I Wear Hoodies...

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  Today's post is a comment I belted out on Facebook today, while in the midst of an emotional fit. Rather than rewriting my feelings so they come across more well-ordered...I'm posting it exactly as I wrote it. A rewrite would make the post flow better, but I'm leaving it raw because this topic is raw inside of me...and I don't want to tame it. 
  
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  As a white woman living in a predominately white state (though I also happen to live in perhaps the most racially-diverse city in this state), I've been able to hold onto this wonderful fantasy that racism in the US was not a HUGE problem anymore. (That is white privilege speaking...and yes, if you're white, you do have it.) I wasn't stupid, I knew racial-dislike existed, I simply didn't think it existed in most American minds or homes.
  
  Obama was elected president and my happy-clappy little fantasy was busted almost overnight. At first, I refused to believe it. I SERIOUSLY thought people were talking crap about Obama's birth certificate because they really, truly just wanted to be jerks. My husband and a black friend opened my eyes. Now I see the racism in so many moments, it's depressing as hell.
  
  I hear this a lot - "I'm not a racist, but President Obama..." If you're not a racist, why can't you just skip the damned intro and go right into, "Obama..."?
  
  My white privilege kept me largely cushioned from the undercurrent of racism that thunders through our country. I think one of the best ways to deal with it is to admit it. White privilege means little things like - Geraldo wouldn't blame our clothing style on whether we got shot by a guy who says things like, "they always get away". White privilege lets us think, "Racism isn't a big problem anymore, the Civil Rights movement did away with that." White privilege is a cushy way of saying, "I don't see it and therefore it doesn't exist." Well, there is a black kid who is dead now because racism still does exist (and he is one of hundreds).

  
  

  Nobody's free until everybody's free. If a woman gets raped and it's blamed on her revealing clothing, we are not free. If a black kid is shot for wearing a hoodie we are not free. 

  
  

  We are bound by fear and misplaced hate. It has to stop, or we will never be a nation of We The People.
  
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  In case it's not obvious by my muddled words, this is not a rant about racism so much as it's a rant about Americans valuing one another as worthy beings. Thanks for reading.