Tag Archives: Oregon Schools

When Conversations About Race Go Bad

I am getting so sick of the self centered comments that come with talking about race. The first thing that happens when you talk about race is that a lot of white people will inevitably come back with a “but if it happened to a white person…” These comments are just moot since the disparities that I am speaking of don’t happen to whites at least not at the proportion that it happens to blacks. I am sure that problems exist on both sides of the fence. Whites are passed over for jobs, get bad service, hear derogatory names, get pulled over by police and even get shot by the police.

The problem is that blacks are unemployed at twice the rate of whites, businesses are underrepresented with blacks, bad service usually comes with a racial tag, the derogatory names that blacks have to endure were used to subjugate blacks plus injure to a degree that most names a white person is called could ever do, blacks are pulled over continuously for being seen with those black faces, sure whites get shot but blacks get shot far more and in numbers that would put a blush on the face of any self respecting hit man. With the number of bullets put into blacks the cops could shoot up a whole city of white people.

I see that Oregon has decided to add a book about their racist past to the school curriculum. And of course there are white people already up in arms to ask why we have to hear about this. Why don’t we get to hear about all the whites who lost their lives to help civil rights move forward. See this is my point. You can’t have a discussion about anything that shows white people in a bad light without those insecure folks who just HAVE to have some mention of how great white people are. Is it that hard to hear about the terrible things that your race has done? Is it that hard to acknowledge a wrong without throwing in all the good that has been done?

Blacks have to constantly sit and endure the pointing fingers of imputation from not only whites but other blacks as well. The constant barrage of how we need to take responsibility for whatever ails the black community that week. Yet those pointing the finger the hardest are those who have the worst time taking responsibility for the actions of their forefathers and their own community at large. The minute you start looking into how the other half lives it is reverse discrimination and you are a racist. I don’t see one reason why Oregon shouldn’t explore its racist past, present and future. From what I am reading from these people writing about it, it sounds like there is no racism in Oregon. And I know for a fact that this is a blatant lie. No matter how progressive a community feels that they are, racism rears its ugly head here and there with those progressives leading the way.

Maybe if we stop pretending that racism is dead and buried and begin to pt it out in the open it can be dealt with. But of course the dominant course of action seems to be the three d’s, disregard, divert and dilute. Which is what I keep hearing from those that feel to acknowledge anything is race baiting. This is also what I hear a lot. First they disregard and comment on how blacks aren’t the only race to be wronged in the past. Then they want to divert your attention from the wrong doing by accusing the informer of some phony ill such as reverse racism or asking if blacks ever participated in whatever wrong you are discussing. Then of course they dilute the atrocity by throwing out some asinine statement about how many people died in correlation to the ill being spoken of.

You can hear these comments anytime you start speaking about any type of racial situation. I feel that calling them out on these facts will probably go nowhere. What can you do? How do we have a conversation about race when the conversation will undoubtedly always need to be had from a place where no blame should ever be placed on anyone? You can not have a conversation about racist behavior in this country if you constantly have to coddle those benefiting from the racist behavior?


Filed under African American, Black community, Black Culture, Black Family, Black People, Life, Minorities, Propaganda, Racism, Random Thoughts, Rant, Social Issues