12 thoughts on “Not So Subtle Racism”

  1. I’ll read the rest of the article later, but I want to interject that I’m old and white. And I LOVE it when any quarterback scores and dances! I think it’s just plain fun to see a celebration of an honorable goal accomplished.

    The man scored. Let him dance!

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  2. In seriousness, I read the whole article and I understand where the author is coming from. He has issues with his dad’s behavior. He has seen prejudice and hypocrisy, and he doesn’t like it. Neither do I.

    But isn’t it just as racist and bigoted to say that all old white people act a certain way? Isn’t it just as hateful to lump all old white people in with folks who have treated you poorly? We are not like his dad. I’m not. I like to see the celebration dances after a touchdown. I don’t care if a guy tosses a bat so long as he doesn’t toss it at me!

    Last Christmas I invited two strangers to spend a few days in our home. I saw them walking their bikes down the road in the “bad” part of town. It was cold and they were bundled up. I couldn’t see what color they were but I could see dreadlocks. I didn’t care what their skin or hair looked like or if they even had hair! I knew that being outside in the cold at the holidays would not be fun. And I knew that there is alway room at our table for a few more friends. I knew they could rob us or kill us, but I didn’t believe they would. They stayed almost a week. We had a wonderful time with our new friends. Then they went on with their way. We still keep in touch. I pray for them often.

    When our son died two years ago, my older sister came in from California. She is liberal, vegetarian, practices an Easter Religion, and is gay. We are upper middle class conservative Christians with seven kids who homeschool in Texas.

    We hadn’t seen much of each other since she left for college 36 years ago. She had never been to our home. Her choice, not mine. She hadn’t ever called or spent time with us or our kids in the 30 years we’d been married. She hadn’t returned my calls or my kids’ letters. She expected one thing based on her biases towards “our kind”. She expected a church service filled with white, straight, racist, hateful people. That’s not what she saw. That’s not who we are. We never have been. But she hadn’t taken time to find out.

    When she got to our home, she saw a row of Harley’s parked in our upper middle class driveway, and she saw their owners sitting on our front porch smoking and laughing and loving us well. She saw rough-around-the-edges people in our living room. She saw recovering addicts, former homeless, and alcoholics who’d been sober only a short time helping us begin to heal.

    She also saw nice sedans and dirty pickup trucks. Men in suits and guys in boots. She saw military officers and their wives. She saw store clerks, stay at home moms, teachers, lawyers, pastors, and doctors. Men and women from all walks of life were in our home that week.

    She saw the two young men who had worked for us the past few years (at well above minimum wage) because we knew they were on probation and had a hard time finding work. I found lots of work for them on our property and had paid them very well for work that I could have easily done myself.

    What she saw at the memorial service was black, white, Asian and Hispanic people grieving together in the auditorium of a community theater. She saw married people, singles, divorced, live-ins and widows caring for one another. She saw gay, straight, and bisexual friends supporting one another. Tattooed bikers sat next to Boy Scouts in uniform. Teens in t-shirts and jeans sat with old judges in business attire.

    She saw Catholic, Mormon, Buddhist, Baptist, Atheist, Jewish, and Pagan all participating in a memorial service for a white, conservative, straight Christian.

    She heard stories of his goofy antics and his kindness towards others. She heard others perform songs he had song while we watched video of him dancing and acting. She heard of his faith in God and love for his fellow man. She heard a crowd of all kinds of people sing songs that speak of a loving, living God whom we know as Jesus Christ.

    We all celebrated the life a young man gone too soon. (Yes, upper middle class white folks sometimes have to bury our sons who are killed. And the pain of losing a child is horrible regardless of the color of your skin.)

    The Gospel of Jesus Christ was shared, but with joy, laughter, and hope. Not with fire, brimstone, hate, or condemnation.

    My sister was amazed by what she saw those few days that she was here. All of these people are our friends. They are all welcome in our home. So is she. So are you. So is the author of the article. But I’ll ask him to clean up his language at the dinner table. I’m still a mom.

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  3. Pingback: Not So Subtle Racism | kathleenbduncan

  4. Interesting article. I love Cam Newton. Hey, I live in North Carolina… and he’s a god here. Plus, his play style is different and it makes him really fun to watch. I don’t fit into the ‘old and white’ group the writer was talking about… but more of the ‘young and white’ lol.. but I LOVE any celebration the players make. They all have their unique dances and some are absolutely hilarious. I don’t understand what the big deal is… it’s DANCING. The players are just having fun. If it’s a race thing — shame on them.

    To add: there is nothing worse than someone making racist jokes, comments, stereotypes… and then following it up with “oh, but I’m not racist.” It doesn’t work like that, idiots.

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  5. Exactly – and that’s the reason why the NFL decided, in their infinite wisdom, to penalize people for “excessive celebrations” (dancing, backflips, cartwheels, moon-walking, etc.) – but they still insist on calling the team from Washington, D.C. an extremely offensive, racist name. Go figure, right?

    “Butthurt” definitely describes it!
    😀

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