Friday, December 5, 2014
Up at 4:40, racquetball until 6:45, worked at both Varinsky and Wendel today. A busy week.
I had three conversations about race today. The first was with Dorian for about 45 minutes before work, the second was with Cheryl at Varinsky, and the third was with Lillian, Jonathan and Murry at Wendel. It's fascinating to me how engaging these conversations are when there's an acknowledgement of how the system is rigged in favor of white people in America, especially white males. The denial is palpable. These conversations came about after I saw the choking death video of Eric Garner. It's a crazy time in America right now as we confront our internalized, systematized, institutionalized fear of the black man that has been perpetuated here for hundreds of years. Everyone knows there's a problem and at least people, even white people, are talking about race.
Here's a good example of the denial I'm talking about. This guy can't admit there's any bias in this country. He refuses to see it. There are millions upon millions of white males just like him. This is why a conversation about race devolves into a defensive, angry, intense shouting match, especially when a white male refuses to acknowledge the blatant, obvious, undeniable bias that exists in America. I'm not really sure what the answer is, because it takes months, if not years, for the white male race blinders to come off. It's very frustrating to have an honest conversation about race when someone refuses to accept reality of race in America by assuming his own reality of fairness and equality. What this gentleman might want to do is continue to have more conversations with people of color about the fairness and lack of bias in the country, especially with police officers, and then we'll see how much longer he can maintain his false argument that all is fair and just and equal in the streets of NYC. He's assuming all police officers walk up to anyone and say, "Good afternoon, how can I help you?" instead of, "What's your business here?" or "Did you just do something wrong?"
All this conversation as kept my Hollywood Hound draft on hold these past few days, but it's all good. This stuff is crucial.
Up at 4:40, racquetball until 6:45, worked at both Varinsky and Wendel today. A busy week.
I had three conversations about race today. The first was with Dorian for about 45 minutes before work, the second was with Cheryl at Varinsky, and the third was with Lillian, Jonathan and Murry at Wendel. It's fascinating to me how engaging these conversations are when there's an acknowledgement of how the system is rigged in favor of white people in America, especially white males. The denial is palpable. These conversations came about after I saw the choking death video of Eric Garner. It's a crazy time in America right now as we confront our internalized, systematized, institutionalized fear of the black man that has been perpetuated here for hundreds of years. Everyone knows there's a problem and at least people, even white people, are talking about race.
Here's a good example of the denial I'm talking about. This guy can't admit there's any bias in this country. He refuses to see it. There are millions upon millions of white males just like him. This is why a conversation about race devolves into a defensive, angry, intense shouting match, especially when a white male refuses to acknowledge the blatant, obvious, undeniable bias that exists in America. I'm not really sure what the answer is, because it takes months, if not years, for the white male race blinders to come off. It's very frustrating to have an honest conversation about race when someone refuses to accept reality of race in America by assuming his own reality of fairness and equality. What this gentleman might want to do is continue to have more conversations with people of color about the fairness and lack of bias in the country, especially with police officers, and then we'll see how much longer he can maintain his false argument that all is fair and just and equal in the streets of NYC. He's assuming all police officers walk up to anyone and say, "Good afternoon, how can I help you?" instead of, "What's your business here?" or "Did you just do something wrong?"
All this conversation as kept my Hollywood Hound draft on hold these past few days, but it's all good. This stuff is crucial.
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