Racism is Fashionable Again

So, pretty much everywhere, I think that certain people are coming up with the idea that it's ok to be racist again. Not just a little racist, but openly racist. Just look at the comments on a youtube video these days and you'll see phrases like "dumb niggers," "Great White Hope" (Tim Tebow), "Chinks," etc. What's the deal? Why is it suddenly in for people to start attacking each other based on race again? It felt like we had made a lot of progress in this country, especially by electing the first President of African descent. However, the attitudes that have come out of the woodwork now more than ever seem to expose the racial divide as the unbridgeable gulf that it once felt like, and apparently, will always be.

If you don't believe me, go down and read the comments people have on the videos of Toby Gerhart and Tim Tebow. There's an anger and a resentment simmering, lots of people blaming blacks for keeping whites from excelling in sports. I don't for an instant think that's true. Most coaches, although they wouldn't admit it, would still prefer a white quarterback. There's not some conspiracy where black players are barring the better white players from playing the skill positions. Particularly in the NFL, where it's a zero sum game and dollars are what matters. The knock on black players used to be that since we were closer to apes, we didn't have the intelligence that white players have. Even though that's obviously a fallacy, the shades of this idea still exist within the overtone of the comments that people make regarding this.

Crying foul for BET and Black History month is also idiotic. BET exists because black people wanted to see television shows with people they identified with. Although the original purpose of the network has been lost and it now serves mainly to perpetuate tired stereotypes, becoming a vehicle for a modern day form of minstrelsy, it served its purpose. Black History Month, however, is a time people to learn about people who helped in founding this nation and making it great who don't appear in the history books. Like it or not, our history books depict the history of WHITE AMERICA. White history doesn't need a month. It usually gets three to four months in high school History class.

So quit whining bout reverse discrimination when it comes to these things. If you want to complain about legitimately racist things, like when the white sorority was forced to share their trophy after winning a stepping contest, be my guest, but don't try to take away things that help people to learn about their history that has been excluded from the greater history of the nation in the history books. The playing field still isn't level, and with the attitudes that permeate America today, will likely never be.