"Post-Racial" America? Yeah, right

I marvel at the people who say things like, "I'm not racist, but ..." and then they go on to say something racist. Never have these human compost heaps been more bold or more loathsome than they've been this past year, though, since the election of America's first African-American president. The racists apparently are acting out in large part because they're just so overwhelmed and aghast at the idea of a Scary Black Man in the White House.

Some good news for those of us fighting against the racist onslaught came through this week as Veterans' Day parade organizers in Homestead, Fla., finally came to their senses and voted not to permit the hate group Sons of Confederate Veterans to display the Confederate flag at this year's parade. (Blast Off! covered this story a couple of weeks ago and drew some, um, colorful comments.) However, on the very same day as the Homestead decision, the outrageous racist beating of a Georgia woman before the eyes of her 7-year-old daughter reminded us that we have far to go.

It certainly seems that the racist roaches aren't scattering when you turn on the lights quite like they used to. But it doesn't always have to be a public display of a symbol of hate or a highly-publicized attack ... no, sometimes the racism is more subtle.

Blogger and doctoral student Roxane Gay reveals some of the more endemic racism she encounters in her humorous yet poignant piece FUNNY WOMEN #2: A Play About Post-Racial America in Seven Acts. The subtitle explains: "Seven Things White People Have Really Said to Me Since November 4, 2008." It's the kind of thing you read and think, "I can't believe people actually said that." Yet they did ... and they do.

A sample:

ACT FOUR

Scene: While watching the inauguration live in the student union, a white colleague I’m sitting with turns to me.

COLLEAGUE: Do you know Elizabeth Alexander?

ME: Why do you ask?

COLLEAGUE: You’re both black writers.

ME: That’s true. We do all know each other.

[...]

ACT SIX

Scene: January 2009, a few days after the inauguration. A grimy auto repair shop. The mechanic and I are engaged in idle, polite chatter while he processes my credit card transaction.

MECHANIC: No offense, but there was just no way I could vote for a colored man even though I hated the other guy. I just can’t see respecting a colored man like that, taking orders from him or nothing like that. Again, no offense.

ME: What year is this?

Wow. I don't know whether the people Ms. Gay encountered and quoted are openly, unapologetically racist -- other than, obviously, the mechanic in "Act Six" -- but this is the kind of subtle, routine racism that happens thousands of times every single day in America. I don't know why people -- that is, white people -- aren't more sensitive to this stuff, except that we don't see it directed at us on a regular basis or, more to the point, I guess many of us just don't care.

But we should. And it shouldn't take a heinous, headline-making assault to make that happen.