Where The 'N' Word Lives Part 2
Recap:
Part 1 of our series in exploring the hidden (but not so hidden) racial and unequal parts of America hit close to my home. In such a place not so far and then placed right in the middle of "white-thought" country, we saw just a taste of prejudice in a small town community, not far from major Tourist Florida. In part 2 we will have a broader look and touch on media news and how race came to play a role in a local town not so far from here.
Places I've Been, Places You Can't Be
Running a paper route in the middle of the night can be strenuous. It's hard on a normal life. Depending where you get these routes you tend to see everything from drunks, devastating late-night car crashes, even violence if your not so lucky enough. While it keeps things interesting and different, the fact of the matter is your job becomes more dangerous. Especially if you have to stop by a convenient store. Here you do find many drunks on their way from parties and bars. You get crazies who want late-night snacks after being in a drug-induced coma. If someone isn't packing heat in intent to rob the store, sometimes you encounter racial interactions instead. Two races mixing at a common place, perhaps for a common purchase.I arrived at one of my stores to drop papers and bag the rest of my route. Outside, an obvious skin head with a swastika tattoo on his neck walks into the store with his girlfriend behind him. Roughly the same time a young black girl pulls up to go inside as well. The black girl doesn't look like she came from the club as some do this late, nor was she loud or rude. What sparked the confrontation: nothing. Nothing I could hear or see anyway. The skin head's girlfriend suddenly shouts "You 'f'ing' nigger!" The black woman, shocked, shouts back "Well, at least I'm no nasty-ass, racist slut!" and leaves quickly. The white woman cries in the parking lot while the skin-head tries to calm her down, she apparently now getting angry at him: perhaps because he began the altercation before the girlfriend chimed in with him, which it looked like from my end seeing the black woman hadn't said anything. The way the girlfriend dressed was to bring about a general stereotype about her sex life and now she sat and cried from the stereotype, saying over and over "I ain't no slut!"
Working at Disney you didn't see a whole lot of racism, but on occasion you did catch it. At now Hollywood Studios I was photographing the large Aerosmith guitar with guests posing and like I'd see thousands of times these few hours, a family of three walks into the courtyard. Mom, dad and a young boy. They looked much like a middle American white family- maybe slightly on a lower income scale, but nothing rough. Nothing much thought about them until I hear the boy say loudly to his parents over the music "There's a lot of niggers here!" Mom and dad promptly 'shush' him, telling him- loud enough I could overhear it- that this isn't the place to say that stuff... then moved on with no punishment to the grade school boy.
Throwing the race card
I was even told a handful of times about my racism. My job with lines was to time them and stand at the end when the queue was long enough to fill in the time left to visit a character. Often, many people would come up to me after I had closed it trying to get into line, just for me to tell them when we would be returning or not returning. My line was closed. One day I vividly remember a hispanic man and his large family come to me literally moments after I cut the end of the line just to have him accusing me of racism. It wasn't until the black man two families away from the end turned and defended me by saying "Hey, she let me in and I'm black! She's not racist at all then, is she?" Then the last family also turned to look at the verbal accuser of my so-called racism. They, too, were hispanic and laughed at the accuser, even saying, "We are from Puerto Rico and I got in this line on time, she's just doing her job. Look," she continues after I turn more guests away," she's turning away the white people, too. Don't call her racist." Hope, perhaps?The Race Card in Current Day:
Makes me think of the current events in the news. This whole "Zimmerman" case that just was wrapped up, yet people still cry foul despite the laws here in Florida that he complied with and was covered by. I think the biggest debate that made this so long a case was the question: Was it racial profiling? I don't personally. While I think Zimmerman was in the wrong to follow the guy so hard, it doesn't give the other party any legal right to throw a punch- which a beating by a 6 foot something football player could leave anyone fearing for their lives at this point. Many in the black community cry foul, the he was only a kid- but if Zimmerman were just attacked, Trevon would have been tried as an adult for assault if not worse. Not by race standards- but the law. But race is being called a factor. The media threw it around as a white on black case which worsened the already slanted pictures of the two involved people. Zimmerman was not Caucasian, but of hispanic origin. Much of the black community doesn't see it this way.
On the other side of the KKK we have the Black Panthers. Both groups are racist. KKK for white supremacy and Black Panthers for black supremacy. You don't hear much about them until a racially charged story comes up. Yet, those who paid attention, Zimmerman wasn't white at all but he was casted as such.
This has caused all sorts of types to come out of the wood-work. Of course, many who think it's a race-fueled crime have become hateful to 'white' folks as captured on these Twitter posts:
Yet there is the side of white people that also have chosen to speak, showing their racism clearly against blacks because of the case:
On the other end of the spectrum we have supporters who think differently of the race debate all together. In this picture, we have a group of what looks like predominantly whites who saw that race was a factor in Trevon's death:
In a report by the AP, Bill Cosby thinks the case was about guns and not race at all:
Video of this can be found here:http://www.newser.com/story/144091/bill-cosby-trayvon-case-about-guns-not-racism.html
It's stories like this that happened a year ago that bring out where racism is and how racism is viewed. A friend said his friend was black and sided with Zimmerman but he had been so scared to voice this opinion in fear that he would be seen as a race traitor in his community. Why should someone fear this in this day and age? Why haven't we come far at all after all the nation has been through?
Next Blog, Part 3:
We will visit some other places where inequality thrives that was captured on the most popular internationally viewed shown- shot right here in the south. Also some other places close to home where hate groups live- and they are closer then you think.
