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December 01, 2005

I am a Racist

You're a racist, too. Now wait - don't get all up in a bunch. I'm not saying you get hot and bothered over fiery crosses and goose-stepping. I'm just saying that, for good or ill, you judge people based on their race - and probably their looks, weight and age, too.

Don't believe me? Take a test, and see for yourself. Thanks to the IAT tests, I learned that I like black people slightly more than white people, thin people slightly more than fat people, and young people slightly more than old people.

Does that mean I spend my free time throwing rocks at old, fat white people? Of course not. But it does mean that I have just as much potential toward hatred and cruelty as those mouth-breathing sheet-wearers I saw last night on Springer. How could I not? I'm human.

According to a link on Monica Jackson's blog, today is Blog Against Racism Day. How better to celebrate the occasion than for all of us to face the fact that as human beings, we have preconceived notions and preferences. There's no shame in admitting it - the only shame lies in giving in. Prejudice is a part of human nature, but so is transcendence.

The first step to overcoming our less-than-noble instincts is to acknowledge them. I'm a racist, you're a racist. Go ahead and admit it. Then get the hell over it.

Life is too short, and kindred spirits are too rare, for any of us to go turning our noses up at the good people with whom God graces our lives just because some backward little cro-magnon part of our brain that evolved to protect us from saber-toothed tigers has gone and gotten its wires crossed.*

Transcendence, baby. It's the word for the day, the name of the game, the only chance we've got to get along like the sisters and brothers we truly are. Transcendence. There's no way to escape racism - it's in us. We've got to grow past it, to transcend our baser natures.

So, yeah, I'm a racist. But you know what? I'm working on it.

*Yes, I used God and evolution in the same sentence - no matter what Pat Robertson says, they aren't mutually exclusive.

Posted by sk :: 12/01/2005 :: 0 comments