I am in my fifties. A quiet looking old lady, I suppose. I must be harmless looking because I can't believe the things people tell me. I just sit quietly and listen. Until I can't take it anymore. Then I call the person out on their racism.
A closet racist gets along in the world. Why? They have black or Hispanic bosses. They know how to play the game. You won't hear a word from them about the race of important people in their quest for a living wage. But I sometimes wonder how destructive this kind of dishonesty will play out in our nation. Don't be so worried about the blatant racists. I have more respect for them. At least their rants and hatred give you a pretty good heads up . The closet racist could be sitting next to you at work and you wouldn't have a clue. They come to me thinking because I am older I must be too. It amazes me what I hear. About how blacks have become more uppity since Obama was elected. How Treyvon shouldn't have worn a hoodie. About how our country has changed since a black man was elected into office.
Men and women spew racial hatred. These are supposedly educated people, those with enough exposure to the world to know our country is fast becoming caramel colored.
I don't even want to understand how seemingly educated people come up with these ideas. The closet racist is dangerous because that kind of ignorant hatred doesn't just go away. It permeates our airways, digs into the psyches of their children and spews hatred in a much more passive aggressive manner.
I understand that whites are fast becoming the minority in our country. The fact we have old white men running for office in a desperate attempt to maintain a losing status quo will place us right up there with South Africa and apartheid.
Our jails are full of young black men. Our profiling police forces are a testament to our continued national racism.
I was asked recently why I was not "so racist" coming from the era I was born into (the 1950's).
I asked, "What difference does the era make?" We choose our paths in how we think and what we believe. Oh, sure, we can be influenced by our experiences, but we don't need to be owned by them.
Understand our horrific history of racism to not just blacks, but Japanese, (internment camps, Chinese (indentured servants) the annihilation of the Native American population, the underpaid and horribly treated migrant population and maybe an understanding of the nature of the American citizen will emerge.
Closeted racists are dangerous. They are dishonest, politically correct cowards.
There are too many of them in our country and no one calls them out.
Our global world will not tolerate racism. Our country needs to grow up. We are thousands of years behind other countries in terms of maturity but we need to expand our view of the world and its multicolor or we will be seen as uncivilized, dangerous and barbaric. Rightly so.
