Rascism and a White Girl

Been given to thinking about the question of racism lately... seems to be on a lot of minds lately, can't imagine why;) I've always thought of myself as 'colorblind' and probably am more than some, having grown up in Southern California in a land of no obvious majority. I have come to see that 'isms' come more from the perspective of 'what is the norm.' Now living in a state that is predominantly white, I notice race or at least skin color at lot more. However, this has not lead me to believe that I am more racist.

But, when it is drawn to my attention, I realize that I suffer from a sort of silent entitlement that I am mostly unaware of. For example, I have often invoked strangely colored people when trying to make a point - "I don't care if he's black, white or purple." It never occurred to me that only a white person would use such a phrase... that it minimizes the importance of race because race may be unimportant to me... I'm not discriminated against because of my race. That never occurred to me.

On the other hand, I have been discriminated against because of my gender. Back to the idea of 'norm.' Males have been gifted with this majority position because of our culture. So, when listening to Chris Rock point out that he doesn't have the luxury of being crappy at his job because to be recognized as a professional while being black means that you have to be twice as good.... well, I can identify with that. Remember all those cracks about Hillary Clinton's appearance? yeah.

So back to culture. In the end, that's what it's all about isn't it? We live in a culture that defines the majority in a certain way - and that puts everyone else in the minority and subjects them to discrimination. Skin color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender - all these things are used to marginalize those that the dominate group wishes to keep at bay. So is there such a thing as race? I think I agree with Edward James Olmos - that there is only one race. It's the human race. Everything else is just the efforts of one CULTURE to dominate another. Think I'll just work at being human....