A peach crayon was named flesh
Light pink pantyhose were called nude.
I can name on one hand the TV Shows that featured blacks
The Jeffersons, and Good Times, Mod Squad had a black guy in it.
Blacks were rarely in car commercials and hardly luxury car commercials.
In movies, blacks were the criminals being chased, until
"They call me Mr. Tibbs"
All my superheroes were white
Even pictures of Jesus were white.
The Cosby show was called unrealistic for black families
There were no black quarterbacks
There were no black NFL Coaches
There were no black owners in the NFL (still aren't)
The only other black students in my elementary school classes were my siblings.
Teachers, avoided eye contact during American history when talking about slaves.
The "N" word was never spoken to me in jest.
My first black teachers were in High School In Germany.
Maps in my classrooms didn't accurately display the size of African countries. But carried an (*) saying " is actually 600x larger.
Boxing was always a snapshot of the lower class. First Irish boxers then Italian boxers then Black boxers and finally Hispanics.
Black inventions were left out of school history books.
I never saw black politicians, pilots, bankers, and doctors.
So I'll forgive you for saying:
"That was a long time ago"
" I don't think racism still exists"
"All lives matter"
"I don't see color"
"You seem so angry"
"I thought we were past all this"
"You had a black president, what else do you want?"
"You are so well-spoken, you sound white"
"You look like Denzel Washington"
If you can try to understand:
It wasn't a long time ago.
Racism still exists.
All lives do matter, just not equally so don't freak when we draw attention to a group from time to time.
Not seeing color usually means you only see in black and white.
It's OK to be angry at the injustice that often impacts people like me disproportionally.
We can't get past this until we all admit there is a problem.
One in 220 years in a country that is only 244 years old, I am not holding out hope for 2240?
Language isn't a color. Nor owned by one.
I appreciate the compliment, but we don't all look alike.
Light pink pantyhose were called nude.
I can name on one hand the TV Shows that featured blacks
The Jeffersons, and Good Times, Mod Squad had a black guy in it.
Blacks were rarely in car commercials and hardly luxury car commercials.
In movies, blacks were the criminals being chased, until
"They call me Mr. Tibbs"
All my superheroes were white
Even pictures of Jesus were white.
The Cosby show was called unrealistic for black families
There were no black quarterbacks
There were no black NFL Coaches
There were no black owners in the NFL (still aren't)
The only other black students in my elementary school classes were my siblings.
Teachers, avoided eye contact during American history when talking about slaves.
The "N" word was never spoken to me in jest.
My first black teachers were in High School In Germany.
Maps in my classrooms didn't accurately display the size of African countries. But carried an (*) saying " is actually 600x larger.
Boxing was always a snapshot of the lower class. First Irish boxers then Italian boxers then Black boxers and finally Hispanics.
Black inventions were left out of school history books.
I never saw black politicians, pilots, bankers, and doctors.
So I'll forgive you for saying:
"That was a long time ago"
" I don't think racism still exists"
"All lives matter"
"I don't see color"
"You seem so angry"
"I thought we were past all this"
"You had a black president, what else do you want?"
"You are so well-spoken, you sound white"
"You look like Denzel Washington"
If you can try to understand:
It wasn't a long time ago.
Racism still exists.
All lives do matter, just not equally so don't freak when we draw attention to a group from time to time.
Not seeing color usually means you only see in black and white.
It's OK to be angry at the injustice that often impacts people like me disproportionally.
We can't get past this until we all admit there is a problem.
One in 220 years in a country that is only 244 years old, I am not holding out hope for 2240?
Language isn't a color. Nor owned by one.
I appreciate the compliment, but we don't all look alike.
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