Greetings,
I'm going to attempt to bring some things to light that I've experienced in hope we can recognize this in future dialogue. In the aftermath of the post by BlackKos Inc, regarding terms that people might not know to have racist origins. I shall bring to light some of my personal experiences in hope not to offend, but to enlighten. Perhaps some of you can share yours.
Now, I've experienced accidental racism most of my life but a couple instances really stick out. They stick out because it's friends and family. I was adopted by a Jewish couple. I'm mixed Ethiopian and Irish. Just a little background for ya.
The one that pissed me off the most was on April 29th, 1992. LA Riots if you didn't know. The police officers who beat King were found not guilty. LA explodes. I was living in LA off of Robertson and Pico at the time and I drove to my parents house in the cushy suburbs of Sherman Oaks to see if they were alright.
To side track a bit. This is a really trippy part of LA. On the west side of Robertson is Beverly Hills. On the East side it's known as Vietnam. I'm sure you can guess why. Not because it's an Asian neighborhood but because of the gun shots which I heard plenty of. It was aptly named.
So I drive to the folks house and get stopped by a police barricade. Yeah, the cops ran out of LA into nicer parts. I show them my ID which has my parents address still on it. I'm let through. Won't call this accidental or racist because stuff was going down. Anyways, wasn't a problem. Obviously the parents were fine because they had police and protection and stuff but I stick around to be polite and watch the news with them. Looting is everywhere and being filmed by helicopters, obviously black and hispanic people doing it. I'll remember this for the rest of my life. My mother who raised a black kid says, "Why are those people doing this?" THOSE PEOPLE????? Mom.... I said, "Mom, I am one of those people!!!!!!" "You know what Mom, back in the 1930's in Germany. You were one of those people too...." I said my good byes, knew they would be fine and left. Now you might say, Ohh, the language wasn't exactly racist or she didn't really mean how she said it. Yeah, sighs. Let's say she did apologize later and she did say it how I perceived it. Plus, she remembered the incidents that happened to me in Sherman Oaks later on. The many times I was pulled over or stopped and asked what I was doing there.
Another time was my friend I've known since 3rd grade. We've done everything together. I don't remember the date but he said a couple years ago. "Your not really black because your mixed." I wanted to smack the shit out of him. I said, "oh really?" "Lets go get arrested right now and find out whose black." He did a double take and apologized. He's not stupid, obviously. We were arrested together at a young age and I was taken in while he was let go. Funny thing is, he did the crime and I came to help him after he ran to my house and woke me up from my sleep. Nothing came of it but it showed how they wanted to blame me.
You might say, oh these are small things and they are. But, it's what I perceive, not you. I could name blatantly racist things. But those don't bother me. I expect it. Sadly to say. It's the knife in the back which hurts the most.