Starting a sentence stating you are not prejudice never ends well
My daughter shared this video and I simply wanted to get it out there because I think it is prescient. It is evidently a very old clip but sadly the disease continues.
A white woman calls into the Oprah show stating that she would be afraid of the black man with dreadlocks in his hair on bus. In fact she said she would likely get up and sit in another seat. Yet she could not explain what made him scary.
Of course she then said it was likely he was not always in a suit. When asked if she is afraid of all men not in a suit, she said she wasn’t. It is unlikely she is afraid of a white man with dreadlocks as well. Implicitly one knows what she really means.
The black man on the panel explains to the woman what the new racism looks like in no uncertain terms. No longer will some say they simply do not like black folk or other folk. They use characteristics that make it implicitly clear. Republican political strategist Lee Atwater said it best in this video.
The clip sure brought back memories. It reminds me of the incident when I just moved to Kingwood, Texas and was walking in the trails. A white woman clutched her purse when I passed her. In those days I was a bit more confrontational but still knew the limits. I turned around and looked at her seething. I would have told her the same thing this man told the woman on the phone. But I knew better than to do that in person in a trail with no witnesses. Who knows, she might have started screaming and I may not be here writing this.
Damn if it is not an old clip that still applies. Folks, we’ve got to do better. The system has taught us to fear ‘some of the others’ as a method of control. It is an orchestration most have fallen for. One has to make the concerted effort to extricate the implanted mental disease. This is the same disease that causes police officers to be more aggressive with those others. The woman in the clip like many folks today are mentally ill. Their minds were systematically programmed to believe an unfounded fear.