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How to fight racism, you asked, I attempt to answer [1]

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Date: 2025-04-19

When you’re playing with someone and accidentally punch them too hard, and they tell you “ouch that hurt!” what do you do? You stop.

Basically, it’s the same thing, when a minority says “stop, that’s racist or discrimination,” you stop. Unless your intentions are to hurt, that person, you stop. Period.

As I told my son (he was around 7) the first (and only) time he told me while laughing about a bullying incident at school (he didn’t know he was bullying), I didn’t laugh, I didn’t mince my words, I said Kid that’s bullying, when you’re doing or saying something to someone and they ask you to stop, it doesn’t matter if you think you were being funny, you stop. That person is telling you, you’re hurting them so unless you’re a bully you stop. It doesn’t matter if you think that person has no reason to be hurt, you stop. You got big ears, if someone started teasing you about them, you wouldn’t like it, so stop. Yes I pointed out the feature he’s sensitive about.

You, do not need to know why it’s racist, why it’s homophobic, why it’s transphobic, why it’s sexist, you stop. Period. The only thing you need to know is that the person you’re engaging with found it hurtful. It doesn’t matter if other people of the same group didn’t find it racist when you did it in the past. You stop.

Your understanding is not required for you to stop hurting someone, that’s between you and your thoughts, meaning if you’re inclined to know, find out why it’s hurtful, but whether you do or not stop your hurtful behavior. Because, if you claim that you don’t want to hurt people yet keep doing the stuff they say hurt them because you don’t find it hurtful, you are a bully, you just enjoy hurting people. What other reasons are there to keep on doing it?

I can hear the buts already, “everything is racism or sexism or some form of discrimination” yes, that’s what happens when you build a society around only one demographic; everything else is steeped in all kinds of discrimination and it will take time to undo. Your default settings are “white good” “others bad” so every time you’ve had to describe a bad thing or a bad person, you go for the stereotypes. So-called jokes and humor only serve to keep the stereotypes alive and kicking, it is my dream that one day Americans will stop associating humor with mocking people for their differences. There’s humor and there’s bullying.

The phrase “I was only joking” should be struck from your repertoire. It is an escape valve for bullying. Can you imagine hitting someone with your car and when they say “you hit me, i’m bleeding or anything else” you replied with “I was only driving?” Maybe until you truly understand humor, it is better to stop joking.

Your demographic has spent 500 years building this society steeped in racism and otherism, so yes every single thing in your society is saturated with it, it’s in your books, your children’s fairy tales, songs, nursery rhymes, paintings, sculptures, scriptures, even down to your product packaging, your teaching materials, your laws, your constitution, and most importantly your brains.

When it comes to the past, there’s a fine balance to be struck tough, for one there’s a difference between taking down a statue of a confederate soldier or changing the name of a school, and changing let’s say the words of a book. Some things must be left as they are to serve as teaching tools. And I do mean the book. Asking the descendants of the enslaved to attend a school named after one who fought to keep their ancestors enslaved and claiming it is not a problem, is the height of lunacy. Statues and school names are elevating those folks to hero status, it is intended to paint them in a positive light which they do not deserve.

It is simple, but it is not easy. When you thought all you had to do to fight racism was not say the N word and be anti-police brutality you were all “BLM! BLM! BLM!” but once you realized the scope of the work involved…. To deconstruct 100’s of years of discrimination on so many fronts… you balked. You started complaining about being harassed, targeted, even going as far as to claim racism was being done unto you, never once stopping to think… “they’ve been living with all of this for 500+ years? How did they do it?”. Instead of lauding us for our resilience, instead of telling yourselves “If they could do it for 500+ years, I can do it for 50 years!” you chose to tank your own country into fascism.

So my question is this do you want to fight racism or do you enjoy hurting folks?

*The you in this text is not addressed to anyone, to any platform in particular. These are just my thoughts and musings.

#Writing #Poetry #BlackPoetry #BlackHistory #SocialPoetry #BlackKos #TheAmericanHaitianPoet

paypal.me/murielvieux to help Haitians families 10$ x donors can go a long way.

#ThePoet - Muriel Vieux – April 19th, 2025, ©All rights reserved

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