Racism

If I had to reflect on it, I would have to say, that I have experienced racism for most of my life. I can remember back in the 5th grade, when a kid told me that I was brown, therefore to him, I was “yucky.” 

I remember a girl putting me down, because the color of my skin. I can also remember a relative showing me the whitest part on his body, (his leg), and telling me, that he was from Spain, and that another relative of mine, was an “india”, (spanish for Indian, which is what the Spaniards, wrongfully called the Natives of the Americas). 

Sometimes the racism I witnessed happened to others, like when I was in sixth grade an African American student was doing the Pledge of Allegiance, and the teacher kicked his leg because it was sticking out too much for her liking. I never did forget that moment. It felt like for some reason this Euro-American teacher, did not like that student for some reason, and was Looking for excuses to make his life hard.  

I remember as a kid in my late teens and how since I was never taught, my people’s history, how I felt kind of strange, when a co-worker told me, that Mexicans were just a bunch of Indians, and I thought to myself, “no, we are Mestizos meaning we were Native mixed with Spanish“, like that spanish mix, made us better. Where did that idea come from?

Every person of color that I have talked to, has told me that they were also told, “to find a blanquito, or blanquita (In other words to get a person with European roots, so that in their belief, this would better our gene pool), to better the race“, as if something deep inside us, has told us, that dark skin is not beautiful, or that they are more beautiful than us.

I remember countless run-ins with police, and how they would “Stop and Frisk” me for just the way I looked. How sometimes they would stop me, three or four times a night. I remember when a police officer pulled me over, and asked me why was I in a specific neighborhood, and if they did not have contact lense shops in my neighborhood, implying that I did not belong in that specific neighborhood. 

In my lifetime I have been called many derogatory names, I have also heard my fellow Mexican people, called many not so very nice names, even by the former U.S. President Donald Trump, and I am tired of it. It is not fair how Anglo-Saxon’s get different treatment than I do, when it comes to airports, border checkpoints, or at embassies.

The damage caused by racism is permanent. People of Color have to carry the abuse, we take it home, and bring the stress home to our loved ones, or may even explode on the wrong people, because that pain after building up inside you for so long, eventually comes out.

Why Won’t They See

I really wish people would see the harm White Supremacy has caused and continues to cause. I do not understand how some Anglo-Saxons would choose to ignore this history and present day happenings, and continue believing in White Supremacy, after all the damage this dangerous way of thinking has caused. Millions of people have been murdered because of these ideas. How could some people be so heartless? Racism is the behavior of bullies.