Proof that white people are the most racist....

OK OK OK, the title was click bait. But now that you are here, you might as well hear what I have to say, right? Earlier today I made a post on facebook about an incident that occurred on the way home from Concord. I'll spare you the details, you can read it on facebook. I had no intentions of posting about it on facebook, but I mentioned it to my roommates and I was fascinated by their responses.

My roommate Mandi was surprised by me telling her "I was called a chink for the first time in years". Her face was priceless, she thought, due to the tone of my voice (which apparently was happy) that I would have great news for her. She immediately apologized for what I had to go through. My socialist (just kidding) roommate Matthias comes out with his input as well. I was floored at how upset they were. For a fact, they were more offended than I was. I think I was too busy figuring out where to place my 15 cases of DRINKmaple (which you can get for 15% off with the code FRIENDofJDT, shameless plug, I know), to be upset. We had a brief discussion about race relations, how we each defined racism, and what is (in our opinion) acceptable and what isn't. I really relish these conversations, it forces me to expand my understanding of others, it forces me to push on all 6 sides of the box.

I decided to blog about it and parlay it into a shout out for DRINKmaple (I happen to be chugging a bottle at the moment anyways), partly to break up the seriousness, partly, because I think I'm funny.

This blog post is about my friends, the outpouring support that I have from my social network. You people, are truly inspiring and I am so incredibly proud to call you my friends. I didn't make the facebook post so that people could tell me how sorry they are for me, I didn't make it so that people could pity my life as a minority in this country. I wasn't even offended by the racist, I just thought he was stupid and I thought the post would get a few laughs.

I didn't get a few laughs (well, I know at least Eliana thought I was funny), I got an enormous amount of support. I had friends text me, I had friends call me, the first thing that happened at band practice was hugs and apologies for what happened. It was incredible, and I want you all to know that you DO make a difference, you folks are the game changers in America. Do not be silent. I don't buy all the love trumps hate bullshit, but I do believe in sharing knowledge, sharing stories, and supporting one another.

Within all this, is a small lesson to be learned. A very important one, if you ask me. The majority (and we're talking great, you could say YUGE majority) of racism that I have experienced in this country have come from white people. But this blog is dedicated to all my friends, especially the YUGE (ok, that's just a funny saying) majority of support that has been poured out to me were from white people, some even trump supporters (no, I'm not getting political). This is important because I am fortunate. I am fortunate to have a diversity of friends to pull from, to learn from, to experience. This diversity of friends allows me to understand that not ALL white people are racist. I think we as people, need to better understand others. There are minorities out there that are not as fortunate as I am. Their surroundings, their social networks, their friends, are the same spectrum. Take a black child in Compton (gah, I'm dating myself, Comptom is probably gentrified by now), his friends are going to be other poor black kids, he's not going to be able to draw from experiences like I am. The same can be said about many other ethnic minorities in our republic. The same can even be said for "white supremacist" in parts of America. It's hard to think otherwise of someone of color, if you have never had the chance to get to know that person. You take the 4 year old of a racist and put that child in the playpen with 5 other children of color, they'll play. They'll fight too, but that's because of a toy.

Perhaps the key is diversity, perhaps the key is forcing children, at a young age, to be friends with people of color. School desegregation works... but it is vehemently fought against, as per the case of Michael Brown's mother. Episode 562 of This American Life did a phenomenal job covering this.

I'm not sure what the point of this blog was, this is quite typical of my blogs, if you are a follower (do I have any followers?). I start off with this grand idea, then my mind floats, perhaps it was the 2 fingers of scotch... nah, it was probably the second 2 fingers of scotch....