It'��s really disturbing when injustices that are linked to racism are brushed aside and we'��re called race baiters for bringing it up. As if I'��m imagining things. As if I created race. As if being silent is going to make everything okay. And the coup de grâce is that some unfortunate souls actually believe that by pointing out racism, that makes someone a racist. I find this to be a signifier of the failure of the education system. So many people know how to throw around the term, but so few know what it really means.

For everyone that'��s confused, racism is a historically rooted systematic structure based on the creation of racial hierarchies. It'��s racially based prejudices reinforced by systematic power structures that design global economic disparities, social guidelines for imprisonment, medical apartheid, and the socially determined value of life.



Instead of trying to silence discourse, just admit that you'��re a coward. Just admit that comfort and dare I say privilege is more important to you than justice. No we can'��t talk about the prison system, the fall of the middle class or the military industrial complex without race. No, no, no! To exclude race from these topics is to participate in the erasure of reality and to disregard the validity of millions of lived experiences. These '��reverse racism'�� and '��race-baiter'�� accusations are built on nothing more than modern day fairy tales.

The racial divide is real:

Unequal prison sentencing: Check
Exclusion from the workforce: Check
Sexual abuse: Check
Segregated education: Check
Insufficient medical attention: Check

Pointing out all of these issues is not divisive, but ignoring them is. It prevents us from fully exploring and understanding the crux of the problem. You'��re not really for social justice if work ends when you feel uncomfortable. Perhaps you should ask yourself why your comfort is so dependent on avoiding the deconstruction of racism. If you'��re not ready to have this discussion just admit that and move on. Remove your activist, social justice title and just ��get to steppin.�� But don'��t try to silence people because you feel uncomfortable. Those times are long gone. Mammy retired, leaving us very details instructions:��being quiet is not on the list.



Read the whole article: http://ourlegaci.com/2014/02/10/fairy-tales-of-reverse-racism-race-baiters/