I went to high school in a predominately white area where all of my life I tried my best to fit in and make it seem like I was "the same". That my hair was straight and I washed it everyday. That I had the same culture as they did, experienced the same things, that I wasn't in anyway different from the majority. This is what I did for all of my schooling life. I didn't stop pretending until I was a sophomore in college.
Anyway, this is besides the point. On Facebook during the time of the Ferguson decision one of my high school friends...or I guess I should say acquaintances posted this picture this the caption written above:
When I saw this it was clearly offensive to me and I couldn't just ignore this kind of blatant disrespect for what these protestors were fighting for let alone let this acquaintance be ignorant of the fact that this picture had been photoshopped where the original sign said "leaves the house". One of her friends enlightened her to the alternation of the photo but she still kept it up justifying herself by the next string of comments:
I try to explain myself to her and state why I think it is offensive but to no avail and what she says next truly shocks me.
The first comment in the above string of comments is of her friend trying to show how the sign undermines the movement and the protest but of course now my acquaintance his trying to flip the script and say that because I pointed out how this altered picture that she posted is highly racial that I am suddenly the racist.
Her ending comment is what really shocked me the most. I was just in awe at what had transpired before me. I didn't expect her to say what she did, to try and demean my character and to make it seem like I'm the racist person that's holding race relations back. I was utterly in awe. Needless to say after this interaction she de-friended me on Facebook and I haven't talked to her since but its just really sickening to see people like this not willing to listen and comprehend blacks, the black experience and racism.
Through this I realized why I hid myself through all those years I was in school, why I allowed my mom to straighten my hair, why I lied and hid my own experience, its because I tried to avoid this. I tried to avoid these ignorant people that are unwilling to make any efforts to try and understand others. Even though no matter how hard I tried to avoid it back then in order to "make friends" I can't just sit back and ignore whats going on now when people are dying...being murdered in the street because people feel that they can roughhouse and manhandle human beings because they think they are less of a person. I can't stand it. It breaks my heart. It makes me angry and when some whites like my acquaintance doesn't even try to understand or comprehend the situation and what blacks are trying to scream and tell this nation it makes me that much more ill.
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