San Francisco’s Market street tonight around 9 pm towards 10th St is chilly, quiet and calm. Walking by to stop by an ATM machine 2 blocks out I passed by about 6 people signifying it’s a quiet night. As I tried to grasp air on my face mask trying to scratch my nose over it, 3 of the 6 people I passed by were millennial white guys who look very fit and healthy. The only observation I notice was these men did not have even a sign that they had a face mask. The city for a while and the state a day ago has mandated facial coverings to be worn outside. I had to mentioned this as this wasn’t the first time in maybe the last week I’ve seen such guys who do not wear mask. Compared to Caucasian women I haven’t seen a single women who walked by me that did not have a face mask. They were all compliant as well as from Asians, Latino’s and Europeans that are seen walking on the same street. Even the homeless African american guys had some kind of face coverings from a bandanna, surgical mask or even a torn t-shirt. I started with this thought not to make a fuzz but to connect my train of thought today. Watching CNN news talking about the President’s executive order on protecting monuments, being on Mount Rushmore tomorrow to celebrate July 4 while I tried my brief pauses reading, https://affordablebookdeals.com/products/white-fragility-why-its-so-hard-for-white-people-to-talk-about-racism
The book talks a lot about distinctions caused by racism itself. Robin Di Angelo talks about prejudices between whites and people of color. I completely agree that people of color have prejudices even tendencies or racism and also discriminating. But it is fact that since people of color are minorities in the positions of power and authority it lacks the social capacity and influence. A good example is culture and economics. My parents came from opposite equations of society, My father’s family came from a low income working class while my mother’s family and descendants were affluent and privilege from Spain. My parents brought me up well in a middle class setting. However, while I was growing up I was able to compare both sides of the families. In developing countries like the Philippines the societal division is a big gap between the rich and poor. The so called political dynasties prevail for centuries coupled with systemic corruption for one. As many would say, the ideology will never changed. The point I’m trying to make is the rich and politicians are forever in power and in positions of authority which is why I said the ideology, the culture and even the economics will never changed.
It is true that a lot of white people may not even know that at times they can be prejudicial and the like. As a person of color to this day I still get the question of “Where Am I From”. I don’t get as offended nowadays but the fact is that 97% of the time it will be a Caucasian guy that would ask me the question. There are times it would even be right when he starts a question for a job interview. There are many facets of correlation on this question alone. An example would be if your an immigrant of color who considers America as home for decades and you get ask this question, some would even feel conscious thinking it must be that they have an accent hence the question was asked during a job interview. What I’m trying to say is a simple question can insinuate a lot of thinking for a person of color. Likewise, will this question be a usual common question asked if the person being interviewed was white? I don’t believe so hence. What I’ve done after sometime when this question arises is I would respond, “Why do ask? there was a time I even continued, “Why is it important?…This is what the author meant that we people of color most of the time does not give feedback and just hide our feelings even if were offended of the action like with this question.
Having had a black president was a start but 8 years is not enough. What needs to happen is that in both the public and private sectors to the non-profits to sports, music and entertainment industries people of color needs to be assign or elected in positions of authority and policy making. White dominance thinking is rooted as being majority in society. This is the fact to start the long road to equality and race.
