Let’s Burst Our Racist Bubbles
Looking at an issue that many of us have probably been surrounded with every day, to the point where we may have become numb, I’m afraid I may have to drive that numbness down a bit more and make you ask, “is this necessary?” Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but it is something that cannot be ignored. We may be tired of the same old rhetoric in recent months of “let’s all mask up, get vaccinated, and curb the spread of the virus.” A switch-off button is pressed inside me whenever I hear anything remotely related to the pandemic. I have been following the prescribed protocols and have been vaccinated. I have and am still doing my part. So, if the news shifts to the pandemic surrounding the debates of whether to be vaccinated or not, or whether we should still wear masks, I roll my eyes and change the channel. I am simply tired of all this hype and fuss. I understand that we all need to do our part, and I feel that I am doing so. Why then should I continue being told to do my part? The same broken old record is being played repeatedly, scratching louder every time, becoming more cringe worthy, especially if I have to listen to the ridiculously hilarious preaching of an anti-vax conspiracy theorist. So don’t quote me as being anti-vax or in denial of the virus; I am not. I’m just so numb to the ridiculousness surrounding it.
The pandemic is but one of the societal issues that we have been constantly bombarded with to the point where we just shrug our shoulders and move on after any mention of these issues. We don’t want to be told that they are important because we know they are. I sometimes think that if you tell me about the gravity of an issue, which I know and believe to be necessary, I will simply deny its importance out of spite. It’s nice and cozy to be in that slumber of life carrying on as usual, doesn’t it? We just want normality and think that everything in our lives is neat and tidy and that nothing is broken. My attitude is that if I’m doing what I can and should be doing, everything is alright. Let’s not over complicate things. For instance, I clean my house every day as I believe that I am a clean and tidy person and that personal cleanliness in one’s personal environment, such as one’s home, is an easy thing to maintain. But what if I were to hire someone to clean my house one day, and at the end of the day, that person would ask when was the last time I cleaned my house.
I would definitely be shocked and offended. Does that person insinuate that I am an untidy person who likes to live in a dirty environment? After all, I do my part daily to ensure that my house lives up to acceptable standards of cleanliness. Everything always seems clean to me, so I do not need to be told to clean more often. However, what if that person who cleaned your house revealed to you that there was a section in your living room, under the sofa from which a great amount of dirt, along with a few dead cockroaches. I would be shocked. I would immediately begin asking myself why I let that section of the house slip from the corner of my eye as I was cleaning the house. Everything about my cleaning practices would be thrown into question. Personally, I would start to think of myself as negligent. However, I had rightly been doing the right things by cleaning every day. Perhaps it was a good thing that this would have been brought to my attention to ensure all areas are properly cleaned in the future. Those cockroaches could have laid eggs underneath the sofa, spreading a possible infestation throughout my house from a source to whose uncleanliness I would still be oblivious. From that other person’s point of view, I am an untidy person, and that person is right. There
should have been no excuse, but I liked to continue with my daily habits in my fabulous bubble of life as usual.But let’s look at my ramblings from another important perspective. I recently had an experience that was utterly eye-opening, revealing an aspect of daily life that had slipped from my daily focus in my neat and tidy bubble. That is the whole issue of systemic racism. I get it. Many of us may have become so numb to this issue and its repeated occurrence in daily discourse here in the US. I believed I did my part in being a good member of society, believing in the fundamental equality of people of all races. I know that my views and attitudes toward anyone are not biased and prejudicial. I support the movements and causes advocating for social justice and racial equality. I believe it is a good thing to take a stand for racial justice by, for instance, taking the knee at a sporting match to show support for the Black Lives Matter Movement. That is a good thing. I do my part, so I think I can continue with my daily activities with the life as usual approach.
In that sense, I have become numb to the issue of racial justice and have let the festering issue slip from the corner of my eye as I simply do my part in advancing the cause. I believe I do my part in cleaning the social environment, so leave me alone and don’t tell me to do more. That is an attitude which many of us have, to do one’s little bit and simply carry on. But is that enough? Like the infestation underneath the sofa that could have spread to an otherwise tidy house, so can the underlying issue degrade the whole house of society if it is not cleaned. It does not help to simply carry on in one’s bubble if one is still untidy in a section in one’s social environment.
My little bubble burst most inconveniently on a recent Friday night when it was just supposed to be life as usual. A Friday night is definitely not the time to be pondering society’s deep structural issues unless, of course, one’s Friday night entails some marijuana consumption, which makes one delve into the deep mysteries of life. Let me first then state that I am not a marijuana user, by the way. I was expecting a good time at the club with my girlfriend and some drinks when the enormous issue of systemic racism within our society opened up to me. Innocently queuing up at the club’s entrance with my girlfriend, we noticed the bouncer approach a group of four African American guys who, like us, were expecting a good and relaxed time in the club that evening.
One of the guys was wearing baggy sweatpants, and the white bouncer told him that he could not enter the club dressed in baggy sweatpants. The whole group decided to leave and was quite visibly shocked and upset. Initially, I had not taken much stock of it, thinking, “oh well, if that’s the dress code, then that’s the dress code.” This view most drastically changed after some time in the club when I noticed how five white guys were dressed in sweatpants. There was a natural feeling of outrage that began to pervade me as I asked myself, “why are those guys wearing baggy sweat pants in this club while that man outside was denied entry for wearing one?” Suddenly my numbness broke, and the bubble of my life-as-usual-approach, I-do-my-part approach burst. Like that person who discovered the rot underneath the sofa and reprimanded me for it, I also reprimanded myself for my life as usual approach in the issue of racial justice. That was like one of those epiphany or “aha” moments when suddenly one’s whole outlook is changed. I immediately felt ashamed for not having stood up to the white bouncer denying entry to the black person for wearing those sweatpants as I was still in my bubble, numb to the continued societal discourse on racial justice and systemic racism. It had then felt totally outrageous that a blatant form of discrimination could have been demonstrated. We are supposed to be a free and equal America. That sort of action can only be allowed in society if the law is still influenced by its previously prejudicial underpinnings that excluded the advancement of African Americans in economic and societal life. These structural underpinnings allow for the perpetuation of attitudes and biases that say, “black men dressed as rappers in baggy sweatpants are dangerous and so let’s protect ourselves from them.”
Perhaps then, if I may be so bold as to burst all your bubbles regarding this issue. Burst those bubbles of that ingrained and systemic prejudice, whether it be in one\s work and leisure. It is simply not enough to say “I do my part,” or “I’m tired and numb to the continued debate surrounding the needs for addressing systemic racism.” Systemic racism persists when we do not acknowledge that underneath the sofa of our nation’s legal, political and economic systems, there lies the rot and infestation of racial prejudice, which will spread into the falsely tidy world we have created for ourselves. Our police officers will continue to be influenced by the biases that are enabled by the societal structure because they believe they are simply doing their part within their own narrow bubble. Inconvenient as it may be, let’s burst that bubble. No more of that “I’ve heard it so many times already attitude.” Let us then burst our racist bubbles.
Sources Used
Diary of Injustice #2