All We See is Black or White

THIS POST IS ABOUT COLOR AS IT RELATES TO RACE. Usually my posts are inspiring, uplifting in a certain direction, but with all the talk of race in the news-I am sharing another perspective and hopefully inspire in a different sense. Also to my followers make note I made a separate category for these kind of posts.

If something is wrong and unjust, we should be able to speak up-regardless of the color of our skin. We can say it peacefully. I think we have seen so much derogatory commentary in regards to addressing people of other races that we can’t see beyond skin color anymore.

Race has once again divided our nation. And apparently it is still centralized around being black or white, sometimes Hispanic is thrown in there. What I’m realizing is it’s not even about race though, it’s about the color of your skin.

If I wanted to speak against something I see in a black friend or peer, a political figure-I would also be setting myself up for being labeled as a “racist”. It’s because I’m light skinned. Yet my prime roots are embedded in North Africa.

However if I sit around and carry on about a white counterpart-somehow this is more acceptable and easier to swallow. Why? Because I’m light skinned and we’ve accepted this hypocritical criticism in society. If you’re “black” you most likely can openly speak on “black” people without the first thing coming to mind in others is RACIST and if you are “white” you can do the same thing with “white” people without being called the same. However people like me-you can’t tell by looking at my skin that I’m African-we are sitting in the middle.

I’ve experienced both of these. My skin color hasn’t changed. And perhaps the issue I am addressing hasn’t either-the only variable is the skin color of the person I am addressing.

I’ve heard white people who don’t know I’m mixed make the most racist comments towards African Americans to my face. And I’ve been on the receiving end of black people calling me racist because they just see the reflection of my skin color, and not the reflection of the morals in which we are speaking of. It’s an interesting dynamic.

 Why do I have to embrace a color-and cannot embrace a race? Why is it that because my skin color doesn’t reflect my race-that I have to go around with a sticky note on my forehead labeling myself in order to receive equal treatment from both “races”.

The point of this all is to highlight two things, 1. that race is nothing anymore-it’s all about skin color which leads me to the second thing I want to highlight-that it looks like we are moving backwards as a nation. Many of us, all we seem to see is the color of a person’s skin, once again. I don’t really get offended when I notice the difference in treatment I get when someone does discover my race. I don’t because not only is it something I have experienced my whole life-but it also puts me in a position to speak on the issue. If anything it has taught me not to get offended-I actually feel bad for the demographic of people who cannot see beyond someone’s skin color while engaging in moral/ethical conversation.

Unfortunately many of us won’t care to widen our eyes. The “racially ambiguous” folk will unwillingly sit in the middle of this skin war, trying to be neutral, focused more on not “offending” whites and blacks alike, instead of simply speaking up on what is right.

You can sit there and say it’s ignorance, and by far most of it is. But I see this contradictory attitude deriving from two sources outside of ignorance. 1. As a human race we don’t know how to set our feelings aside and view just v. unjust. And 2. We only see black and white. Furthermore, ignorance is no longer an acceptable excuse. This has been an issue that keeps resurfacing in our society-creating tension, dividing people. Educate yourself already.