I just recieved a great example of how non-racist white people will actually act in a racist manner - and how their subtle (passive-aggressive) version of racism works to hurt black people - when those blacks have done nothing wrong. Follow me:
My black friend was at work, with his two white employers, when Lorde's song "Royals" (above) came on the radio.
My friend started laughing, because he knew about the black website making fun of Lorde's matronly appearance at 17-years old.
One of my friend's employers, a NewAge white woman, asked what was so funny and was told about the website.
Then the NewAger asked "Why would black people do that?"
My friend explained that Lorde and Macklemore won the Grammys in a sort of white/gay coup over Kendrick Lamar and other, better, Rap artists - a fact Macklemore apologized to Kendrick Lamar for - and so, because Lorde and Macklemore's hits were both critical of Hip-Hop culture, blacks were having a little online fun at Lorde's expense.
My friend's white employer, the NewAger, said she didn't "believe" Lorde's song was about Hip-Hop, and started insisting it was actually about the Queen of England. But here's Lorde on the subject:
And the NewAger should've been listening, because the song talks about people with gold grills, Cristal, and Maybachs - not stuff the Queen of England is into - but stuff black people, specifically, are.
The NewAger still didn't "believe" it - and, of course, in The Age of the Internet, she wouldn't check the facts to see if she was wrong - so, from here on out, she's arguing purely from ignorance, insisting Lorde had been unfairly persecuted by blacks because Lorde's white. The conversation starts getting louder - and uglier.
Now the despute gets the attention of the NewAger's husband, who insists my friend is bringing racial discord into the workplace - again - and the husband starts screaming my friend can't work there if he won't stop upsetting him.
Realizing his job is now a target, my friend starts pleading for understanding. HE didn't bring up a racial issue - HE laughed at a song and a website, and a racial situation occurring in American popular culture that the NewAger asked about - didn't they see that?
No, the husband insists, my friend is always talking about black stuff, and making whites feel bad (his NewAge wife starts mock-moaning in the background how "sorry" she is to be white) and the husband's had enough - this is "negative" stuff - and they're done.
So now my friend is out of a job, because these two white people, who swear they're not racist, charged him with (I guess) "reverse-racism" in America - and they feel right and secure in doing so - except there's one little obvious problem:
It was a totally racist thing to do - and I can prove it immediately.
Imagine this had been three blacks working together, and my friend started laughing at Lorde's predicament. Would there have been a controversy, racial or otherwise? Definitely not.
Black people made the website my friend was laughing at.
Black people are aware of the Grammy injustice.
Black people are aware of the Grammy snub because they also know the other - better - artists who got passed over for Lorde and Macklemore.
And black people are well-aware Lorde's lyrics were criticizing blacks for liking the money America has denied us for hundreds of years.
Really think about it:
What would three blacks have had to fight over? Nada.
Would anyone have accused blacks of being ignorant, and attacking the innocent Lorde, for writing a song about the Queen of England? Nope.
Would anyone have suggested mentioning a website was a call to arms, or a desire for racial animosity, in the workplace? Not a chance.
Would anyone have thought a black person, talking about a simple pop culture news item that interests black people, was somehow an attack or provocation to whites?
Not in a million years.
But put insecure whites in the picture and they can, will, and do - plus stubbornly harassing/attacking/punishing an innocent black person over it. Don't "believe" it? Stay with me:
This is a link to Jerry Seinfeld's new show (Jerry was in his own racial controversy recently) and, in the linked episode, Jerry's taking Chris Rock out for coffee. At one point in the video, here's the dialogue:
Chris Rock: "As my brother would say [Between Beyoncé and Alicia Keys] 'Pick a bitch.'"
Jerry Seinfeld: "The analogy always has to be black artists, right?"
Chris Rock: [almost uncomfortably]: "I'm black,...Jerry."
Isn't that amazing? A black person is,…black.
So, even while Rock's ridden in Jerry's car made by whites, they go to a white café, in a white neighborhood, on a white TV show (on a station owned by whites) with probably a white crew, featuring a "white" star, drinking white Italian coffee drinks, Rock still has time to read about black people, watch black TV shows, listen to black music, and keep up with black lives and ideas - because, as he says, "I'm black,...Jerry."
Weird, huh?
I mean, Jerry - and my friend's white employers - don't bother to follow "black" anything.
I mean, Jerry - and my friend's white employers - don't bother to follow "black" anything.
Blacks seem to be an uncomfortable subject for Seinfeld - and my friend's white employers. Especially the fact black people talk about, think about, and reference things blacks are interested in, along with (and, sometimes, even before) all the stuff white America is tripping on.
Do blacks do this to hurt white people? Give me a break. We barely think about white people, much less want to hurt them.
We do it because we like blacks - even if whites don't, or even if whites just don't care.
We like black TV shows.
We like black music.
We're interested in what's happening to blacks in America.
Whites don't even figure into it - except when they shove themselves into it - to start bitching and moaning that blacks aren't paying enough attention to them and their feelings. And here's a question:
When whites make up 72% of America - almost the entire country's population - how insecure do they have to be, to insist 12% of the population never discuss their own interests in front of them, or else the whites may freak out and fire the blacks for being racist?
And this is a biggie:
How "nice" and/or "non-racist" are white people, really, when they will take away a black person's ability to earn a living because the whites are too stubborn to check facts, or themselves, and admit when they're wrong? I'll tell you:
As racist as all-get-out.
Because it doesn't matter if they "believe" they're racist or not, since white people outnumber everybody else 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and hold all the cards - they can gang up to persecute and hurt any innocent black person they desire - based on being white, staying ignorant, and nothing more.
If they can't tell the difference between being threatened and feeling threatened - but they're acting on it, sometimes to hurt the blacks, either way? No big deal to them.
That's how American racism "works" today.
Blacks can get hurt for nothing while whites get to feel superior for damaging the black's life, and it's all so the white's precious NewAge "beliefs" - whether they're right or wrong - get to stay intact.
Whites don't have to be racist to act racist - all they have to be is willingly ignorant of their power in this country.
And that's exactly what they do - all over this country - while exercising that power every day, in every way.
But, let's face it, this is nothing new:
Blacks have always paid a heavy price for white frivolousness.
Blacks have always paid a heavy price for white frivolousness.
And that price has always included being told we should be "happy" as whites screw us over for simply being alive,…
