May 31st, 2003, 09:44 PM
Are we racist/prejudice?
Yesterday, American History X was on IFC. I hadn't seen the movie in a long time, so I forgot a lot of what happened. Anyway, as I was watching, I realized that some of the comments that were made from the racist point of view really do make a lot of sense, and I could find myself agreeing with them.
Now, I'm not saying that I hate black people, or mexicans, or jews, or even Chojin. But when you hear that father taling about how the fire department hired two black guys just because they were black, rather than two other guys who scored higher on the test and did better in the training, you really can see what's wrong with something like that.
Now granted, I don't know if there's any truth to that particular example, but it sounds like it could very well be. I don't really bother to go and look up facts regarding hating black people. And more importantly, I also understand that the facts in the movie aren't necessarily racist, but just used by them to further validate their own hatred. You can see the wrong in something without having to hate everyone who's not white.
But it really did make me think. We're all prejudice in some manner. We all have predetermined opinions about at least one person/group of people, place, or thing. But are we also "racist?" Meaning, do we have these opinions related to cultures and skin colors that we see something wrong with? Not necessarily a matter of hating someone for it, but more of seeing there's a problem instead of pretending there's not. Knowing that there's something wrong with a certain situation, rather than shrugging your shoulders, saying, "Well, that only seems fair," and then ignoring it.
And it's not just a negative perspective either. For example, Black History Month. I have a problem with that, because you end up taking a whole month, and dedicating it to that. In school, you may or may not actually do so. You may have a week or two reading a book like Uncle Tom's Cabin, or maybe watch the first hour of Roots, but that's probably it. In younger years, you'd learn all about the heroes who helped break down the lines of segregation, at least. And that's where the irony comes in. You spend all this time trying to treat and acknowledge one another as equal, and have all these people who sacrificed so much wanted to be just like everyone else, then you go and point out a whole half-assed month to show the differences. But WHY is there a Black History Month? Shouldn't we be understanding and being taught about these things throughout a year, throughout a lifetime, about all these kinds of things?
But maybe I'm just rambling, and I really do hate black people.
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