management to buy carpet cleaner? This is not just a Wal-Mart issue. I see the same differences in many large chain stores. It's disturbing to me.

When I was looking for a new home seven years ago, I drove by a house in a "white" neighborhood with an open house banner with the hourse posted during the time I was there. I rang the bell and stood there for a long time. Nobody ever answered the door.

In the many asian owned shops in black neighborhoods throughout the city, we experience another kind of racism. These people open up stores, take the money of the predominantly poor shoppers and they shoo them out of the stores. I went to a wig shop, just on a whim one day. I was prepared to buy two or three wigs but, because I don't wear wigs hardly ever, I tried on several. When I asked the asian woman for another style after trying on three wigs, she put me out of the store pointing to a sign saying customers could only try on three wigs!

I meet several times a year for dinner with a group called the Chicago Human Relations Foundation. They hold dinner meetings about four times a year on a designated date at varied locations around the city to discuss the kinds of issues I mentioned and general race relations in Chicago. At the last dinner there were white, black and asian americans. It's a good start toward having a face to face dialogue but it's also like preaching to the choir. Again, I don't know that those like the lady in the wig shop or the people who didn't open their door to sell their home will ever come around. They are not interested because things are OK for them.

What's it like to be black in America? I think the situations I mentioned convey how demeaning it can be. I know that it is even more demeaning for others who are a lot worse off than me.