Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
When a friend of mine made a Facebook post earlier this week that started with her saying she’s not normally one to rant, she spoke the truth entirely.
This fine lady is one of the best people I know and is very clearly on Facebook for the intention of enjoying personal time with her friends and family whom she cannot see face-to-face regularly.
She was quite right — she is not one to rant or get on a podium or have political debates with others.
But like many of us, this friend of mine had had enough regarding this particular topic. It’s a topic that is highly talked about nowadays and has escalated to a point of sheer ridiculousness with many of the debates surrounding it. That’s right, I’m talking about racism.
Now I don’t care to go on my own rant about this topic in my column, but what my friend had to say was very powerful. Her post was very sound thinking that was worth sharing with everyone.
Here are her words:
So I've seen a picture shared about five times off and on since last month that not only disappoints me but also concerns and outrages me. It's of a metal sign, or bumper sticker, that reads: "Racism was almost dead in America ... Until Obama" The knee-jerk 'Obama's fault' aside, and political party allegiance aside, that statement about racism is not even close to being true, and that message shouldn't be spread even anecdotally. Racism has been prevalent and a 'norm' for people for decades ... The fact that currently there are more protests, more misleading/divisive media coverage, and more people on all sides responding to the issue violently, are just evidence that racism has been very much alive and well.... and festering. And good people across all races are tired of it. "Tired of it" obviously can't even come close to describing the feelings of insult, outrage and being at absolute breaking point. Racism isn't something that just happens; it's taught and instilled through behavior and actions by friends, family, even communities. Believed and accepted at young ages, without it necessarily having a name, and a lot of the time it's inadvertently taught ... There aren't "new racists". It's at the core of a person and has to be consciously addressed and demolished. If you have disdain, annoyance, amusement, hate, distrust, pity, judgment, condescension, contempt or any generalized feeling for an ENTIRE RACE of people (Black, Hispanic, Indian, White, et al.) for absolutely any reason, that is racism. Cut and dry. White racists have become more vocal as of late, as if it's acceptable. As if it's an infringement of their rights to have to 'play nice' and treat every damn person like they are actually a person and not a stereotype/cliche/joke/scapegoat/burden on society/problem to be dealt with/etc. There aren't new racists. There aren't born-again racists. There are racists. And they've been here the whole time.Just thought it was some food for thought worth sharing.
Alisa Boswell is managing editor for the Portales News-Tribune. Contact her at:
