And that racist "instinct" isn't instinct at all. It's not something that we're naturally pre-disposed for, it's something that you've learned through cultural osmosis. A lifetime of having negative perceptions of minorities reinforced through film, television, books, cartoons, toys, music, and the news has a profound effect on how we view one another. You can turn on the tv at nearly any point in your day and see some kind of negative portrayal or story of a minority, from blacks to mexicans, to muslims and persians and arabs, etc, etc. Seeing that day in and day out, no matter how open minded and fair you are is going to get to you. You have to actively be battling against the blatant demonizing of minorities in order to not have that sort of bombardment affect you.
I spent a lifetime thinking black people were awful, and I was "one of the good ones." It took me a long time to undo that mentality and realizing the root causes of that line of thinking.
Being a racist asshat isn't instinctual. When I lose my temper and get angry at someone, the first thing to pop into my mind isn't "fucking nigger, chink, spic, gook, cracker, and so on and so forth." Generally "fucking asshole," is my default insult.
I learned about the negatives of being a little black boy when I was 6 years old. Up until that point, I never once looked at the little white or Puerto Rican kids in my Kindergarten and First Grade glasses as anything other than my friends and classmates. I didn't really put much thought into some of them being white, some of them being black, etc, etc. In my family, I saw a whole range of skin tones, from light to dark (me being "high yellow" according to old aunts and uncles), so the white kids in my class never had me bat an eye. Then one day in class, I was told that I couldn't be Superman or Batman when we were playing on the playground because they were white, and I was black. From that day on, I saw that the majority of my heroes were white, and my own people were often buffoons, criminals, or incompetents.
That shaped the way I not only viewed my fellow black people, but myself as well. I grew up hating being black, and envying my white friends who had moms and dads, nice houses, all of the Transformers, GI Joes, LEGOS, and Thundercat toys. They always seemed happy and content. I saw that the vast majority of my black friends were just like me: raised by a single mother struggling to make ends meet, and still not being able to make ends meet. A woman who would starve herself to make sure that me and my sisters didn't go to bed hungry. While I loved and respected my mom for her strength, I couldn't help but despise being black.
It's why shows like The Cosby Show meant so much to my people. Why The Fresh Prince of Bell Air struck such a chord with blacks country round. Those shows were the few instances where we felt proud to be black. Where we found our self respect and strength, realizing that despite all that we have been through since we first set foot in this country, we persevere and carry on. That no matter how much we are demonized and victimized, and dehumanized, we can be more than "thugs" "coons," and "jiggaboos." That we're human, and capable of amazing things.
It's why things like this retaliation against cops is more damaging to black America than you really know. One misstep, and we're set back another dozen years in the eyes of the masses. Those poor cops didn't deserve to be killed, and the bitterness and anger is just going to bleed over onto innocent black men and women who want nothing more than peace and empathy. A lot of racists and diet racists are using this to turn off their empathy for the innocent blacks, and it's frustrating. Judge the individual, but that never seems to apply to us.
Racism has certainly been underground, but that's exactly why institutional racism is as strong and effective as it is. Minorities have been allowed to continue to be oppressed through so much legislation and under-handed tactics that there's no need to call someone a "nigger" to try and put him in his place. Denying his job application because he has a "black name" is much more damaging. Denying his loan. Denying his school admissions form. Incarcerating him for a minor infraction so that blemish is on his record for the rest of his life, tainting his future prospects for advancement. Racism has gone Sun Tzu on minorities. It's tactical and efficient. Police brutality is just one visceral example of how minorities are oppressed in this country.
This has been going on for decades, but thanks to the invention of the smart phone (with cameras), the rest of the world that was content to put their fingers in their ears and "la la la" their heads into the sand are forced to see the truth of the world minorities live in, and they don't like it. It shatters and disrupts their worldview, so even the most open minded of individuals finds themselves contorting with mental gymnastics to justify why the victim brought his end upon himself, because to accept the truth would be to accept a whole lot of not so pretty things about themselves, and the systemic racist institutions that have allowed them to pretty much live their lives unmolested by such bigotry and racism. I just wish that people could engage in meaningful discourse without getting so defensive when these ugly truths are exposed.
