The latent racism in each of us
It was less than a week ago that I suddenly became aware that I had fallen prey to latent racism.
Racism [ Vreemdelingenhaat ]
Dorment Racism
Racism, I was amazed by my reaction. What and when? I had just parked my car at a signposted walk of natuurpunt. From a distance I saw another car parking next to mine which I found strange. Normally no one stops here and I have nature all to myself here. From the same distance I saw a young man with tawny skin color get out of this car. He probably hadn’t seen me and I took a picture of the number plate – it was a French number plate. I personally think that says it all; You are worried because a young man with a little skin color is parking next to your car. Unfortunately, the stereotyping has succeeded in influencing my behavior.
This otherwise friendly guy didn’t deserve that at all. I followed the path further and apparently there was a shortcut because I walked towards him. It turned out that he spoke French – of course – that car with a French license plate had not been stolen. He had been visiting a friend and saw that my car was there and went to stretch his legs. I did my best to name the animals I had seen on my many walks by name in French and that was not easy. ‘Des cerf’ Deer and I don’t remember what I told him about the animals you could see there – he was a friendly young man and at the end of the walk that strangely enough was also the beginning I just saw him leave. He saw me coming and opened the right window to check if I was ok. During the short conversation I had also told him that I had Parkinson’s and that I couldn’t keep up too fast a walking pace. Friendly boy, and I’m ashamed of doubting his integrity.
I would never describe myself as racist, but by constantly talking about strangers, we make it quite difficult for ourselves and the other person. Put it to the test yourself; We bet you’ll find similar incidents as well. You shouldn’t be ashamed of yourself, for finding this latent racism, but you can safely blame yourself for reacting this way, just like I am grilling myself now.
It proves once again how biased we are towards the tawny person. We all like to have a tan to prove that we have been on vacation. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that we still react in that reprehensible way under the skin towards these light to dark ebony-like skin color men. And to put racism in a different light – women with such finely strung skin are classified under the heading of ‘exotic’. That pretty much says it all.
You can’t fight it by stating the opposite when you are bombarded with statements that put the people of a different color (that sounds better than black or brown people’s nicknames) in a bad perspective. It’s not fair – towards this often at least equally sweet person of a different color. No, different color is not a good description because then we assume that the white spectrum is the ‘normal’ color. I don’t know how to go about that, maybe there is no solution for it, but at least do your best not to cultivate dormant racist thoughts.
Stefan Social 