A non-racist act
Living as a Black man, there are racist things that happen that you never forget. This day was such a nice day. There should be a law. Racist things aren’t allowed to happen on nice days. Well, regardless of the weather, I was about to add another racist situation to my life’s collection. It was a little after five o’clock. Most people were trying their best to deal with five o’clock going home traffic. I stopped to pick up something at the drugstore. As I walked through the doors, I noticed that there weren’t very many customers. I greeted the lady behind the counter. She didn’t greet me back. I didn’t think much of the fact she ignored me. Maybe she was having a bad day. I walked down the aisle to get what I came into the store to get. I smiled and said hello to a very pleasant White woman. She said hello back and smiled. I walked towards the counter to pay for my merchandise. The woman at the counter saw me and turned her back. I stood there waiting for her to come to the cash register. Meanwhile the pleasant looking White woman walked up and stood beside me. The lady behind the counter immediately addressed her. The pleasant woman gave the lady behind the counter a stern look. She paid for her merchandise and left. The lady behind the counter then helped me.
The pleasant White woman did nothing wrong. She gave the woman behind the counter a stern looking, letting her know that she knew what the woman behind the counter was doing. And like pleasant non-racists do, she paid for her goods and moved on. However, her kind of behavior during a situation like this does nothing to rid this country of racism. Read the chapter on anti-racist to find out about a better way pleasant woman could have dealt with the woman behind the counter.
Because the non-racist turns a deaf ear to today’s overt racism, racism continues. Being non-racist is very dangerous in the fight against racism. The reason some non-racists do nothing to stop racist situations, is because deep down they have their own racist tendencies. Many times, non-racist people are only non-racist in the light of day. But behind the scenes, in the dark, they hide their normal racist tendencies. Racists may even pretend to be non-racist to further their own agendas. A racist person could pretend to be non-racist and own a professional ball team. If people of color are making racist people money, they’ll smile to the Black players’ faces, but will tear them down behind their backs. A president could be a racist, but pretend to be a non-racist, based on the words he or she uses. However, their actions will eventually show their racist tendencies. Does this sound like someone you know? I started this book in 2017. I said back then, believe me, things will get worse, regarding racism in America.
Here’s another example of a non-racist mentality. If a person is being attacked in an alley, the non-violent person would walk by or away. Later the non-racist would tell others how horrible it is, that someone would attack someone else in such a way. The non-racist person might even talk about how they, as a productive member of society, would never do such a thing. However, just talking about how horrible the attack was, didn’t help the person being attacked. By the same token, just saying how horrible a racist situation might have been, doesn’t help the person being racially attacked.
