Recently
there was a story passed around on Facebook about a little white baby girl who
was “killed just for being white” in a predominately black neighborhood. According to the author no one even heard
about this child’s death-by-black because the liberal media pushed the story
of black teen Treyvon Martin’s death relentlessly. My mom frequently complains that there is
nothing interesting on her Facebook News Feed but when I told her about that posting she proclaimed it to be blatantly racist and was likely then
relieved for the quiet nature of her Facebook.
While I agree that the media
sensationalizes stories for ratings; I have a hard time understanding how a
person couldn’t see that post about the white girl, while sad if true, as nothing
but a racist rant. Do you even
understand how many black children and teenagers die in poor neighborhoods
every single day? Do you know how many
of their stories are passed over in favor of that of a suburban white girl gone
missing for a few hours?
I
understand that no one really knows what happened between Trayvon and George
Zimmerman that tragic night. But the
fact that the media keeps obsessing over the story like some kind of Royal Baby
Birth has nothing to do with the ridiculous idea that white news is somehow being
repressed. Look at Casey Anthony, Jaycee
Dugard, Anthony Weiner and Jodi Arias, just to name a few. The news certainly isn’t lacking for white
stories or even white news casters. And
even if Trayvon’s story is deemed by some to be overplayed, it doesn’t make it
any less sad or worth talking about. The
very fact that it sparked so much racial debate and anger shows that we have a
long way to go in this country.
My Mom and
I also frequently discuss (I love talking to my Mom) the abundance of
complaints about having to “push 1 for English” on touch tone phones. Is this really that much of an inconvenience
or is it merely promoting fear in certain white hearts that they might not always
be the majority? I tend to lean towards
the latter. Americans are spoiled in
that English is becoming the predominant language across the world. We don’t have any trouble traveling to
non-English speaking countries. That is
because most of the people in those countries learned actual English in high school, as opposed
to the 5 words of Spanish we learn in 5 years of Spanish classes in America. Most Americans have ancestors who spoke zero
English when they stepped off of the boat and most of them experienced extreme
prejudice just as Hispanic people are facing today. Irish, Germans and Italians were all accused
of “stealing ‘our’ jobs” at the time they immigrated. Will this cycle ever end?
Traveling
to NYC a couple of weeks ago I landed at JFK and stepped onto the runway into a
maze of tunnels towards the terminal that would confuse even my own
grandmother. Next to me, however, was
someone else’s grandmother who didn’t speak a word of English. Luckily, that sweet lady caught my eye and I
helped her navigate through. I was so
grateful for that little bit of Spanish I did retain because I was able to help
her find “la maleta” (her suitcase) as well as her grandson who looked as
relived as a mother finding a lost child.
This country is huge and full of every different kind of person. Why can we not embrace our differences as the
very thing that makes us beautiful?
I don’t want to fast forward my
life nor do I wish that I lived in a different time. I just wish that I could for a second peek
into a future where racism is gone, breathe a sigh or relief and then keep on
keepin’ on. I understand things are
better than they used to be and I rarely have to “unfriend” or block people for
posts such as this. But the thing is; I
don’t want even a little bit of racism on my Facebook news feed. It’s kind of like stepping in a little bit of
dog poop. It doesn’t really matter
whether you step in a little pile or a big pile of poop; you still have shit on
your shoe.
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