REVISITING UNINTENTIONAL RACISM

After reading yesterday's Sue's News about stereotypes, Mona Lisa called and said, "You should re-publish the one about unintentional racism."  Below is the article from 2011:  



                                            INTENTIONAL/UNINTENTIONAL RACISM

Years ago I read an article about unintentional racism. An example given in the article was that in the Katrina aftermath, when Barbara Bush and the former President Bush toured the Astrodome, Mrs. Bush commented, "So many people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

The fact that those poor people had lost loved ones, homes, jobs, pets, and possessions seemed lost on Mrs. Bush.  The author of the article attributed her callous attitude to "unintentional racism" and concluded that she did not realize that her remarks were indeed racist, but just showed her to be out-of-touch and unsympathetic.   I wondered aloud, "I wonder how she would have felt if she'd lost everything and was transported hundreds of miles away to sleep on a cot with no privacy?"   Recalling her remarks about Geraldine Ferraro, I was not inclined to be as tolerant.

Bob, one of my colleagues at Rockwell was a very well-spoken, educated, professional who happened to be African-American. One day, Bob and I were having lunch together, and later, another colleague who had observed us together, commented, "He's the whitest black man I've ever seen." I called him out and told him that was offensive and racist;  the guy was obviously surprised and said he'd meant it as a compliment! I said, "Then I'm supposed to infer that you think that only white people USUALLY have his attributes?" He said, "I didn't mean anything by it."

In stores, I oftentimes see store personnel who stop people to check their receipts. I have never been stopped, but I always hold my receipt in my hand with my car keys. I always assumed people were stopped if there were un-bagged items in the cart. Tonight, I was behind a couple in line who are black and I saw the man bagging the items. I had one item and as I followed behind the couple, they were stopped to show their receipt. I had my receipt ready and the store employee waved and said, "You're all right." I said, "I know that I am all right, but what was wrong with those folks ahead of me?" He said, "They had something that wasn't in a bag." I said, "That's NOT true; I was behind them in line and he bagged everything."

Tomorrow I will call the District Manager to inquire about the Company policy.