If You Think This Is Offensive, Then You're Still Whining

"Beyond Checkboxes: Intersections of Mixed-Race Identities" was a roundtable group discussion on how people in general think and behave when interacting with someone of a different race. Almost every student shared almost the same story involving a person making an ignorant comment or "back handed compliment" by someone who did not understand everything about their race.

I was the only white male in the group until the last five minutes. Most of the stories involved a white person making an ignorant racial comment. I have not made any of the mistakes the other white people in the stories made. Almost everyone in the group had a complaint about a "back handed compliment" they received in the past from an ignorant white person. For these reasons, I did not speak at all. If I did, I would have been maligned a racist because I would have told everyone to stop whining. Since 6th grade up until today, people blatantly tell me I do not have a soul, ask me if I have a soul or if I think I have a soul, and make fun of the color of my pubic hair because I am a "ginger," someone with red hair, light skin and freckles. I never thought this was funny, but I also never complained because the people that say those things are not worth thinking about. The people in the mixed race discussion used an hour of their day to share a complaint about someone with good intentions saying to them that they look exotic or are pretty for resembling some ethnicity. Obviously it is still a compliment, and obviously it is a little racist, but subtle unintentional racism will go away in time and complaining to a group of people that are trying to agree with you is not fixing this so called "problem." I believe being totally color blind means not paying attention to race at all and giving things like this attention will only expose a horrible concept of differences among people to our youth.

SOME TUNES