There is such a huge divide between what white people 'think' and what black people 'experience' in terms of race relations in the U.S. I've come to realize this. Today I had yet another phone call from a very dear friend who also resides in Texas. He was recounting to me an experience he had while on an outing with his wife. Two white men, angry over a parking space he had taken, decided to yell racial slurs at him and his wife and their four kids. He often calls me with recounts of racist experiences he's had. He's fairly new to Texas. He isn't use to the overt and overly hostile nature of the racism in this state. I tried to calm him down. I felt a deep sense of sadness and even a bit of rage (against whites) as I spoke to him. He's such a nice guy. He came to Texas simply to support his family. That's all he wants to do. That's all any of us want to do. But the anger that is directed at us constantly and the rage and the hostility simply because we are black has at times really worn on our psyche and our health. I absolutely hate the fact he's had these experiences. He's a guy that I had never ever heard even speak on race before he moved to Texas. Now it's pretty much all he talks about. It really doesn't feel very safe in this state. Maybe it's not safe for black people right now in any state. In some ways it does feel as if there are parts of Texas that are still trapped in the pre-civil war era. Places where people hold views about blacks that are very outdated and backwards. Places where 'hate' override 'logic'. I told him that whites (yes.. I said 'whites') were simply frustrated over the fact that America was changing so quickly. I told him I believe that white people feel that their power and privilege has come under threat. The media tries to downplay the racism in the U.S. But it is so overt now. It's much worse than I can remember it ever being while I was growing up. As a black person, racism is one of the overriding concerns we face in this country now. It's racism of the worst, hostile sort. The kind that will leave someone murdered. Or seriously injured. The kind that results in police brutality. The kind that results in complete strangers who are white, usually men, feeling that they can approach random blacks minding their own business and question them about where they are going and what they are up to. The kind that results in white civilians not only feeling that they have the right to stop and question a black minority, but the right to pull their gun and shoot at the slightest aggravation. The racist slurs directed at black people have become much more frequent. People blame this on President Obama. President Obama had nothing to do with this. The fact that he, a black man, achieved the highest office in the land, was all the fuel needed to bring out deep seated racial hatred and animosity in certain circles towards blacks.
For the life of me I don't understand why white people in this country are so racist. I know it's not all of them. But it certainly feels like its a sizeable number of whites that harbor a deep resentment, a deep racial hatred, of blacks. I know it's this way in Texas. From all of my experiences, I can say I feel quite certain about this. My friends feel the same way too. When will this end?
