fast
Contributor
I'm from South Carolina, and if one things for sure, there are no shortages of blacks here, so I've been exposed to them all my life, and although I'm not overtly racist, there's something about their disposition that I can't quite put my finger on that (on many occasion) puts me off. It's not their skin color, and it's not their race per se, but there seems to be some unidentified trait (at least unidentified by me) that underlies the people that we ordinarily refer to as belonging to the black (or African American) race.
I don't think this sometimes subtle trait is specific to blacks only, but I speculate that it's so prevalent among them that we mistakenly associate racism as being a product of disliking blacks because of their skin color. I understand that strong racism may be a function of learned behavior (or being brought up in an atmosphere of rampant racism), and it's so easy to think (as so many do) that people are judged based on the color of their skin (and they are), but if my speculation is true, then if blacks were white, we would still have a problem with them, but the problem wouldn't be identified by the color of their skin.
People are different, yes, but there are similarities and differences between certain groups of them, yet I can't for the life of me find a way to articulate just what it is I'm noticing about black people when I get this wave of clarity of thought that convinces me that there is something not just different but disliked.
See, it's not the people, not the race, and not the skin color. It's more like an attitude that members of any race can have, yet it's not so much attitude (yet interestingly enough, this mystery trait tends to surface when they have an attitude) as it is some kind of disposition. I don't notice it all the time, and I've noticed it in a few non-blacks.
In many ways, it reminds me of our ability to quickly glean whether a person (even without an accent) is from up north or down south. It's very easy for many southerners, for instance, to be put off by the demeanor of certain northern people. If all northerners were pink and of a race of their own, I bet the underlying issue of the ensuing racism would be blinded to the fact they were pink, much like this mystery trait to which I speak is the culprit behind a tendency to be prejudice against blacks.
Is there any hint of truth in this, or am I just wildly speculating?
I don't think this sometimes subtle trait is specific to blacks only, but I speculate that it's so prevalent among them that we mistakenly associate racism as being a product of disliking blacks because of their skin color. I understand that strong racism may be a function of learned behavior (or being brought up in an atmosphere of rampant racism), and it's so easy to think (as so many do) that people are judged based on the color of their skin (and they are), but if my speculation is true, then if blacks were white, we would still have a problem with them, but the problem wouldn't be identified by the color of their skin.
People are different, yes, but there are similarities and differences between certain groups of them, yet I can't for the life of me find a way to articulate just what it is I'm noticing about black people when I get this wave of clarity of thought that convinces me that there is something not just different but disliked.
See, it's not the people, not the race, and not the skin color. It's more like an attitude that members of any race can have, yet it's not so much attitude (yet interestingly enough, this mystery trait tends to surface when they have an attitude) as it is some kind of disposition. I don't notice it all the time, and I've noticed it in a few non-blacks.
In many ways, it reminds me of our ability to quickly glean whether a person (even without an accent) is from up north or down south. It's very easy for many southerners, for instance, to be put off by the demeanor of certain northern people. If all northerners were pink and of a race of their own, I bet the underlying issue of the ensuing racism would be blinded to the fact they were pink, much like this mystery trait to which I speak is the culprit behind a tendency to be prejudice against blacks.
Is there any hint of truth in this, or am I just wildly speculating?