Things Black People Confuse as Racist

December 9th, 2011 - By jaebi

America is such a global heavyweight that we forget the nation is only 235 years old, barely an adolescent as far as empires go. More than a third of U.S. history is marked by the legal institution of slavery and we’ve been dealing with the fallout of racial inequality ever since it was abolished. But cultural traditions run deep and propagate down generations. While progress is steady, America’s color lines don’t erase easy.

And few things warp a child’s mind more than the ridiculous notion that people don’t like you or judge you because you’re black. Even as an adult, it’s infuriating, depressing and demeaning all at once. Socially, it causes us to defend and define our existence out of habit. I’m not a “man in America” but rather a “black man in America,” and the difference is anything but subtle.

Today’s racism is often subtle, unlike the strain that infected the nation during the civil rights era. It’s carefully veiled. Daily situations are more shades of grey than simply black or white. Like any form of oppression, the people on the receiving end are left with the impotence to say something. But sometimes, our learned defensiveness jumps the gun and what appears to be classic racism may actually be a case of mistaken identity.

Here are the 7 most common things that get billed racist when the check should be going somewhere else.

"Racist comment or no?"

Being Confused as a Store Clerk

Ever go shopping in [insert chain store here] and a white person asks you for help? The first thing you think is, “Oh, you think I work here because I’m black?” but not so fast. There are plenty of non-racist reasons someone might think you work there like your outfit. I’ve been caught out there wearing matching colors to the store clerks.

Sometimes people just aren’t being mindful. Say you knock over a few boxes of cereal and start resetting them as someone walks over with a burning question, hardly looking your direction in her thirst to consume. Silly things like that happen all the time. But if you’re wearing a boardroom suit in the supermarket and some white person comes up talking about, “where’s the oatmeal,” that’s some racist s#!@

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  • http://www.facebook.com/arthur.thomas.58511 Arthur Thomas

    This Article is very shortsighted and not very deep at all, first of all, its title is absolute, it doesn’t even say some black people, it says black people are confused, inferring we are not smart enough to discern what is racist. Our plight is not respected in this country, we KNOW people are racist, but yet NO one is racist as articles like this and everyone that carries the white man’s burden will have you believe. A lot of folks get impatient and intolerant of our plight. As a result we get lousy articles like this to satiate racists that don’t even realize they’re racist, NOT having a black friend may not not be entirely racist, but it very much leads to racism, the more you allow yourself to not know, in this case a black person for yourself, what are you left with? What your parents and other people have told you, and the media’s representation of us, which often teaches fear, so then not only are you ignorant about black people, you’re afraid of us and stuff like the way Trayvon martin died occurs. Because of what happened in the past a lot of us are traumatized, especially when we know we don’t get the same treatment as others in this country (Which is a reoccurring theme in the U.S.), we’re a target, especially young males, and sometimes yes, we do confuse what’s racist, but what one-sided article like this one intimates that we over-exaggerate, trust me we don’t. What everyone needs in situations like this simply is understanding, which is hard to come by, instead of being upset or frustrated to the point where you feel you can’t even talk to a black person, try to understand what they’re upset about, then do that for every other group that has a logical plight and strife

  • Lucy

    Was this written by a white woman? Or is it someone who’s just tired of standing outside of the club?

  • Katie Mae

    I’m a blonde, white, young-looking 30-year-old. I get asked inadvertently for help in stores (maybe because younger people tend to be store clerks) and I am followed/watched while in stores often (Maybe because younger people tend to cause trouble and they don’t always realize I’m a full-on adult). So it definitely isn’t always racism… usually it is just generic prejudice. Interesting, funny article nonetheless.

    Also, all blonde, white chicks look alike. Fact.

  • imperializm

    white ppl are just the same Dumb to the worlds true facts and sensitive when u speak highly of black people and black history.

  • Common Sense

    There is something I don’t understand… how come it is OK for black people to be ‘proud’ to be black, but if a white person is proud to be white, it’s racism? How come black people get to have their own TV stations (BET, etc) and groups, but whites and others cannot? If there was a ‘White Entertainment Channel’ you know there would be hell to pay.

    The truth is, most black people you see on TV can proclaim to the world that they are proud of their heritage and skin color, but white people of various nationalities cannot. Black people routinely segregate themselves with various clubs, groups, etc. It’s OK to be part of a Black group, but if you are part of a White group, it’s considered hatred.

    When will some of you guys realize that it’s YOU who are segregating yourselves and propagating the ridiculous stereotypes? Personally, I don’t pay attention to skin color. But it’s gotten to the point where people can’t say anything negative to certain races without it being considered racist. WAKE UP PEOPLE, THOSE WHO CRY ‘RACISM’ THE LOUDEST ARE USUALLY THE MOST RACIST THEMSELVES.

    • diracproject

      Your comment is not actually nuanced or bringing about any particular revelations, it’s just shouting, “Nuh-uh! You!” That’s not very helpful to the points you try to make, you would end up putting the recipient on the defensive. I’m dispassionate about this, so I’ll try to respond fairly.

      1) The reason there isn’t a “white entertainment channel” is because white is still the standard. Let’s try word association. All-American. Golden boy. Girl next door. There was probably not a single person of color whose imagery came to mind with those words. That doesn’t make you racist, but it does serve an example that these “pride” markets are not just about pride… they’re niche markets. Plenty of African-Americans don’t watch BET, you can evidence that just from the ratings numbers. A channel like that appeals to a specific subset of the “black community.” And whatever, they can have their channel if they want. And if you really want a white entertainment channel, you can lobby for that anyway, although you’d have a hard sell if solely from a statistical standpoint: by far, the vast majority of faces on TV are white. What market is there to appeal to, at that point? What viewership base are they going to peel off from existing networks?

      2) Be proud to be white if you want to be proud. Just be able to articulate what about being white makes you proud, and note that a number of people who are most vocal about being “proud to be white” are being proud as a way of voicing notions of racial superlatives. I reject any “pride” arguments, from any person no matter who they are, in which they voice pride in themselves because their racial identity in some way makes them better than someone else. As long as you’re not going that route, have all the pride parades you want.

      3) Since when can whites not be proud of their heritage? I’ve worked for people of Irish and Italian and German and Swedish and regular small-town North Carolinian heritage who were all proud of where they came from, and none of my coworkers of color gave them any flak for it. If the people near you are giving you problems about it, again, if you’re not saying that being white makes you better than them (ie, begging for an argument) then those people don’t speak for all people of color everywhere and are in fact simply jerks. If you were looking for some validation on that, there you go.

      4) Whites segregate themselves all the time. They just don’t think about it because, as I said, they’re the majority, so they don’t think about it. It’s just the way things are, for them. It doesn’t have to be intentional segregation to be segregation nonetheless, but then segregation always happens in a variety of contexts. When I market a product to women, I’m segregating them from the male purchasing population. It’s not that I hate men or am trying to make a statement about patriarchal attitudes over the years, that’s just the business that I run. But if men want to buy it, then I sell it to them to. Simple. Not malicious segregation. If I were to say, no, you can’t buy this because men are bad and unclean and I don’t want your hairy hands on my shelves then yes, that’s malicious segregation.

      5) And white segregation, when it happens, can be harmful. I’ve had to advise my managers about this when HR for my workplace, run by a white lady, said that they’d received complaints about not giving a fair shot to blacks to apply for jobs. I know, personally, that those managers aren’t racist, however I had to explain to them that they had to use the right processes because the way they were giving people jobs was that somebody came up to them on the street while they were just on their off-hours and recommended someone and they got the job that way. Nothing wrong with that, it’s not nepotism if you’re qualified for the job, but they inadvertently cut out people of color from their hiring simply because when they were at home in their neighborhoods, they only had white neighbors so only those whites were telling them about other whites they knew who needed jobs. So it was their own segregation that ended up disadvantaging people of color who would have applied for open positions if they had a fair shot at applying for a job, but they didn’t know the positions were open. That’s a far different case than a club mainly frequented by blacks or Latinos because they’re situated in neighborhoods with high proportional populations of those ethnicities, because even at those clubs if you’re a white guy but respectable and pay your door fee they don’t care who you are and will still let you in. They don’t advertise to you, but you have the same capacity to walk through the door as anybody else. If you choose not to go to those places (which aren’t hard to find) then you’re agreeing with and helping to enforce segregation and taking it beyond simple niche marketing.

      6) Those who cry racism may or may not be racists. It’s an issue of context. You look foolish making a blanket statement like that.

      You likely weren’t hoping for a conversation, though, and you wrote your thoughts nearly two weeks before I put down my reply so I don’t expect any conversation to come of this. Whatever you’re doing with your time, have a good day, and if you’re glad to be white then be happy with that. I mean, being white in America is still a pretty sweet deal, no matter what anyone says.

  • http://www.facebook.com/tony.carr.921 Tony Carr

    I think context is everything and it is shameful to give people a blanket pass for some of those behaviors.

  • http://www.facebook.com/rick.hardrickjr Rick Hardrick Jr

    the civil war was not a war for slavery, it was a war on retaining “the union”. Iincoln did not free the slaves til the war was in full swing. I dont believe we should get reparations, but i still believe racism goes on today i.e trayvon martin, ad rodney king. whens the last time u heard about a “white man” gettin beat half to death by police……………..

  • http://twitter.com/LerinneNatalia Lerinne Natalia

    Describing someone as “black”, I will say right now is a SERIOUS misunderstanding. I always wonder why when a white person is talking about a black person, they stop…stutter…and go, “you know…the…uh….african-american man”. OH GOD. I dont think white ppl know they make that weird. hahaha. I NEVER got offended when someone said “the black guy/girl”. What makes if offensive is when you are just being so obviously uncomfortable and scared that something craaaazy is going to happen once you utter the words. Almost the way someone sounds when they are talking about the “fat” person. You tiptoe around it because calling someone fat may sound offensive. And calling someone their race, its just not the same thing. THATS what that one is about.

  • http://twitter.com/LerinneNatalia Lerinne Natalia

    ok that face paint one was hilarious. Unfortunately, some of us are still fighting the wars of our fathers. But I dont get offended by face paint, are u kidding me? I wasnt even thought of when black face was…being done or whatever. I think for the older generation, this is a button.

  • Minpreet Singh

    Blackface is racist. And it was a racist form of entertainment lol…this whole article is like an intentional jab; not to mention, the other racist articles on here. Who wrote this?! Anyone can make a site these days.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Submergedlife Bee Aggie

    This article isn’t funny to me. These girls are clearly related that’s why they look alike. Clearly someone who is beige wrote this!

  • Jeff

    I love how the examples the author uses at the end of the first couple instances are “like when a white person….” That is racist, everyone can be racist not just white people.

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