Stupidity + Race ≠ Racism

In the interest of helping us bridge the divide of race, we need to clear something up. We are burying ourselves in racism accusations. Just because someone says or does something stupid, related to race, a racist does not this make. This is important because there is much more stupidity in the world, than racism.

In ethnically diverse surroundings such as ours, the probability of a person of one race saying or doing something stupid concerning race, which in turn is seen, heard, or felt, by someone of that or another race is pretty good - nearly a sure thing. Many comments about race can be either true or false, and stupid, but not racist. People – we really need to resemble this difference.

Being Black, and growing up around Black people has allowed me to hear stupid comments about race from Blacks, but without concluding the people or the comments are racist – perhaps just stupid. I assume many non-Blacks have experienced the same. As well, I have experienced Whites discussing race and spouting tremendous silliness, but with no honest call to use the R-word against them.

So whether we are talking about KFC soccer ads in Australia, or Nevada Senator Harry Reid talking about a ‘light-skinned Obama who speaks ‘Negro’ when he chooses’, or millions of others we interact with each day, we need to become more discerning about what is racism and what is just good old honest stupidity. Oh yeah, sometimes comments about race (that some might not like) aren’t even stupid, but hey, baby steps.

James C. Collier

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