Racism: 2011 Edition

"Post-Racial America"...

I've heard that term tossed around gingerly since the election of President Obama, as though his ultra-cool campaign posters were the panacea for all racial bias and issues that existed in America up until November 3, 2008.

Well, I have an announcement to make to all you Kumbaya singing, hand holding idealists out there.

Brace yourselves...

Racism is alive, well, and THRIVING in 2011.

*I'll give you a moment to unclutch your pearls.*

Yes, I say that racism is thriving through the efforts of such upstanding public characters as Sarah Palin, numerous Tea Party members and even through smaller outlets, such as my current Ethics professor and a former employer.

I've never been one to play the race card or to make a major issue out of my Blackness or "minority status", such that it is. (I say "minority" because I am used to playing the oh so popular party game, "What Are You Mixed With?", when encountering people who are seemingly befuddled by my cultural origin. That's another post for another day, though.)

I am finding that the people who take issue with people of racial backgrounds other than their own are becoming far more bold and vocal about their disdain for "others" and have little to no shame in expressing their bias and opinions.

In my graduate level Ethics course last week, the decrepit, White professor felt the need to take five minutes out of the class to give his thoughts on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as it was MLK, Jr. Day and we didn't get the holiday off. Instead of relating the work of Dr. King to the discussion we were having regarding when doing the right thing involves an ethical decision, He decided to tell us all how hated Dr. King was when he was alive and how dying makes everyone a saint. If this fossil of a man had better hearing, he would have heard me tell him to die so that we'd have something nice to say about him. But, I digress...

Those of you that know me are aware that I am FAR from a Black Panther, but there are some things that just should not be tolerated. I worked for a decidedly ridiculous fellow recently, who felt well within his rights to question the fact that I "read books and didn't chit chat with other people" during my lunch hour. He commented on several occasions that I was "uptight and too proper" during business phone calls (which he monitored) and that it was "nice" that I was "intellectual", but that he didn't get it. My final straw with this guy was him feeling completely justified in berating me in front of other people over a matter he was in the wrong about and telling me that I needed to address him as "sir" when talking to him, while others simply called him by his first name. Needless to say, that experience was terminated without a second thought.

I discussed the matter with a former co-worker and her response to the last episode was a surprisingly nonchalant, "Oh, he's so racist." While I do not fault her for her response, that conversation and experience opened my eyes much more widely to the growing issues and fights that lie ahead for my generation.

My hope and prayer is that when my daughter is at the age where she must enter the world on her own, she has much less of a struggle to endure. Until then, we must continue to work towards "post-racial America..."