The personal side of bias, prejudice, and oppression.

 

The incident that I would like to share this week is one that happened to my aunt a week ago.  I am sharing this to show how people are still living by the principals of racism although many deny that it still exists.  

My aunt was at the pharmacy picking up her prescriptions and speaking with the pharmacist about her medications.  An elderly Caucasian lady rolled up in her electric wheelchair and asked her husband did you get the medicine yet.  He replied “No, because I have been waiting on this ni….. to stop running her mouth and get out of the way!”  Neither my aunt nor the pharmacist had seen the man until he spoke.  My aunt proceeded to apologize but to her surprise he says, “Just get out of the way ni…. Before I George Zimmerman your Black a..  The he raised his cane and hit her.

For those of you that do not know, George Zimmerman is a man that was just found not guilty for the murder of a young African-American boy that was walking home from a convenience store.  Mr. Zimmerman was found not guilty-not because he wasn’t guilty but because Florida has a law called Stand your Ground.  This law says if you feel threaten by a person than you can stand your ground and shoot that person.  

This incident is an encounter that involved biases of the elderly man, racism of the elderly man and oppression of the African American people.  My aunt was very hurt and shocked to have to experience racism to that degree that it included bodily harm to her.  My reaction to the incident was of anger because it happened and sadness because the elderly man was set in his ways of prejudice against Blacks.  

I really do not know how the situation could have been changed for great equity.  My aunt decided not to press charges on the man when the police arrived.  When the wife called her later that day offering her a monetary gift for not placing her husband in jail for assault, she denied the gift and asked them to donate to the family of the boy that was killed.

Can anyone give any suggestions of how the incident could have been handled with more equity?  I honestly do not know what I would have done and I pray that I do not have any incidents in this manner.

Just as I was about to post my submission, I read the following Facebook post and thought I should include it with this submission.  The fact that the parent said to her child is outrageous.  Children have the tendency to embarrass their parent at the most inopportune times.  I am sure the mom never thought her child would say that in public.  However, this parent has used her parental power to raise a child into a racist.  Undoubtedly, the elderly man was raised during the time when racism was 'common' and bluntly spoken.  However, that behavior is a learned behavior and it's going to take people speaking out against it to end racism.  “No one is born a racist.  Racism is taught.” (Margles & Margles, 2010, p. 137)   To ignore that racism still exists is actually helping it to continue.  “The very blindness to it by so many is symptomatic.  No one is born into this society is immune to its distortions, interwoven into all aspects of life. (Margles & Margles, 2010, p. 137)

Resources

Margles, S., & Margles, R. M. (2010). Inverting racism's distortions. Our Schools/Our Selves,

19(3), 137--149. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=51372248&site=ehost-live&scope=site