Unless we recognize ourselves, hate will always come along with race.
" The funny thing is, though, who am I exposing white people to? It ain't news to black folks that white people are still racist. I guess I'm exposing white people to themselves. We've gotten so good at pretending we're not racist that we've started to believe it. We act like racism got dealt with back in the sixties, and treat anybody who dares to bring it up today like they're wearing Day-Glo bell- bottoms or something. We teach our kids the doctrine of color blindness, tell them not to notice race. Which is impossible in a society as racially stratified as ours, so all they really learn is not to talk about it. To ignore it and deny it like their parents."
"Most white people, even if they have black friends, never expose themselves to any situation that will make them feel uncomfortable or like the minority. Me, I feel uncomfortable if I'm not the minority. I even get suspicious when I see other white folks poking around black culture.
'But Macon, isn't that hypocritical?' shouted Dale Kinsley of the WB 11 news at Ten.
Of course, you'll find I'm highly hypocritical. Part of me believes we're all the same , and part of me believes in every racist fairy tale I've ever heard, even the ones that Contradict the other ones. I'll look at a black kid standing on a street corner and part of me will decide that he's probably some undiscovered, disadvantaged genius, and want to step in and help him turn his life around like in one of those dumb-ass oh-thank-you-mister-white-man movies. And at the same time, another part of me will look at him and see a menace, a drug dealer. somebody who probably hates me, and want to cross the street to get away from him. And another part of me knows that my fear is really guilt, because there are X number of reasons why he's standing on that street corner and I'm not , and I feel like he has the right to hate me for reaping the rewards of a system that excludes him-- even more so since I'm aware of it. And another part rejects all that and gets self-righteous about the whole thing, like 'it's his fault, he's where he deserves to be.' Even though for all I know the guy's just waiting for his grandmother to begin with. Meanwhile, another part of me is busy blaming you guys, the media, for feeding me so many images of black people as violent criminals that I can't shake them all. Then there's the part that wants more than anything in the world for that kid to nod hello, because that would validate me, make me feel for a minute like I'm not white, not different from him, not responsible for his oppression, or like I'm cool enough to get this murderous gangster thug's respect." - Macon Detornay
ORGANIZATION FOR RACIAL PEACE http://www.projectrace.com/
