Just a few thoughts about Race

Just a few thoughts about Race

Oh, just wait. This is going to get playfully racist in a second...

DISCLAIMER: I think all of the humans that live on God's green earth are beautiful, and in our current world, where a couple of hundred bucks and a plane can take you anywhere you could possibly ever want to go, race doesn't really mean much these days. This article is meant to be humorous, and just a chance to examine ourselves from the lenses of others. If anything I've written here offends you, I'm sorry. (You can't possibly un-read it. Sucks, I guess.) 

Unless you've lived in a complete bubble since... Well pretty much your entire life, you are aware of the "race struggle" (I say your entire life, because everyone in the world currently living has experienced racism, vicariously or personally). And no race is immune to being racist themselves, and in fact, plenty of people still are racist in their own passive aggressive, quiet ways. That can't be avoided, unfortunately. Part of being human is observing things and making predictions. This includes observing a few people behave a certain way, and then making the prediction that people who identify with those few also behave the same way. It's a survival instinct, just like the need to eat food, poop (even though I'm not totally convinced that women ever poop. And I refuse to believe anything that says otherwise.), and create smaller versions of ourselves. Making predictions would have been useful for our ancestors, when sabertooth tigers were running rampant everywhere. "Hmm. This tiger that just tried eating me is dangerous. Maybe I should avoid every tiger, just in case they're all dangerous." At its core, that's all prejudice is: a survival instinct that we can't turn off. 

That being said, when tasked with the job of removing racism, what if we've been looking at the problem the wrong way this whole time? Since the subconscious mind is going to make judgments and predictions, because it thinks it's being helpful, what if we train our brains to make positive judgments about people, whether they be true or not? Not only would this make life less of a nightmare for that token guy who still thinks that every black guy is out to steal his money and his wife, it would also encourage everyone around to expect the best possible thing out of everyone. And why stop there? Instead of thinking of race as being a team that you belong to, in competition against every other race, why don't we candidly examine the benefits that each race receives? 

"But David. How could you possibly be positively judgmental?" It's easy. If we look at the cultures that each race is associated with, of course there are negative judgments to be made, but there are just as many, if not more, positive judgments to make about each race. For example:

White People: 

Technically, I'm referring to people of Anglo-Saxon descent specifically, but these days, in America, if you're of Caucasian descent, and you have white skin, you can more or less go through life treated exactly as someone of Anglo-Saxon descent. So, it's easier to say white people. Being of Anglo-Saxon descent does not exactly mean that you will live a life of leisure, and that the world is your oyster, but you have the benefit of living in a place where the system and government is built entirely around your culture, and being successful is as easy as sticking to your values and working hard. (Racist statement inbound): This makes you guys the boldest people in America. Look up in the sky, and you will see white people jumping out of perfectly good airplanes just to fall several hundred feet and then pull their parachute. And they will pay to do this. With actual money. 

That being said, since the system is based mainly around your values, as the majority for all 200+ years of America's existence, if there is something about the system that you guys don't like, you possess the power to change it. And quickly. For example, it took African Americans several decades of struggle to receive full voting rights. And that was only one thing. During the Gilded Age, through Roaring 20's and into the Great Depression, the sale of alcohol was both prohibited, and then repealed. The Constitution of the U.S. (and not just a few different state legislatures) was amended twice in a 30 year period, because America tried to quit it's alcohol addiction cold turkey. That's what a majority can do in a democracy.

All children in America are taught that they can become anything they want to in life, and if you are a white child, you have the advantage of looking outside and seeing that that is 100% true. I'm not saying that I as a black man can't become anything I want to, but that was something I had to find within myself. Admittedly, it is easier to believe that you can accomplish anything you want to, when you look around and see people that look like you doing everything. You can even find white thugs living in the black ghettos, if you want to be a thug. I won't judge.

Latinos:

This is a larger group with much more variety than people realize. When I was in 6th grade, someone made a remark about all of the Mexicans at Wal-Mart on Sunday. My math teacher immediately stopped what she was doing and corrected them by saying, "They aren't Mexicans, they're Guatemalans." Unfortunately, these days, everything south of El Paso is considered Mexico, and Latinos are mistakenly called Mexicans very often even if you're from South America, which is an entirely different continent. Even if you were born and raised in America, and are of Latino descent, people still refer to you as Mexicans. For that, I apologize. 

As Latinos, most of you are already bilingual by the time the rest of us are realizing that we can count higher than 10, and by the time the rest of us are learning how to speak basic "Yo soy un niño" Spanish in high school, you're already done learning languages, if you so choose. Or you could learn a third, or a fourth. The rest of us will always be a huge step behind you guys, and it's a step that we all have to take. Yo sé bastante español por que preguntar por el baño y la cerveza, but your average Latino can speak fluently what I consider to be one of the most beautiful languages in the world, Spanish, and one of the hardest languages to learn in the world, English.

Mexicans Specifically: 

Yes, there is a loud minority that shouts that Mexicans need to go back to Mexico, blah blah blah, but everyone knows exactly why that is a bad idea. In actuality, the majority of Americans truly respect Mexicans and their work ethic. Though children's books will show Farmer Brown with his overalls and bushy white beard planting his fields and harvesting his crops, a vast number of farmers (and I define farmers as the people who actually plant and pick the crops, and not the merchants who sell them), are actually Mexican. And I challenge you to go to a neighborhood under development, and find a house that isn't being built by Mexicans. Not only are Mexicans doing the hard, back breaking jobs that no one likes to do, but they are also working harder at them than the rest of us sitting in cubicles, playing Angry Birds when the boss walks away. (Don't let anyone ever tell you that you aren't wanted in this nation. Not only are you wanted, but you are needed.) 

Also, no one, and I mean no one, parties like a Mexican family.

Black People: 

So here's why it's pretty awesome to be black, despite years of racial subjugation. During slavery time, African Americans were selectively bred. Directly or indirectly, It doesn't really matter how. If you, hypothetically owned hypothetical slaves to work on your hypothetical farm, where you knew there would be a lot of physical labor involved, you wouldn't want to spend your money on the smaller slaves. Yes, they could also get the job done, but if you hypothetically picked the bigger guys, your farm would be way more efficient. And if all of the slaves you've chosen, men and women, are strong naturally, they will have strong children. And when the time comes to sell your hypothetical slaves, you're not going to sell your strongest ones. You're going to keep the strongest for yourself, and sell the next strongest for a profit. Hypothetically. Do this for a couple of centuries, and you've bred human work horses. Ask people who study anatomy and medicine, and they will tell you all kinds of racial differences between black people and seemingly everyone else. But you don't even need to go that far. It's March, going on April. Just turn on college basketball or the NBA, and tell me what you see.

On top of this, if you haven't noticed yet, the entertainment industry in America is based almost entirely of things created by African Americans. Hip-Hop and R&B obviously are things made by black people, but it doesn't stop there. Rock and Metal, and modern Country music draw heavily from Blues. In fact, Elvis Presley (rest his blue suede soul), made a career off of singing his favorite kind of music, the Blues he heard from African Americans growing up in the South. Jazz, Calypso, Ska (and subsequently, Reggae) were invented by displaced African slaves who were allowed to keep their drums. And currently, EDM music is being influenced by Trap beats, created by Hip-Hop producers. Macklemore's apology to Kendrick Lamar for winning the Grammy for Best New Artist, to me, shows exactly how much respect the world has for the talents of African Americans. In a younger, more racist America, Kendrick would have probably been cleaning up after the Grammy's, let alone receiving an apology from someone who was just voted by the Academy to be the best new artist. 

I could go on and on, but I won't insult your intelligence, reader. I know that you are fully capable of finding things to like about other races, and objectively acknowledging each other's talents and abilities. Where does this leave us, then? These rambles seemingly have done nothing but shown ways in which we are different, and not the same. So this was counter productive, right?

Not necessarily. Most of the things that I said here aren't actual true facts. They are observations about race, which is technically racism, just a benign form. I've met people from all of these races that don't fit any of the stereotypes, at all. All I've shown here is the way that I actively choose to view people. When I see a white person, I see someone who is surefooted and bold within society. When I see Latinos, I see both intelligence and tenacity, especially from those who weren't born here, but moved here from their respective nations. When I see a black person, I see a strong, naturally talented well of potential. Even if the people I meet are entirely different than my perceptions of them, I am actively choosing to see every person as all of the good things that they might be, instead of as the negative things that they most likely aren't. But, hey, these are just some thoughts about Race. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.