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Have I ever experienced racism? Yes.
Jun. 14th, 2020 03:29 pmSomething I've noticed: The people who deny racism, or don't see it as a problem, have likely never experienced it for themselves. They've never been in "the minority". And so they're not aware of that blind spot.
What is their typical background? European-American (or "white"). Christian (I'm including Catholic here). Straight. Cisgender (as opposed to transgender). And most of the time, male.
I'm Italian-American. I do not know the racism my [paternal] grandfather experienced from the time he arrived here to the time he died. Nor the racism my [paternal] grandmother, or her parents, experienced. Between then and the 1970s, things changed, and Italians, or those of Italian ancestry, were somehow reclassified as "white", and therefore, "one of us". I don't recall ever being called "dago", "wop", or "guinea".
I am also Polish-American. I endured the "dumb Polack" jokes of the early 70s. And again, I don't know the racism my maternal grandparents, my mother, or her siblings, had experienced. They lived in the Black Rock neighborhood of Buffalo, a predominantly Polish neighborhood, which was safe territory for them.
Have I ever experienced racism? Yes. I was the lead maintainer of a computer program used by several different system program offices (SPOs) of the Air Force. One org had everyone deployed at the administrator level, instead of one administrator and everyone else at the data entry level, as the system was designed. Their rationale was "We're all administrators here". I advised them to correct this, to select an administrator, so I could reassign the roles. As we were leaving, one of them said to one of my co-workers, "I don't like some foreigner telling me what to do." (I didn't hear this. If I had, I would probably have said, "Foreigner? I'm a US citizen. Have you ever seen an Italian-American before?"
But compared to other people in my life who have experienced and endured much more racism, this is just a drop in the bucket. From the woman of color who was stopped in Oakwood for "following too closely", or the man on color who was stopped on the 315 in Columbus twice by the same cop and advised to get out of town, or a Jewish friend who had someone who was pro-Palestinian denounce a family portrait.
How do we end this? How do we dispel the fear and hate? We just keep talking, trying to resolve our differences peacefully, without resorting to violence or murder.
What is their typical background? European-American (or "white"). Christian (I'm including Catholic here). Straight. Cisgender (as opposed to transgender). And most of the time, male.
I'm Italian-American. I do not know the racism my [paternal] grandfather experienced from the time he arrived here to the time he died. Nor the racism my [paternal] grandmother, or her parents, experienced. Between then and the 1970s, things changed, and Italians, or those of Italian ancestry, were somehow reclassified as "white", and therefore, "one of us". I don't recall ever being called "dago", "wop", or "guinea".
I am also Polish-American. I endured the "dumb Polack" jokes of the early 70s. And again, I don't know the racism my maternal grandparents, my mother, or her siblings, had experienced. They lived in the Black Rock neighborhood of Buffalo, a predominantly Polish neighborhood, which was safe territory for them.
Have I ever experienced racism? Yes. I was the lead maintainer of a computer program used by several different system program offices (SPOs) of the Air Force. One org had everyone deployed at the administrator level, instead of one administrator and everyone else at the data entry level, as the system was designed. Their rationale was "We're all administrators here". I advised them to correct this, to select an administrator, so I could reassign the roles. As we were leaving, one of them said to one of my co-workers, "I don't like some foreigner telling me what to do." (I didn't hear this. If I had, I would probably have said, "Foreigner? I'm a US citizen. Have you ever seen an Italian-American before?"
But compared to other people in my life who have experienced and endured much more racism, this is just a drop in the bucket. From the woman of color who was stopped in Oakwood for "following too closely", or the man on color who was stopped on the 315 in Columbus twice by the same cop and advised to get out of town, or a Jewish friend who had someone who was pro-Palestinian denounce a family portrait.
How do we end this? How do we dispel the fear and hate? We just keep talking, trying to resolve our differences peacefully, without resorting to violence or murder.
