Well, it’s happened y’all! Racism is DEAD! I swear to you! It is D-E-A-D! 

You want to know why? Because Morgan Freeman said so, Jessie Lee Peterson said so on YouTube, we elected a Black president, there are two Black billionaires, White people still live in poverty and a White guy just told me so! Yep! You heard it here first, y’all! Go shout it from the MOUNTAIN TOPS! We are all now solely judged on the content of our character, our intellect and accomplishments! 

😂😂😂 

GTFOH with that BS!

While electing a Black president and having two Black billionaires is improvement (Go Oprah for checking two boxes at the intersection of Black and female!), they do not indicate that racism is dead 💀! Sorry guys! Today we will talk about The Myth of Perception. 

Perception is reality. You and your immediate surroundings are your own litmus test. For instance, I judge everyone else’s age based on how I look. If I perceive that you look older than me, I guess you are older than 50. If I perceive that you look younger than me, I guess you are younger than 50. This is inherently unfair because I got my mama’s genes 🧬 and I look younger than 50 to most people. Recently, I guessed that my PT was older than me and he was offended and I guessed a 33 year old was closer to mid 40’s. OOPS! 

The mistake people make is using themselves and their immediate surroundings as proof to verify or discredit a concept. So, if you have one very successful friend of color, then all people of color can become successful. If a Black man can become president, any Black man can become president. People don’t do any more research than what is in front of them if they can help it. You don’t have to know the brutal reality for some sectors of people in this country because you don’t have to know and you may not want to know because it is uncomfortable. 

The second concept for today’s post is disproportionality. This means that if our society was really free of racism (or any -ism), then all sectors of society would be proportionate in it’s representation. Women make up 51% of the country vs. 49% of men. If the country was free of sexism, 51% of companies would be female headed. Yes, I realize their are cultural expectations, etc. that affect this, but what I am saying is, if all things were equal women would make up 51% of all professions. However, we all know this isn’t true, so we look for ways to close the gap. I mean for real, how many people were secretly like “Hell yeah! The hacker that infiltrated Capital One was female! Get it!” IJS

When I was far more idealistic and younger in my profession, I would go into classes and look who got called on to answer questions. In math and science classes, boys were called on more frequently than girls. If you knew this about your daughter’s class, you would want to take some action. When in mixed race math and science classrooms, I took data that showed white males were called on more frequently than white females, then it went Black males, black females. In English/Language Arts, White girls were called on more often, and Black boys were called on the least. Why is this important? Because the option of participating in class is an “opportunity to learn.” It is how students both show their knowledge and get immediate feedback if they make a mistake. Why wouldn’t you be equally alarmed aboutyour child not having equitable opportunities to learn? 

Again, Small Acts of Racism lead to Huge Acts of Racism. If you were implicitly taught that you were the smartest, most important person in the room and everyone else paled in comparison, you may have a difficult time remembering everyone else’s lives matter, too. Not matter more, but simply ALSO matter as much as your own. However, if you weren’t taught that, then calling the police on Black people living their lives, makes sense. They should not be living their lives as sentioned human beings in the same atmosphere as you. 

If racism were indeed dead, then society would be representative in all sectors of it’s population. 12 to 13% of doctors, lawyers, engineers, billionaires, college graduates, etc. would be Black. They are not. Conversely, if disciplined in the same way, 12 to 13% of discipline referrals, suspensions, expulsions, jail sentences, police murders of unarmed citizens, and police brutality cases would be Black. They are not. In fact, in a 6 year period, from 1995 to 2001, the Cincinnati Poloce Department killed 13 people, all of whom were Black and male. In a a 7-year period, from 2010-2017, they killed 18 people, 13 of whom were African-American and male. The problem is the disproportionate number of Black people dying at the hands of police, especially for nonviolent offenses, such as falling asleep in a drive thru or having too many traffic tickets. These incidences should not end in death, especially when an armed 17-year old White male can walk, unscathed, by members of the same police department that shot an unarmed Black man in the back seven times. 

So, sorry kids! Just because your immediate perception tells you so, racism isn’t dead! 💀 😭We all gotta wake up and deal with this 💩 in the morning!