http://worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh8n3Z7ZmaEhf8i4hJ
As I stated at the beginning of this note, my heart goes out to these officers, but not because they're being accused of being racist(Come on did you think I'd make it that easy). My heart goes out to them because they like so many other "well intentioned" Americans have totally misunderstood the depth, power, and overall scope of racism here in America. Let me just put it this way, America is SO racist, that you don't even have to actually BE racist, to perpetuate racISM. I can feel the wheels turning already. When it comes to matters of race and culture here in America, most of us have this invisible scale of 1 to 10 floating around in our heads, 1 is the most racially and culturally sensitive and 10 is the least. 1 is I love everybody let's work toward progress, peace, and hope, 10 is eff everybody else that doesn't look, speak, and think like me. 1 is President Obama, and 10 is the dude who founded the Ku Klux Klan, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News are about a 5 on this scale.
So when people here the term racist, this invisible scale starts to go nuts, and they immediately think, "No way, I'd never lynch, beat up, show hatred, spit on, or disrespect someone solely because of the color of their skin." Racism however, though it begins as an idea in our heads, doesn't stay there. In this country, we've had hundreds of years of people who were actually racist, who believed in the inherent superiority and inherent inferiority of racial groups, making our laws, constructing policies, building businesses, opening schools(research the history of private Christian education in America), buying sports teams, amending the constitution, running for President, being the President and so on and so forth. So with that wonderful "headstart", we are now at a place here in our country where Racism isn't just an individual moral vice, it's an entire system that has been built over the centuries. Hence my point, you don't actually have to BE racIST, to perpetuate racISM. Sadly, we spend most of our time bickering over who and who isn't racist, than opposing and tearing down the racist SYSTEM that's all around us.
So we come full circle, because that's exactly what I see going on in this "protest." A collection of individuals, who by all means are probably "well intentioned" fathers, mothers, husbands and wives of all races, who see racism as merely a choice they make or a belief that they do or do not hold, rather than a system that needs to be brought down. They see the immigration law that they're being asked to enforce, and themselves as two separate things that have no relationship to one another. Hence the justified one liners of, "I'm not racist, I'm doing my job, I'm fighting the war against-insert government cause here." If you want to say illegal immigration is an "epidemic", that's a real buzz word in America these days,I'll let you have that, but Racism....(here comes another equally good buzz word)...has been a Pandemic for even longer. So it seems we're fighting an epidemic with a pandemic lol, way to go America we rock. It's like letting loose a gang of King Cobras because you have mice in your back yard. You can probably see how THAT movie would end.
So now you might be thinking, "well what do you expect these cops to do, not enforce the law, protest against the law, they have families to feed." You're oh so right, and that truth is EXACTLY what makes racism in America the beast that it is. I guess fish in a polluted stream have no choice, but to breathe the water.
