In my previous post I wrote about how we all have a bias and we all have prejudices…and this is true. But racism is more than about our thoughts and our words, it is about power. Racism is the power to stop someone from living in a certain area, shopping and being acosted, hindering employment or hindering upward mobility, it is a judicial system that hands out different sentencing based on skin tone…that is racism in a nutshell. It is real. It is experienced by people and a black president didn’t erase that sentiment. Neither does having a black friend…or a black child…

When black people talk about the history of slavery many are met with the, you weren’t a slave and I wasn’t a slave master, so get over it. While true enough I personally wasn’t a slave, the legacy of slavery does still affect me. The laws and policies put into place soon after slavery affected my great, great grandparents. The education they were denied, the job opportunities they were denied. The opportunity for wealth stolen from them. Now yes, we have been able to go to college and make a living, but imagine if they accumulated even just 5,000 more to pass onto my parents who in turn could pass it on to me and then my children could benefit from the legacy of my grandparents.

I live in Alabama, the last recorded lynching here took place in 1981. I was born five years later. For more information click here. Redlinning affected where individuals could live. We all know about segregation, but are you familiar with Eugenics and how those practices of forced sterilization were still practiced in this country up until a generation ago? If not click here. Why does any of that matter? Because those were policies that worked to keep people in unequal situations. This wasn’t just someone saying poor people or black people get on my nerves, this was someone (well really a group of someones) actively working to hinder someone’s progression legally. Slavery was legal. It was a policy that stated people could be owned. In fact, killing of a slave was not considered criminal nothing that was done was illegal. It took policy changes to make them illegal.

I had a talk with my bestie on the Yes, I have a therapist page, which I feel also articulated this issue a bit better than I could really talk about via this blog.

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