Racism is Not Dead

I wish I could say, after the re-election of our first African American president that racism was a thing of the past.  I do believe that it is some haunting remnant of a time past that lingers in the hearts of people who will not let go of their hateful sentiments, but that does not mean that it is gone.  Like a cruel spectre of some of our country's darkest days, racism hovers above us in the form of acidic rhetoric that plagues our society.  For me, I have a hard time sympathizing with someone who looks down on another person just because they look different.  I had the opportunity to attend school with, work with, and socialize with people of all colors and creeds from the time I was a small child and thus, possess the ability to not focus on someone's skin color.  I know people who still do and while I can be pretty tolerant to various opinions about a plethora of things, I refuse to be accomodating or accepting when it comes to racism.  It is a disgusting and sickening trait and I do not understand how... in this day and age, any conscious adult would behave in such a horrific manner and even worse, attempt to pass that on to their children or grandchildren.  It terrifies me when I hear grown adults voice racist beliefs and when I do...I cringe and usually, I say something.  Let me be clear, it is the vilest and most ignorant of concepts and I have absolutely no tolerance for it.

I live in the South.  I live in a place where ignorant people run in droves to anonymous local message boards to use the N word as creatively as possible, use little sambo as their avatars and still akin a person of color to a monkey.  I live in a place where people still believe that a person of color ranks below them socially because of their color and actively believes in suppressing those people.  Now, many of my Southern friends and family will say....nooo...that was in the past, leave it there... but it is not.  All one need to do is go read my local paper at any point of the day and its blaring in the comments.  They blame the re-election of Obama on "thugs" who want everything for free...they call them criminals and talk about lynching them...in 2012.  When people tell me things have gotten better here, I say the laws have gotten better...but there is still two generations vehemently holding on to a  dark and cynical world view that rests all the blame of the world on a race and clings to some old world concept of white power and supremacy.  There is a real reason I want to leave the South... I want to get away from this because I think it is going to take another 2o to 30 years for that sort of mess to really become fringe thought and be dismissed and I just do not feel like waiting that long.  I love my country and I love my home...but I cannot respect the willful act of ignorance and hate.  

New prejudices are brewing, I know that.  People now hate homosexuals or people of different faiths or people with different political beliefs and people from different classes...and none of this is new...but it is disappointing.