Some of my own facts Jack
I normally don't write post about racism, but I have been noticing a disturbing trend on social media more and more lately. Someone who works for NYLON magazine put out a comment meme that said and I quote,'' These are the facts: Things that don't exist - Racism against white people''
I usually don't comment back on things like that on social media cause I feel like if you are posting such ignorant stuff or agreeing with it, then my chances of having you see the light of day on how incorrect that comment is will be lost. But I'm just so feed up with the blinders and propaganda that is going on in this country, that I did comment back. I told whoever wrote that comment that it was the stupidest thing I have ever read. And that racism exist in every culture and every race!.
I really feel like TV, Social Media and now Magazines like these are Just fueling ignorance in this country and around the world. For instance making a blanket statement saying that racism doesn't exist for white people. You can't make a statement like that unless you have spoken to EVERY single white person on the planet and they have all agreed that indeed that's true fact!. And I can assure you that will never happen. When I hear or read comments like those it's usually someone younger then I who's just going along with what seems to be the new in thing. But what surprised me was this comment came from a person who has most likely gone an elite university and is working for a world renowned magazine. I just couldn't wrap my mind around how could this person be so ignorant and insensitive with all those factors in their favor. Anyone who has read some of my other blogs last year before they were destroyed would know why this would upset me.
At six years old me my mom and two brothers became homeless and lived in one of New York City's most notoriously know welfare hotels in the 80's- The Martinique Hotel which was know for it's horrific conditions. Just do some research on the hotel and you'll see what I'm talking about. And it wasn't even just the hotels deplorable conditions or even what went on inside the hotel like rape, drugs, prostitution, rats. Hallways that were dimly lit or had no lights at all. Children being used/ forced to sell drugs. But also that me and my brothers were often targets because of our skin color. There was a school bus that came to pick up the kids at the hotel everyday. I being really young, 6yrs old often had gum put in my hair and told that white peoples hair smells like wet dogs when wet. I had much older girls try and fight me. My brother being older then I would often have to step in to protect me. This went on EVERY day to the point where me and my brother just stopped taking the school bus and would walk to the school just to stay safe. Now mind you I was 6 and my brother was only 8- So yes two very small children having to walk through Manhattan streets to school alone just to stay safe. School wasn't much better me and my brother were again targets because of our skin color. My brother became a marvelous street fighter due to the circumstances. He kicked some serious ass!. Me not so much, I was meek like a mouse.
Fast forward to when my dad got custody of us we were now living in the lower east side.
Better know by some as alphabet city. And back then that area was ghetto as fuck! In Junior high school. I was one of 3 white kids in the whole school and once again I was targeted just for being white.
I actually use to ditch school a few days a week and just go sit in the public library.
All because I just didn't want to go to school and get into fights for no other reason but my whiteness. So yeah, it galls me now as an adult to keep hearing about all this supposed white privilege or how white people have never experienced hate crimes due to their skin color! White privilege there's another joke! Maybe that was a ''thing'' years ago for some, again wouldn't know. Never had, nor been given any privileges based on my skin color. Now a days with everything being as diverse as it is the only privilege is for the color green! Yes if you come from Money you most certainly have privilege. It annoys me that so many assume all white people come from money and that we all have had everything handed to us. That's what a lot of ignorant people would like to believe.
Last summer I had a job working for Citi bike and most of my coworkers were black and a lot of them would openly discuss things they didn't like about white people as if I wasn't even there.
Now why was that allowed but if a group of white people did the same thing it would have been considered a KKK gathering and the whole company would have been slapped with a lawsuit!
Seems to me the privilege card is on the other foot! I think you are very privileged if you and others are allowed to talk shit about another persons race in front of them and make them uncomfortable and get away with it. At some point I started defending myself as a white person when I started hearing shit that was just too absurd to ignore.
One of the people I was paired up to work with was a black guy about my age. When we first met we didn't like each other. The first day I met him we were working in front of the Native American museum and he was saying something about the statues on top of the museum were racist. I said I didn't know what he was talking about and he rolled his eyes and was like ''yeah, of course you don't'' He was trying to insinuate that I was being purposely obtuse, but I really had no freaking idea what the hell he was talking about!. And another time we got into a heated debate when he tried to used that white privilege crap in my direction saying because of my skin color I would never know what it's like to be pulled over by a cop. In which I replied, No but I do know what it's like to be underage and be handcuffed so tightly by a cop that your wrist are almost bleeding. And I also know what it's like to be chased home from school repeatedly while racial slurs are being yelled at you. And I also know what it's like to be followed around a store by a black security guard. A store I shopped in every week and dropped over 50$ per week in! And I also know what it's like to worked in a job where I'm the only white face and so the coworkers who aren't white think it's ok to talk shit about my race while I'm standing three feet away. And that happened not once, not twice, but at least five or six times in my life at different jobs! And I know all to well what it's like to have a best friend that can't let you in her house because her family doesn't like white people so you have to stand in the hallway while she gets ready to go out with you. And the list could go on and on. But no, I don't know what it's like to be pulled over by a cop. But then again, I don't drive!
It's fair to say he and I butted heads on racial issues all the time. At some point we started talking about other stuff and actually had a lot in common. We Liked the same music and TV shows. Both hated the job and thought the upper management was joke. By the end of the summer we had become friends and he didn't like working with anyone else because we really got along like two peas in a pod. We just couldn't agree on topics where race was involved.
Guess the long and short of what I'm getting at is I don't deny that racism exist, but please stop saying it only exist for everyone and anyone who isn't white! And to post stupid memes or comments like the one NYLON magazine did has absolutely no value and has no point to them except to sir the pot!
I usually don't comment back on things like that on social media cause I feel like if you are posting such ignorant stuff or agreeing with it, then my chances of having you see the light of day on how incorrect that comment is will be lost. But I'm just so feed up with the blinders and propaganda that is going on in this country, that I did comment back. I told whoever wrote that comment that it was the stupidest thing I have ever read. And that racism exist in every culture and every race!.
I really feel like TV, Social Media and now Magazines like these are Just fueling ignorance in this country and around the world. For instance making a blanket statement saying that racism doesn't exist for white people. You can't make a statement like that unless you have spoken to EVERY single white person on the planet and they have all agreed that indeed that's true fact!. And I can assure you that will never happen. When I hear or read comments like those it's usually someone younger then I who's just going along with what seems to be the new in thing. But what surprised me was this comment came from a person who has most likely gone an elite university and is working for a world renowned magazine. I just couldn't wrap my mind around how could this person be so ignorant and insensitive with all those factors in their favor. Anyone who has read some of my other blogs last year before they were destroyed would know why this would upset me.
At six years old me my mom and two brothers became homeless and lived in one of New York City's most notoriously know welfare hotels in the 80's- The Martinique Hotel which was know for it's horrific conditions. Just do some research on the hotel and you'll see what I'm talking about. And it wasn't even just the hotels deplorable conditions or even what went on inside the hotel like rape, drugs, prostitution, rats. Hallways that were dimly lit or had no lights at all. Children being used/ forced to sell drugs. But also that me and my brothers were often targets because of our skin color. There was a school bus that came to pick up the kids at the hotel everyday. I being really young, 6yrs old often had gum put in my hair and told that white peoples hair smells like wet dogs when wet. I had much older girls try and fight me. My brother being older then I would often have to step in to protect me. This went on EVERY day to the point where me and my brother just stopped taking the school bus and would walk to the school just to stay safe. Now mind you I was 6 and my brother was only 8- So yes two very small children having to walk through Manhattan streets to school alone just to stay safe. School wasn't much better me and my brother were again targets because of our skin color. My brother became a marvelous street fighter due to the circumstances. He kicked some serious ass!. Me not so much, I was meek like a mouse.
Fast forward to when my dad got custody of us we were now living in the lower east side.
Better know by some as alphabet city. And back then that area was ghetto as fuck! In Junior high school. I was one of 3 white kids in the whole school and once again I was targeted just for being white.
I actually use to ditch school a few days a week and just go sit in the public library.
All because I just didn't want to go to school and get into fights for no other reason but my whiteness. So yeah, it galls me now as an adult to keep hearing about all this supposed white privilege or how white people have never experienced hate crimes due to their skin color! White privilege there's another joke! Maybe that was a ''thing'' years ago for some, again wouldn't know. Never had, nor been given any privileges based on my skin color. Now a days with everything being as diverse as it is the only privilege is for the color green! Yes if you come from Money you most certainly have privilege. It annoys me that so many assume all white people come from money and that we all have had everything handed to us. That's what a lot of ignorant people would like to believe.
Last summer I had a job working for Citi bike and most of my coworkers were black and a lot of them would openly discuss things they didn't like about white people as if I wasn't even there.
Now why was that allowed but if a group of white people did the same thing it would have been considered a KKK gathering and the whole company would have been slapped with a lawsuit!
Seems to me the privilege card is on the other foot! I think you are very privileged if you and others are allowed to talk shit about another persons race in front of them and make them uncomfortable and get away with it. At some point I started defending myself as a white person when I started hearing shit that was just too absurd to ignore.
One of the people I was paired up to work with was a black guy about my age. When we first met we didn't like each other. The first day I met him we were working in front of the Native American museum and he was saying something about the statues on top of the museum were racist. I said I didn't know what he was talking about and he rolled his eyes and was like ''yeah, of course you don't'' He was trying to insinuate that I was being purposely obtuse, but I really had no freaking idea what the hell he was talking about!. And another time we got into a heated debate when he tried to used that white privilege crap in my direction saying because of my skin color I would never know what it's like to be pulled over by a cop. In which I replied, No but I do know what it's like to be underage and be handcuffed so tightly by a cop that your wrist are almost bleeding. And I also know what it's like to be chased home from school repeatedly while racial slurs are being yelled at you. And I also know what it's like to be followed around a store by a black security guard. A store I shopped in every week and dropped over 50$ per week in! And I also know what it's like to worked in a job where I'm the only white face and so the coworkers who aren't white think it's ok to talk shit about my race while I'm standing three feet away. And that happened not once, not twice, but at least five or six times in my life at different jobs! And I know all to well what it's like to have a best friend that can't let you in her house because her family doesn't like white people so you have to stand in the hallway while she gets ready to go out with you. And the list could go on and on. But no, I don't know what it's like to be pulled over by a cop. But then again, I don't drive!
It's fair to say he and I butted heads on racial issues all the time. At some point we started talking about other stuff and actually had a lot in common. We Liked the same music and TV shows. Both hated the job and thought the upper management was joke. By the end of the summer we had become friends and he didn't like working with anyone else because we really got along like two peas in a pod. We just couldn't agree on topics where race was involved.
Guess the long and short of what I'm getting at is I don't deny that racism exist, but please stop saying it only exist for everyone and anyone who isn't white! And to post stupid memes or comments like the one NYLON magazine did has absolutely no value and has no point to them except to sir the pot!
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