Have we been so conditioned by oppression and prejudice that we are not even bothered by it anymore?
I only ask this in light of an exchaneg a friend and I had with three people a few nights ago. Before our staff meeting, we had went to the student union to do a few things, and as we left we noticed that Fox Sports Network was filming something in the middle of Bruin Plaza at UCLA. Ever curious as we are, we walked over to them to see what the fuss was all about. Three of the sports newscasters were standing about, and they were older gentlemen. Two were white and the other man was Black.
So, feeling no harm in asking, we wanted to know what they were filming and why. "A sports show. Are you two ladies going to stay and watch us?", they asked, raising eyebrows. "No", said my friend, "We have a staff meeting for our community project". The three men asked us about our project, and I told them about it. "It's called SHAPE, students heightening academic performance through education. And we work in high schools in Inglewood". The three men looked at each other, laughed.
Then, thinking himself very clever and witty, one of the white men grabbed their Black colleague and said to us "Oh, so you work with inner-city clowns like him?"
Inner-city clowns.
Did we work with inner-city clowns like their Black colleague?
Needless to say, my friend and I were extremely shocked and we failed to find anything funny about his little "joke". We looked at each other in absolute disbelief, looked at the three men, and the awkward tension was extremely thick in the air. "You know what, you three have a good night.", said my friend and without a second glance, we turned and left, still very stunned by what the man had said.
As we left, we heard the one Black man say "Whatever. It's not a big deal."
We may have overracted, who knows. But to call our students in Inglewood "inner-city clowns" was not only extremely rude and unsourced, but very insensitive.
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You were not being unreasonable. You and your friend had the right reaction. Racism is still a big deal.
WOW! How absolutely fucked up!
You were not overreacting. That was awful of them to say.
I'm curious about something. I'm asking this, not as a white woman who's complaining or anything (not at all), but as a white and underinformed woman who's strictly interested. I've noticed that in a lot of racial theory and essays on race and racial relations, the "white" in "white person" is never capitalized and the "Black" in "Black person" always is. Not even every essay, but in very many of them (at least the ones I've read - probably most), and when I've noticed this difference, it's always consistent throughout the whole essay, so it's not a typo or anything. You also did this in your post.
What's the reason for this distinction? Again, I'm not complaining, I don't think it's racism against white people or anything (God no), I'm just a bit of a stylistic buff and feel there must be an ideological reason behind it. Educate me! :)