'Germans are stupid'
Ok, so I have this little stereotype stuck in my head. I know it's obviously wrong, and that it only holds true based on
ad hominum logical fallacy. But I honestly don't care- at least, not now.
A lot of times you go on hearing that we've come along way, and that Racism is a thing of the past- a non-subject really.But I am sadly certain that it's a thing that may never go away. And not because it can't, but because it's continually propagated- by both sides. And not in the tangible way it was before- that was the easy part. Now its subliminal it's in ideas, in comments, in charity- in matters you just can't pin point.
But that's not what I'm about to focus on- no lofty ideas for now.
I just have a case in point, is all.
As an African studying abroad, after previously not doing so: I came smack faced with it on a daily basis. But sometimes it becomes so open and obvious- but still in that way that remains so elusive.
1)A German boy having watched me run a race( the only black person running) went up to another African girl and told her 'Congratulations on running':
a) This boy has been in my class the entire year
b) this boy is friends with the girl he mistook me for
c) There are only 4 black girls in our year(myself included)- and neither of us look alike
d) To further this- I am tall, thin, with a short curly hair style. The girl is Short, plump, with huge long braids
And I am just like:
2) We were at a UKCAT(Medicine test) test preparation session when a black friend of mine came out on top in the decision analysis section. This section deals with encoding cryptic messages based on numbers representing disjointed groups of words. A Girl( another German) made the following comment:
'It(her success) must be because that's how they talk where she comes from'
Once again:
Now I know this is ignorance.
And society today will tell me to 'chill out-obviously they don't mean it or can't you take a harmless joke?'
But you know what, society? No I *OBSCENITY* can't, because it doesn't matter whether they say this with the hatred of the KKK, or the stupidity of ...Bozo the clown! I don't care.
This, my friends, is the exact reason why racism will never end.
And until we learn to stop letting it go as a joke- this intangible elusive subliminal *Obscenity* we call racism like an annoying itch- will never leave.
And here is the reasoning behind my claim, in the words of
Aibileen Clark from
The Help:
''- stop that moment from coming – and it come in every child's life – when they start to think that colored folks ain't as good as whites"
-Cathy
