Am I Racist?

Sometimes I wonder if I am a racist. Racism is defined as disliking someone solely based on a prejudice or a stereotype that you believe to hold true about his or her race. Now I have always been an advocate of the fact that everyone has prejudices and thus are prejudice. It is my belief that the main people who say that they are not prejudice are indeed the most prejudice, because we all prejudge others at some point in our lives. It’s human nature. But let me get back to my initial thought process. Am I a racist? The reason I ask the question is because I’m trying to put myself in a different light; if that makes any sense.

I have always considered Sgt. Old Ass Bitch-Face to be racist just because of the fact that he is an old, white bastard, who smokes a cigar. There are other reasons, sure. One of them is the fact that I don’t think he likes black people; however, I don’t know that for a fact. I don’t know who the man associates with at home. Hell, his wife could be black, but I doubt it.

The reality is that when I first came over to work at the station I am currently at, I only saw Sgt. Old Ass interact with two black people. One was a black officer who I had been told had been working the station for over seven years. The way I figured it, you can’t help but interact with someone you’ve been forced to sit side by side with for seven years, even if you don’t like their kind. The other person was a young black girl. She was under his charge, so that didn’t count either, because he was her boss. I later would find out that he never had any problems interacting with black women, period. This, of course, made me think that he liked black women because it was taboo and he was like one of those old slave masters who got their jollies from raping the female specimen of the black race. Isn’t that terrible? The finally reason is because I never felt like the man liked me; a black man. And let’s face it…what’s not to like? I’m adorable, damn it!

So, just this past week I just began to wonder if I was being unfair to Sgt. Bitch-face and if it was I who was truly the racist. After all, I was passing judgment on this man just because of the color of his skin. Well, that and because he’s old enough to have had parents who possibly owned slaves. I mean, just because somebody white doesn’t like me doesn’t make them a racist, does it? And you know what really makes this sad. I also think that most cocky white folks, who wear a police uniform, have racist tendencies. That’s horrible, right? I mean, who does that? Well, I know who does it, but it’s a totally inappropriate way of thinking, right? Am I right? Oh, and let me just say that Sgt. Bitch-Face rarely interacts with anyone, even white police.
When I was going through my police training, one of my trainers was an old, fat ass, white guy. When I first meet him I was like, “Oh shit. Look at this racist bastard.” As it turned out he was the best trainer I had (we normally have three main trainers) and I credit him with a good portion of what makes me such a hell of an officer. Plus, the man didn’t have a racist bone in his body. Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch. I think we all might have a racist bone somewhere in our bodies. Some of ours are just bigger than others. But the fact still remains that I thought the man was gonna be racist for the simple fact that he was white, old, wore a uniform and in this case, fat. How terrible is that?

So, I have searched my soul to find out if I am a racist. I don’t think I am and I’ll tell you why. Now, I’m not going to say it’s “because I have friends that are white”, because it that ain’t the motto of every racist you ever want to meet, I don’t know what is. I just don’t think I am a racist because I am open to interacting and honestly getting to know people of different backgrounds. Just for the record, I do have a diverse grouping of friends; black, white, Hispanic, Asian, gay, straight. All of them offer something to the table that I believe helps me to grow as a person. I have always been drawn to people of other cultures, and I have no idea why. Lord knows that I sometimes believe my sisters to have some of the most flagrant racial tendencies ever. They say things that offend me, because of the very fact that I have such an eclectic gathering of friends and associates.

I also don’t think I am racist because of the fact that I am offended when people make ignorant statements about people of other racist and act as if it’s fact. That shit bothers me. Now, depending on the ignorance level of the individual making the statement, I will sometime challenge their statement and see if we can engage in an intellectual conversation. Trust me when I tell you it is virtually impossible to have an intellectual conversation with an idiot. I don’t care how much education they have.

I took a test this past Sunday, on the internet that asked the question; “Are you a racist?” It was a stupid test, developed by some intellectuals from Harvard. It ran you threw a serious of test where you had to press keys in relationship to facial characterizes (black and white). Then you had to press keys in regard to words that you considered bad or good. Then they placed words under the faces you saw earlier and you had to press keys in relationship to whatever they were asking prior to start the test. It was a time test and they didn’t want you to think, they just wanted you to react. Once the test was complete and my results were tabulated, it was found that I strongly prefer the company of African-American people. I thought this was funny, because the only African-American person I knew was this white guy, from Africa, that I went to college with. He was cool and stuff, but I wouldn’t say that I strongly preferred his company to anyone else’s.

No, in all seriousness, I thought that the results of the test were indeed strange. If you saw me with my small circle of friends you would never come to the conclusion that I strongly preferred the company of people that look like me. You would most likely believe that I preferred the company of people who look like Cocoa Rican. Why? Because the majority of my friends are Hispanic. I don’t know what Imma do if they pass that immigration law. LOL. I kid. I kid. No, for real though. The majority of my friends do have a Hispanic Heritage. Not because these are the people who I seek out, but because these are the people who have always sought out me. Don’t ask me why. I have always been a loner which means that I don’t active attempt to interact with people (work being the exception). That being the case, once I went to Junior High School, it was always someone Hispanic that would gravitate towards me and end up being my friend. This trend continued in my various jobs and even in college. There is just something about me that my Hispanic brothers and sisters like.

Anyway, somehow I managed to get off the subject and go off on a random tangent. So, the question remains, with all of this information that I have given you, am I a racist? I can mention other cases where I have just jumped to the conclusion that someone white didn’t like black people sole because they were white; not because of anything that they said or did. Just because it was something about them that gave me this vibe that said, “Hey, this person is racist.”
Oh, and don’t think for a minute that I believe that just because someone doesn’t like me that they are racist. That is not the case at all.

-One Man’s Opinion. Peace.