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Race: Does the color of my skin really matter?

W_L

Entry posted by W_L

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I'm not black, I'm not White. I am just a Chinese boy, who happens to like boys and is blind in one eye. Being gay and blind is already a rarity, race for me usually does not become a major subject. Yet, I know there is racism in the world; especially in the deep south.

 

My oldest childhood friend is black; we're both blind in one eye and we're both highly intelligent. (I have a 132 IQ, he has 138). However, our lives diverge from there. While I got my Masters' degree and currently make upper five figures salary (average professional); my friend never finished college and is living off welfare/SSI supplemental income right now.

 

When we were 12, his parents decided to move back to Alabama and I did not hear from him for 10 years. At 22, I got a phone call from him and we talked about life and how things were going. I was just starting my new job at that point as an accountant at my old company and felt grateful to have landed a job in 2009 despite the bad economy. He on the other hand could not find even a cleaning job, because he lacked "experience" and "did not fit" their requirements, i.e. code for physical disability. However, beyond that, he also pointed out something to me that I still remember.

 

"{WL{ you're not black and don't get it. I know you've probably gotten dirty looks and stuff, but it's different. I go into a place looking for work and people give you slight glances. They think you won't notice, but even with just one eye, I can see 'em. I am a black man to them first, not some guy looking for work"

 

This is Boston, not Memphis, not Biloxi, I really never thought that it mattered.

 

I thought about that with the recent issues in Missouri with the Police officer shooting a black youth, Michael Brown. I know the back and forth, "He was trying to grab my gun", "He put his hands up", "the kid robbed a grocery store", and "This is just another case of southern racism". I get all those viewpoints, but there is something about this that I connect with.

 

In my friend, I see untapped potential, who, in a better environment, could do more with his life.

 

I don't have answers to this age old issue, but I do wonder if it will never go away.

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TetRefine

TetRefine 2,617

Posted

Of course it matters still in America. We all still have our prejudices, and how we view different races is based on our own personal experiences, and those around us. I grew up a white boy in a town that is 97% white, so I didn't really know how it felt to be the obvious outlier in a group of people or just in everyday life. My first two years of college I didn't have a car, so I relied a lot on the bus to get where I needed to go off campus. The city in which I went to college was 80% black, and every time I stepped on the bus, I was one of (if not the only) white people on the whole bus. They would stare at me and give me nasty looks and make me feel incredibly uncomfortable just because I was white. It's an experience I'll never forget and it has made me very conscious about how I make other "different" people feel in similar situations because I've learned how much it sucks. 

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Guest battybeef

Guest battybeef

Posted

yes. cuz it's not just "color of your skin"...it's like if LG asks "does the color of my tablet really matter?"...no it's not just the color of anyone or anything's skin...everything belongs to a brand and nothing is self-identifiable in this world. i'm not trying to be racist when I say this but when ppl look at you, they're not thinking "this is a sole individual who just happens to have the skin tone and facial features of a chinese person", they think "this is a PERSON who is of blah blah decendant who has blah blah family, who may have blah blah friends, who probably is good at blah blah blah and doesn't like blah blah" basically what the Chinese BRAND is. i'm not saying everyone has a correct perspective of all racial groups in the US, my point is that we're all evaluated far more beyond just "color of skin", whether we are white, black, asian or whatever.

 

what people don't get is it's always going to be a competition of brands...always, always, always...nobody is ever going to evaluate 2 different things and think they are the same...what we all CAN do is make our own brands better or different or something significant in a good way. EMBRACE DIFFERENCE not smuther it and try to have everyone be the same and shove racism under a rug. Samsung and Apple are both highly valued not cuz Samsung played the victim card and guilted people into buying more of its product...it made its products better, it marketed its products better and over time people LIKED the product better....

 

so YES...the "color of your skin" matter and it always will...but up to you if you want it to matter in a good way or bad way.

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