The new racist now wears a mask of conservative intellectualism, while hissing words like “reverse discrimination” and maliciously and frivolously applying the word “racism” to wherever they see fit. To those masked marauders, I say speak to me of racism and “reverse discrimination” when you live in a society that appropriates your culture for a novelty. Speak to me of racism when you know what it feels like to be overwhelmed by the emotion of helplessness when you watch those like you be persecuted for simply daring to be. Speak to me of racism when your friends, sisters, brothers, fathers, and mothers, are targeted, harassed and murdered because of the color of their skin.
I take offense that individuals who will live and die with the luxury and comfort of knowing that discrimination affects “the others” and only in the uncanny occurrence of “reverse discrimination” will they even feel discomfort to use the word “reverse discrimination.” The very term “reverse discrimination” implies that discrimination is not working in the proper manner. When the new racist drops the phrase “reverse discrimination” what s/he really means to say is “Discrimination should only be used on those minorities, once white males begin to be effected, events have simply escalated too far. Programs like affirmative action, practice `reverse discrimination.’ Get rid of it, so things can be white and male, as usual.”
The new racist smiles at me and clasps me on my back while saying “Why don’t African Americans move past slavery?”
It is quite simple for those who live at the top of the social hierarchy to request that an institution which created the social system that placed minorities at the bottom rung and hoisted them to the top, be forgotten. I would not ask Japanese Americans to forget Japanese Internment. I would not ask the Jews to forget the Holocaust, and I will not ask African Americans to forget that they built the richest nation in the world and have oh so little to show for their sweat and blood. That crime against humanity should never be forgotten, lest we try to deny that evil has and does exist on American soil. The new racist loves to gloss over history and points to the civil rights movement to say, “Look how far minorities have come in 40 years.” Yes, we have progressed, but one can only progress so far in one lifetime. My mother was born into a land of Jim-Crow; I now live in a world that claims to be color blind, yet allows white policeman to kill black men and walk free. Yes, we have come a long way, but not far enough, and sometimes, I fear it will never be far enough.