American Bigotry

I grew up in a land without hatred. A bubble if you will. There wasn't any racial tension. There was only a handful of kids who were not white. This was suburbia. We were all taught what not to say and who not to say it in front of, so as not to hurt people's feelings. I use all words now, still always mindful not to hurt anyone's feelings accidentally. I often hear that racism is over and that all People of Color are equal now, we should just do away with the NAACP and any organization that promotes the success of non-white people because we white people have fixed that problem. I will never know what it feels like to be a minority. My people are a majority (women) and it doesn't seem to get us many strides as far as representation in government and the dropping of gender biased epithets. So in some ways I understand. There is no sexism either in America. Men are also discriminated against, "didn't you know? There is no privilege left."

I know there is privilege left. I have some of it. I am a white married woman. I get respected just for my status as white, specifically Catholic private school suburbia raised, and married. The married part is important. I lose all my social standing without the wedding. I've noticed this as I've gotten older. People start to treat you differently when you say "my husband" (even when you have blue hair like me) to the extent that for a while I didn't even want to use it. Now I find myself using it to garner respect from people I don't know without having to explain myself. I probably shouldn't do it but it certainly makes obvious that it is there. I wanted to change my name when I got married so that I could have the same last name as my husband and son. I don't want to give up my identity. I am very much Jackie Lane. So conclusively there are levels of privilege still in America.

When it comes to race, I always find it hard to believe that anyone who grew up in the same world I did wouldn't have seen the different levels of class and race in this country. When I was in High School 9/11 happened. After 9/11 men who were not Muslim, who were not even remotely similar in religion or country of origin, were attacked regularly by men who saw them as similar just because they were foreign (to the ignorant American) and brown. If at any time racism seemed to wither and drift away, after 9/11 it reared it's ugly head full force back into the American Main Stream Media. However in my mind it never left. It is intentionally more complex and subversive so it is harder to call out.

I've seen white people look around before they use the word Nigger. I've seen white people say that "the blacks" this or "the blacks" that. I haven't even felt comfortable as a writer writing about race at this point because I KNOW that racism still exists and I don't want to offend anyone I care about, and I don't want to appropriate anyone's culture. Now I realize I'm not. I am a white woman writing about my own experiences. From my point of view. From my point of view, when I was a little girl, I was jealous of my parents for having friends of many cultures and races growing up when I did not. They grew up with diversity in the 1970s that I did not.

Maybe you didn't know this, but neighborhoods are designed to be rich and poor. All these things you take for granted that give you privilege are designed in such a way to make you never realize the privilege you have. Our propaganda is all designed to make the managerial class take their pains and life frustrations on the Lazy Welfare Recipients. If anyone tries to tell me that that rhetoric wasn't created in the 1980s to divide the middle class by using races, they are getting slapped. 

If you look at the timeline from the start of this country until now, there is no point in time when America was a fair and balanced land for every man and woman of every color. Native American people are still wildly discriminated against, if you want just one good example. White conservative organizations such as the Tea Party claim that racism is over, while trying to make sure all legislation favors the upholding of the systemic institutions that keep us all locked into our specific cast level, slaves to Capitalism. My friends and I, who have had our eyes open and studied the scope of human history, find that a little hard to swallow.


If you still don't believe me that racism, sexism, and a whole host of ableism and bullying are prevalent in this country. You aren't in the same reality, or you still have your eyes closed.