Dream On

Today I was planning to cover so many other topics. In fact, I had a whole counterpoint to Cris's first posting laid out. But then my emotions took over. I experienced something today that paraphrases just exactly how MLK's dream was not realized in Obama's election/inauguration. Just because a (half) black is our new president doesn't mean racism has disappeared. Or even lessened.

It's just manifested in different ways. I wish that people would no longer be judged by the color of their skin, but rather the content of their character. Every time somebody calls me a foreigner, I am acutely aware things have not changed.

This afternoon, my co-worker and I were watching Divorce Court on our lunch break. For those of you who've never seen it, you're not missing anything. Trying to pay attention to it just makes your head hurt. The couple in question was black. And they were stupid. But there's no correlation between these two factors.

For some reason, I chose to care about the episode. I asked my coworker, somewhat rhetorically, what was wrong with the couple. I didn't believe their respective cases had any merit. And she replied, "I don't know what to tell you, they're n*ggers. You know how black people are." She said something more implying that stupidity is characteristic of African-Americans, but I didn't catch it all.

She's lucky she was leaving the room and I was momentarily blindsided by her blatantly racist comment. Cuz I would have let her have IT. As a girl of color herself (and Asian immigrant), I expected more from her. Although I had no respect for her before, I shall not even grant her the courtesy of polite conversation. I find her too ignorant to converse with.

The fact that someone would say such a hateful thing without realizing just how bigoted they were being just goes to show you, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

-De