Uh...yeah! That's racist!
I went to workout today. The place has just opened up and I can ride my bike to it, which is a rarity to say the least. I went and did my obligatory fat burn for thirty minutes. I decided to tour the place since I had never been in, go and check it out, if you will. So I'm wandering around the empty locker room, checking out the steam room (like I need that here - just step outside), the showers (no curtains...hmmm), lockers etc. and this older woman walks up to me.
How do you like it here? She says.
Oh, I like it so far. Pause. Good design, all the right machines. I say.
Yes. Well I like the water aerobics. I used to go to 24 hour fitness but with all the Asians in the pool over there........
scrrrrreeeeeeeeech. I stop short and look at her.
She looks at me.
Not to be racist or anything. She says looking at me with that "solidarity" look so many white people give.
Oh, but that is racist. Believe me, that's racist. I say.
We departed company.
What makes someone say something like that to someone they have never met? Prevalence. Prevalence and acceptance. And no accountability. Especially if you tag everything you say with "I'm not a racist but" or "not that I'm racist". As if that somehow voids anything you are about to say or have said. It is a crazy, crazy time. A time when we are exposed to so much more than we have been before. Yet, the more we are exposed to, the more we are exposed as very insecure beings. Under the armor of the average human being lies a little shriveled being that is deperate to be important, to matter. Bound by all its feelings of inferiority - too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, too poor, not educated enough or at the right places, no button nose, no clear peaches and cream complexion - the little being strains against its invisible oppressor. If-I-can-just-elevate-myself-by-stepping-on-someone-else....huge exhale! It's such a ridiculous way of thinking - stepping on an entire group of people in order to make yourself feel superior - but it is absolutely a non-issue it is so commonplace.
So when you hear it, and believe me, you will, don't just sit there. Sure, three minutes after the opportunity presents itself you will have the absolute most perfect thing to say...ever. But don't wait for that. Tell the person that what they said is, in fact, racist, sexist, whatever -ist applies. Tell them, because they don't know, poor dears. Shine a little spotlight and I guarantee you will plant a seed that will make them (please God!) at least hesitate the next time they want to say something even remotely simliar. Maybe we can stamp this thing out, one person at a time.