Thoughts on Racism
THOUGHTS ON RACISM
1:17Social + Email = Successby constantcontactPromoted Video58,370 views
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Wow! This piece evoked so
many thoughts, emotions and memories for me. There is nothing novel here. It
confirmed what I already knew, but it was sad to see just how little has
changed in our cultural self-perception. I commend Kiri on having enough
awareness and enough of a sense of responsibility to even address the issue and
want to investigate it, when she is growing up in an era of apathetic
blindness. At 16, she has done well, because she is questioning and searching
for answers. She is not randomly thrashing around, but rather taking an
intellectual approach, looking at it scientifically. She is using an
evidence-based approach, as opposed to just speaking on other people's opinions
that get funneled down to her. At 16, she doesn't have the answers...but at 16,
she is not supposed to have them. I am 46 and still don't have the answers to
these very complex issues.
As a girl, I grew up in a multi-cultural environment, mostly outside of the
United States. I learned to love and co-exist with people of all colors and
cultures. That being said however, I was still a child who recalls being first
"colored"or "negro" and then "Black." I remember my first awareness
of race and self-hate...and I remember my first awakening of self-love within
my own rich brown skin. I remember at 4 years old, looking around at my white
playmates who had straight blonde or red hair that my mother called "good
hair" and commenting that I wished I was white, so I could have red hair
too. My mother reassured me that when I grew up, I could have any color hair
that I wanted to have. She partially missed the point. She limited it to
being about red hair and failed to fully address that I was already internalizing enough
systemic and social racism to begin my self-loathing. It wasn't a White thing.
It wasn't a Black thing. It was a systemic thing, borne out of years and years
of systemic racism. At 4, it was already a part of my world...a part of my
definition. Then, at the ripe old age of 5, I experienced a small event that
would replay itself in my mind for years to come...a small thing, but one of
the few actions in my life that I have ever truly regretted to a large degree and still yet a
small event that became a self-defining moment, the beginning of my awakening
and my journey to self-acceptance and self-love. At the age of 5...almost..., I
had a Black babydoll that looked very much like the babydoll in this video. You
see, at that time, although many babydolls, both Black and White had rubber
hair like the ones in the video, it was pretty much only the White babydolls
that had "real," silken hair...even baby dolls could have "good
hair." However, I loved my Black babydoll above all the others, because I
felt like the rest of the world didn't love her as much. My White friends
thought she was ugly. At night, I would hold her and cry and tell her how
beautiful she was. One day, however, I was playing with my friends. They all
had their lovely blonde White dolls with the real silken hair and I had my
little, bald-headed Black babydoll. Our mothers were talking in the yard near
by. I watched the other girls combing their dolls hair and slinging their own
"good hair" over their shoulders. Mine was platted in thick, long,
dark braids down my back. One girl brushed her own hair and then brushed the
lovely cornsilk hair of her doll. With a knowing smile that I've seen so many
times on different faces over the years, she handed me the hairbrush. I couldn't
brush my own braided hair and I remember that brush made a horrible scratching
sound over the little rubber head of my little Black baby doll. I remember
thinking in my child's imagination how it must hurt her. I looked up as the
trashman was coming down the street and creating a horrible ruckus with the
truck. The other girls covered their ears, but not I. Instead, I ran over to my
mother and said, "Mommy, I don't want this doll anymore. She is ugly! Can
I throw her away?" My mother without breaking focus from the gossip of the
day waved her approval. I ran up to the truck and threw her up into the truck
with all of the force I could muster. Yet, almost immediately, as the crusher
came down to crush the life out of her that exists in the mind of a child, I
had the mad desire to rescue her. I knew in that instant that what I was
throwing away was myself, my own Blackness. I stood silently and watched that
truck roll down the street until it turned the corner. I vowed at that moment
that I would never throw myself away again, because I am valuable just as I am.
I saw beauty in that doll and until this day, at 46 I wish I could rescue her,
if only to thank her for rescuing me!
I understand the thread of this conversation, because I have experienced most
of it. I am a darker brown skinned woman, so I experience the discrimination
against the dark color of my skin. When I went to model in New York, I was told
by an agent at Ford Modeling (to whom I had been given an insider referral),
that they could possibly get some work, but in order to do so I would have to
get my nose reconstructed to make it "finer." When I refused to do
so, I was told that I would never be able to work with a "nose like
that." Haters?....naw...motivators...see my myspace page at www.myspace.com/cheryl_denise!
When I was told by my college academic advisor that I should not go to medical
school, but should consider nursing school instead, I vowed that I would not
just go to medical school, but I would go to one of the top ones! At the same time
as I was being beaten up by the system outside of my ethnic roots, I was seeing
discrimination from within, as my lighter skinned sistas have described. As we
all are, I am of mixed descent, a combination down through the lines that has
manifested in the way of very thick, strong hair that doesn't break as easily
as the hair of some of my Black sisters, so it grows fast and easy. I had
braids hanging all down my back as a child and although my features are clearly
Black, many describe them as less traditional and I am frequently asked if I am
from the islands or Brazil, amongst other places. As a result, I was ostracized
by my aunts, experiencing resentment from them even until this day.
Interestingly enough though, contrary to popular belief, this is not an
African-American thing! It is more universal than that! Having grown up around
the world, I see the theme repeated over and over again. Light Filipinos look
down on dark filipinos. Eva Longoria commented in an interview that she always
thought she was the ugly one growing up, because they called her the "ugly
dark one". Eva is latina. White and light Australians look down on the
Aborigines and their descendants. In spite of the fact that Brazil is claimed
to be a melting pot, societally the darker Brazilians are at the bottom of the
totem pole. Although Black Americans escape to Europe to gain acceptance in
entertainment and sports, because they are underappreciated here, British
Jamaicans are experiencing pretty severe racism. Dark-skinned Asians are less
favored than light-skinned ones and Japanese women are flocking to plastic
surgeons to look more Anglo-European. And even when it clashes horrendously
with most of the darker skintones, multitudes of Asian, Latino and Black women
are rushing out to become blondes. This is not specific to African-Americans.
This is a bigger, cultural cancer. I don't have the answers, but I want to be a
part of the solution, as opposed to a part of the problem, so I continue to
search and to be active in promoting education and self-awareness. I believe
that the answer lies in a large part in our promoting more and more within our
communities a greater sense of values, so we focus more on the beauty within.
The human experience does not come in shades. Love, hate, compassion, greed,
pride, loneliness, joy, pain, etc.,...they are universals that we all share.
Let's explore them for what they are. Honesty, integrity, compassion, strength,
etc. are all virtues that we can promote in any of us. Let's push these things,
especially in the areas where the self-esteem of entire communities is so
readily apparently lacking. Let us promote intellectualism, tell our young
people that being intelligent and educated is not a crime. Let's applaud and
support the young people like Kiri who are developing a social and intellectual
awareness of the world around them and how they fit into it. And let's
encourage honest intellectual exchange. We can't solve a problem by ignoring it
or by making excuses for it. We can't solve a problem by blaming the victim or
by failing to acknowledge the part that we ourselves play in our own situation.
Mainly, I think that each one of us has to start by examining our own
attitudes, beliefs and prejudices (and yes, we DO all have them). As people of
color, we have to stop seeing ourselves as victims and start seeing ourselves
as strong survivors. We have to stop allowing ourselves to excuse ourselves out
of responsibility for our present by blaming others for our past. Yes, there
are some Whites who are blatant racists even today. Yet, that does not
encompass most of the White population. However, they are racists still, as are
we, because they are victims of institutionalized racism, just like we are.
Most of it is born out of ignorance. EVERYBODY needs to become educated and
only then can there be change. That education will come through honest
communication. Kiri did a wonderful thing...she opened up a line of
communication and provocative thinking. It isn't a new approach, but it
uncovered something that we have been sweeping under the rug in the name of
complacency. The civil rights movement was not an act! It was a movement....and
movements must continue to move or stagnation occurs and ground is lost. The
civil rights movement opened up lines of communication, but when gains were
made, people became complacent and then apathetic, because that is the path of
least resistance. It is time to wake-up and re-visit these issues that were
never fixed. We just put a bandaid on a gaping wound. The world is still hemorrhaging
and the flesh is beginning to decay from beneath the bandaid. It is time that
we get in there and clean this thing up, so some real healing can begin. I
challenge each of you to take this girl's video on and discuss it with your
friends Black, White, Latino, Asian, etc. and to discuss it earnestly with an
intent to search for a part you can actively play in the solution. Videos like
A GIRL Like ME, movies like Crash and Monster's Ball, song's like India Arie's, "I
Am Not My Hair," always stir up controversy, but that is a good thing,
because it opens up lines of communication. Let us keep our foot in the door,
so those open spaces don't keep closing up and getting forgotten about as soon
as the newness of the stimulus at hand wears off. With open lines of communication,
together we can come to a univeral acceptance of our oneness and develop some
plans that can give our young people back their hope! We have not arrived!
Many thanks to Kiri for being brave enough look at this problem head on and
trying to do it with some objectivity. You are a leader. I challenge you to
keep the strength to work towards a solution of which you are already becoming
a part.
Be blessed little sister!
Dr. Cheryl Denise BryantBruce
From ucsomeonespecial on 23 August, 2006 at 7:47 AM Just as another aside, the comment was made that someone didn't understand why we are searching for our "Roots." It is nothing that complex. It is a need for self-definition. We see the same search repeatedly in children who are adopted. Even the most well- adjusted children who are adopted experience a void and search for an identity that they have difficulty finding. Some reach a comfortable place, where they find their own definition of self, independent of their parentage. Others search for a lifetime. One of the most glaring examples of this is the percentage of young men, both Black and White in the penal system who never knew their fathers. Although their situations have multifactorial causes, invariably they describe a sense of undetermined identity, not knowing who they are or how they are really supposed to fit in. We initially build our identity and self-esteem from external cues. The knowledge of our heritage can be a strong positive cue. It is not impossible to build a strong sense of self without that cultural background information, but in order for it to occur, there must be a strong, nurturing supportive environment that regularly defines and re-affirms and individuals worth. We are most comfortable when we are validated by the cultural tenets of our tribe, whichever tribe with which we may choose to identify. Afterall, one of each individuals most basic drives no matter what color the skin is to fill the need to be loved and the need to be understood.
Is Your Physician Too Arrogant to Try Something Different?
Cheryl BryantBruce, MD
Family and Integrative Medicine "
Welcome to Ask The Celebrity Doc!
Peace, Blessings, Health, and Longevity,
Cheryl BryantBruce, M.D.
The Celebrity Doc
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