Floating in the MeSOSphere

Bend, Oregon had a 7% diversity rate in 2000, and had a 12% diversity rate in 2012. The current percentage of black people is 0.5%.  As I grew-up, the chances of having an interaction with a person who wasn’t white were exceptionally low. My little brother though black people only existed on television, and the first time he saw a person who was black in real life, he thought they were famous. My little sister saw a black person for the first time when we drove to LA to visit my older sister. We were sitting in the car at a skate park watching my brother skate. There were several other boys who were black, and my little sister, who was 7 years old said “I feel like I’m in Africa.”

I don’t remember my first interaction with a black person, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I had reacted in a similarly horrible and insensitive way as my little siblings. For all my middle school years I was a person who said such ignorant things as “It’s the 21st century, we don’t have racism anymore” and “It’s poverty that makes it so people don’t have opportunities, not race.” These things seemed true to me because I didn’t interact with racism, I had no idea what it was like to be discriminated against for my race. I still don’t know what it’s like, but now I understand that it happens.

The most disconcerting part of these anecdotes is that a lot of people never grow out of such misinformed ideas. My mom still makes remarks about latinos and how there “shouldn’t be spanish on everything. If they want to live here they should learn to speak english.”  It hurts me to write down the quotes from my family, people who I love dearly, and yet I think the quotes are powerful at conveying the entitlement white people have to land that was initially stolen.

Since I’ve moved away from home, I have spent a lot of personal and in class time thinking and talking about race and racism. I think that was conveyed in my in class contributions on Thursday. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about resentment and anger toward the oppressors, and the justification that people do and can feel toward demographics who have historically oppressed people of certain races, religions and cultures. The search for liberation will continue to be a theme of my life. I would like to end with a quote by Lillia Watson, an indigenous Australian and activist, that really encompasses my personal attitude toward racism, environmental injustice, and injustices of all types.

“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”