Unintentional Racism

So sometimes during a conversation, someone says “This guy I know,(lowers voice) he’s black, told me blah blah blah.”  I hate hearing that! I have a couple of co-workers who always have to throw in the race.  So how about everytime I talk about someone white, I say in a low voice “he’s white” like it matters right?

Sometimes they throw that in there to prove they are not racist, like they know one person who is not white so they can’t possibly be racist. Let me say this, if you weren’t racist in some small way, you wouldn’t feel the need to say what color they are or how many you know.

On a slightly related topic, we have a big problem here in Alaska.  Mention a drunk here, people think Native.  See a native in jeans and dirty shirt, they think homeless.  Natives here are being stomped on here as other races have been through out the centuries.  The only difference is that we as Alaska Natives, Eskimos, Aleuts, etc have not found our voice.  We’ve forgotten how high we used to hold our heads before we became labeled as uncivilized.  We allow ourselves to feel inferior.  This needs to stop!  How do we get past this?

later… Wow, speaking of…please see today’s article at ADN