When I was much younger I took the decision (which I consider foolish now) to avoid voicing my opinions on serious issues especially those connected in any way to race, religion or politics. A few days ago, I realised why I made this rash decision.
It seems to me that people in general are unable to sustain any form of serious discussion on any of these topics for long before it becomes a name calling, people bashing free for all.
I am a mixed person so it is possible my view has been skewed by many things but being raised the daughter of an African man and a mixed woman, I still don't know where I fall in this world. My mother's side is so mixed that we are not sure what the mixture is and where the mixing truly began because my grand parents are also mixed. We call ourselves callaloo (it seems like an apt definition to me). Even my father's side is mixed so we truly don't know where we stand.
All of that being said, this has no bearing on me because I am the product of hard working parents who worked and are still working hard every day of their lives to have every thing they do. I am the product of a perfectionist teacher who strove for greatness in all that was done and by extension went on to make perfectionist, obsessive compulsive offspring who strive hard at everything.
I did not persevere because of my race (which race is it?), my religion (I believe in spirit not religion) or my political affiliations (I have none). So it never ceases to amuse me that I am judged because of my dark skin (thank you daddy) being refused service or ignored in certain establishments. If I have an opinion about the government I am either "UNC", "COP", "PP" or "PNM" depending on the view I have taken. I am an apologist when it suits them, a sycophant if they choose and racist to my bones if they find me so inclined.
It must be my mixed heritage that affords me the luxury of deconstructing both the spoken and the written words and taking out the gems of wisdom and pushing aside the rest. Maybe because of my mixed up heritage I don't get easily offended by words meant as a suggestion or as a spark to discourse.
Stereotypes will always be with us. We may not like them but let us be honest, there is a sliver of truth in many of them. Some of us fit the mold and some of us don't, that is just the way life is. Becoming over emotional because of a statement viewed as a stereotype does not help anyone. Bashing the writer and attempting (badly I might add) to assassinate his writing skills does nothing to help your cause especially when I see authors who craft similar pieces of work but with more offensive language being lauded for their attempts. It will only leave those of us you consider "non-black" (my father and most of my family would laugh at this) to believe that the root of your discontent is with the race of the author not the content of his writing.
These past few days I have seen people whom I held in a very distinguished class, degrade, character assassinate and abuse each other over writings which I have yet to find offense in especially since the comments which followed were even more offensive from the same people crying foul. To date I have read over 300 comments from the last few days and maybe 1/4 of them attack the real issue, it would seem that when it comes to certain topics all sense of reason flies through the door. I watched as one young lady assaulted all and sundry and then proceeded later to say she was only commenting on the issues...if foul language did not spark the issue, it has no bearing in the discourse that follows.
I have learned that you can find evidence to validate any view you have in life and that is why it is not that serious for me, I will read it all, disagree when necessary and agree when required. If you could calmly listen to "Compare and Contrast" and further seek to deconstruct that and validate it, then by all means you can calmly deconstruct any attempts to call a spade a spade.
What developed this week, opened my eyes to just how emotional and one sided society still is to race issues. I now understand the political divide and even some of the religious divide. I maintain however that if we are unable to discuss these sensitive issues without allowing them to spiral into the personal sphere then we will never be mature enough to tackle the underbelly of the problem. This is the underbelly of the problem...call it income or disproportionate sharing of wealth if you want but at the underbelly it starts and ends with race, until we see that we are spinning top in mud.
What happens to those of us who are spanning multiple races? Is it that we have no voice or should we only discuss other multi-racial sectors?
The ability of many to disregard the racial impact on many sections of this plural society of ours baffles me to no end. Diversionary tactics and burying the issue in talks of racism will not help the issue at all. What brews beneath may scare many of us when it surfaces. We don't have cross burnings and lynchings but do not let society's ability to muffle their internal hatred and bias allow you to believe that there is not a real race issue burning here. I personally would prefer a viable solution to be forthcoming before this racial dam bursts indeed.
I viewed no statistical data, nor looked at any polls. These are my views based solely on what I have seen happening daily before my eyes in conjunction with all of my experiences. If that negates my thoughts...by all means you need not read them.
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