Why I don’t bother too much with racism
I don’t bother with racism? What does that mean? Does it mean I don’t try to be racist? Does it mean I don’t try to correct racism? Does it mean I don’t think racism is worth correcting? Do I mean that racism is something you can “try” and not for me like weed? Does it mean that I’ve given up on racists? Does it mean racism has given up on me?
All no.
When I say I don’t bother with racism, more or less I mean it doesn’t get to me and I don’t try too eradicate subtle or unintentional racism unless it impacts me a significant way. If someone denies me service because I’m tan in the middle of winter or calls me a peasant because I like adding lemon to everything I eat (if you can’t guess, I’m Mexican), then absolutely I’d have a problem with that. I hated Trump even more when he said “let’s build a wall” but I also laughed because only an idiot thinks that just a wall will be enough to stop illegal immigration. Nevertheless, if someone were to walk up to me and ask “How’d you cross the wall?” my first response is rarely “f — — you” but rather “Didn’t have to, I swam to hear some good racists jokes.”
Now I’m sure there’s an argument there about how I’m just perpetuating stereotypes, my language is hurtful, or I’m only hurting the lives of those less fortunate but that’s not my point with that story. Why would I bother with this person when I got a class to go to, a friend to meet up with, or a soft bed with warm quilts calling me? This person’s petty and unsubstantiated remark hurt no one besides me in that moment, why get up in arms? Granted, this is a little different from what I actually want to talk about. More specifically, I want to compare what a random bigot would say to some New York City bridges.
As we discussed in class, a man by the name of Robert Moses built a series of bridges as the master builder of New York that were only 9 feet tall. Why you may ask? Because rich, white, suburban people owned 6 foot cars and impoverished blacks rode 12 foot buses. Robert Moses designed these bridges specifically to dissuade blacks from entering wealthy white neighborhoods because by making sure buses couldn’t cross between neighborhoods. I laughed when I first read this. What kind of idiot is he? An idiot who’s never WALKED anywhere. Considering you had to WALK to the bus stop and then WALK from the bus stop to your destination or perhaps WALK to another bus stop, and considering most people are under 9 feet, blacks would have no problem WALKING under the bridges. Obviously, the bridges were for those that were too “lazy” to WALK but let me tell ya, as a college student who has to WALK everywhere, if you’re used to WALKING, you don’t care if you have to WALK 1/2 a mile or WALK 3 miles, it starts to all become the same. The mere idiocy made me laugh because it showed just how little Moses knew about the people or the lifestyles of those people that he was trying to remove from his precious neighborhoods. I like to laugh at idiots. (Which is why I laugh at myself a lot)
But that’s all I did, I laughed. I didn’t get angry because, as Langdong Winner said in his publication Do Artifacts Have Politics?, artifacts themselves don’t have power, they are only built and designed with the politics and biases of the creator. I don’t bother with racism anymore because it is literally everywhere. Marijuana used to be referred to as Cannabis before the “War on Drugs” but was changed to Marijuana because that’s what Mexican’s called it. The US government found it easier to demonize Cannabis if it sounded Mexican. The inventor of the colored television was Mexican, a fact my dad told me about with pride but anyone I tell seem to never believe it and insist it was an American or European. I watch TV shows and movies depicting Mexico as a desolate dessert country where people live in straw huts, wear ponchos and wide rimmed sombreros talking about how their parents bought them a churo for their birthday and that’s all that they could afford (I saw this in a comedy show by the way. Yes, I still laughed).
When I was in 7th grade I wrote a Facebook post about how I thought Handy Manny, a kids show, was racist because it was about a Mexican construction worker and painter, one of the most stereotypical jobs for a Mexican besides day laborer and tomato picker. Once again, however, I wrote it as a joke because at this point, I realize that what was built on racism but will forever be used will remain. Like the Kodak cameras in class: they were designed for pale skin, not black skin. The solution? Add a chip that could find black skin properly. Was that racist ever? I don’t think so. The bridges were but are you going to pay to have them all torn down and rebuilt? Racism is everywhere but instead of yelling at today’s generations who had no hand in the construction of these racists designs won’t solve anything. Instead, laugh at how stupid it was and work to make something better. The blame game only spreads the hate. Laughing makes it better.
