So with all of these videos and memes lately about racist people, it’s really hard for me to believe we’re in 2018. We all have our prejudices, and if someone says they don’t, they’re lying, it’s innate. I grew up in the Deep South and lived in a white neighborhood and went to a white church and most of the people I knew lived similarly or if they were black they went to church and lived in a black neighborhood. That being said, people always called Georgia and the South a racist area or an area full of ignorant people, but a lot of these videos going around are people that aren’t living in the Deep South. Like the attorney in New York that went around yelling at immigrants, or the now famous Professor who reported a barbecue with blsck people in California. The point is, it’s not just a regional problem, it’s systemic. When everyone’s behind closed doors they have opinions about all types of people. And even if you are not the kind of person to berate a certain race or nationality in front of people or even say it out loud, most people are biased and it will come out in some way. I feel like that’s just human nature. However, no one should feel that they are superior to a certain race or group of people or that they have the right to belittle them. The only thing that God gave us dominion over is animals.

I personally have never cared about the skin color of my friends. I grew up having black and white friends my entire life and after a certain point in time in school, people said a bunch of negative things about me because I had “too many black friends”. And the truth of the matter was, I had been friends with them since elementary school. When I was growing up in the south, it wasn’t proper to be close friends with a person of another race once you got to Junior High. I guess I didn’t get that memo. I didn’t get invited to my black friend’s sleepovers and it wasn’t customary for white people to invite black people to their sleepovers. It just wasn’t done and it’s something I never understood. I remember going on a school trip to Washington DC in the 8th grade and seeing people from California and noticed the people-black and Spanish and white were all hanging together and sharing rooms in the hotel and it was so foreign to me. And I realized, perhaps I was born in the wrong place because I just didn’t see a problem with this. But my being open-minded was more of a hindrance than a help at the time. I was categorized in a certain way and honestly lied about a lot. And one of my best friends was gay and people used to have a lot to say about him and it angered me so much, but he was my friend and I didn’t care about their judgement or opinion. Being besties with him really didn’t help my reputation either in a small town in Ga, but I just didn’t care. People are people no matter how different.

Fast forward to today-I’m still the same person, maybe a little more irritable because people in this area are annoying!:) Anyhow, because DC is a melting pot and we are not in the 1980s, having a biracial child or having friends of multiple races isn’t that big of a deal anymore or at least here. My daughter has friends of all races and they sleep over and she sleeps over at their place and nobody says a word or bats an eye. And I have raised my daughter to be open-minded and to not make snap judgments. But I’m not perfect. There are some people that I’m not as familiar with and not naturally able to relate to easily and vice versa because our religions or backgrounds are so vastly different. But I am not unkind to them, nor do I berate or belittle them. How is that my place? Why would I think that I have the right?

People use the term White Privilege all of the time, and I’m sure that I have it, but I sure as heck don’t think I’m better because of it or try to use it to get things. And I wasn’t raised by my mom to think that I’m better, nor does my family or any of the people that I hang around with who are white, feel or act in that way . So I can’t really apologize for people that are bad seeds or ignorant racists because it’s not my fault. Nor can I take credit for atrocities across centuries. I however feel that it is my responsibility to not make the mistakes that people in the past have and to teach my child and any other young person that I I’m acquainted with that racist or entitled behavior is just not okay. Furthermore, it is my duty as a decent human being and as a white person, to speak up if I witness behavior that is unsuitable towards a group or a person based on something that they have no control over- what race they were born into. But no matter what your race is, standing up for people and squashing the ignorant should always be a goal. We need to stick together in this country. We can’t let these stupid differences tear us apart any longer. We are more alike than we realize…

sinply~

Dee