My current favorite show is Brooklyn 99 and I'm on season 5 but in season 4 they tackled racism in the police force. It really made me think back to middle school. I have very vivid thoughts of racism that I had encountered before.
Sergeant Jeffords is one of my favorite characters on the show. He's funny and caring. He always has his team's back in any situation that arises. The show isn't an accurate depiction of police life but it's very funny as well as a good distraction. Why this is so important to me has a few things I'll bring up that I'm very guarded to talk about with my friends.
"Sergeant Jeffords: I wanted to help people like that cop helped me. But right now, I don't feel like a superhero. I feel the opposite. When I got stopped the other day, I wasn't a cop. I wasn't a guy who lived in a neighborhood looking for his daughter's toy. I was a black man, a dangerous black man. That's all he could see: a threat. And I couldn't stop thinking about my daughters. And their future. And how years from now, they could be walking down the street, looking for their kids' Moo Moo, and get stopped by a bad cop. And they probably won't get to play the police card to get out of trouble. I don't like that thought, and I'm gonna do something about it. So I don't care if it might hurt my career. I'm filing that report. Even if I have to go over your head to do it." - Brooklyn 99 - "Moo Moo"
I was discriminated in middle school here in Charlotte but it's not what you think. I'm mixed and I was discriminated against by the black kids. I wasn't accepted by people who "looked like me". I was bullied and shamed for being smart and lighter skin toned. I vividly remember this one girl's shirt, it said, "All Black Family" and with a picture. I was moved to the gifted program in middle school and that was a problem for the kids that were bullying me. Moving to a whole region at 13 was traumatic in itself. My mom had a conversation about being black when I was younger too. She said people will look at you differently and you'll have to conduct yourself different than your friends. She was very insightful on the climate of race in this country.
I didn't fit in and the white kids accepted me for all my weird quirks. I was in fights with other kids for being bullied and I was pulled out and put in private school. I'm saying that kids are cruel but they learn it from somewhere, no matter how much you want to be apart of someone's world it might not work. How does this relate to the Sergeant? His own, police discriminated and profiled him for being black. That's a problem when "Blue Lives Matter" because even the police see colors other than blue in their own ranks. What about "Black Lives Matter" well that movement was sent to harm the people as a whole in Charlotte, not help. Do black people see color more than any other race or are they more racist than white people? There's a quote about who's more racist an old black man or an old white man? The old black man because he's been a victim of racism. I don't know how true this is but it's got to end somewhere. Maybe when all the baby boomers of all ethnicities croak.
Racism in dating: I had a friend, he would get on me about my preferences in women even though I told him this story. He was so racially charged it made me angry towards him even though he's Hispanic. I told him I'm not attracted to black women. I've written about this topic before but he would have me so fired up when he pushed my buttons. I feel a certain way because I've tried to date black women and I'm just not attracted chemically to them. He wanted to always make life about race. It was a constant conversation. Do I ever feel bad for getting mad about saying I won't date black women again, no but the way, yes. I own it and that's life. I have some black guy friends who are won't date black women, for whatever reason. It doesn't make me a racist, I gave them a chance despite the cruelty towards me in middle school. As an evolved being, I love redheads and green eyes and I have red hair in my beard. I think that little me's would be cute with straggly brownish red hair and green eyes. I think about my genetic composition and what different women would make my kids come out to be. Some of it is shaped by whom I find attractive and how I was treated a long time ago. Maybe one day I'll have kids and the racial climate will change for the better when they are adults and I want them to be able to live a life that there only concerns are whether or not they are the smelly kid in class, not the mixed kid that isn't cool enough for black kids to be friends with.
I have an ex that is pure Polish, she's was pretty cool but her parents are from Poland. Polish people as a group were racist as they aligned with Hitler in the World Wars. Her parents had such a distaste for me they would only speak Polish around me. Later on, in life, I learned that I am part Polish and part Trinidad. My bio mom wanted to abort me but her friend talked her out of it. Her parents were going to cut her off, while in school, for having a mixed baby. She inevitably gave me up for adoption.
I see color and it's impossible for white people to believe that they don't see color. It's naive to not see color. In the biology lab, we discussed biological differences that put that into perspective. The outside is the outside of our bodies till we no longer see an individual and only see an opportunity. Hence slavery here and in many other countries. The protests/riots here in Charlotte were people who were good and bad but people in power will capitalize on anything to push an agenda good or bad.
Well, sometime last year I was at a soccer watch party at Rooftop 210, a guy approached me and started an uncomfortable conversation about why I should ask the white people to move so he could have a seat in the VIP even though there were no reserved tables but based solely on our skin colors and my position.
He was brown and I'm brown but that doesn't make racism okay on any level. I would like to believe that 95% of the population isn't racist but we all have our biases.
The show that I love is so light-hearted and that it is Black History month, I acknowledge many civil rights leaders who either gave of their lives for a just cause or went to jail. I wanted to share my thoughts on this subject.
Sergeant Jeffords is one of my favorite characters on the show. He's funny and caring. He always has his team's back in any situation that arises. The show isn't an accurate depiction of police life but it's very funny as well as a good distraction. Why this is so important to me has a few things I'll bring up that I'm very guarded to talk about with my friends.
"Sergeant Jeffords: I wanted to help people like that cop helped me. But right now, I don't feel like a superhero. I feel the opposite. When I got stopped the other day, I wasn't a cop. I wasn't a guy who lived in a neighborhood looking for his daughter's toy. I was a black man, a dangerous black man. That's all he could see: a threat. And I couldn't stop thinking about my daughters. And their future. And how years from now, they could be walking down the street, looking for their kids' Moo Moo, and get stopped by a bad cop. And they probably won't get to play the police card to get out of trouble. I don't like that thought, and I'm gonna do something about it. So I don't care if it might hurt my career. I'm filing that report. Even if I have to go over your head to do it." - Brooklyn 99 - "Moo Moo"
I was discriminated in middle school here in Charlotte but it's not what you think. I'm mixed and I was discriminated against by the black kids. I wasn't accepted by people who "looked like me". I was bullied and shamed for being smart and lighter skin toned. I vividly remember this one girl's shirt, it said, "All Black Family" and with a picture. I was moved to the gifted program in middle school and that was a problem for the kids that were bullying me. Moving to a whole region at 13 was traumatic in itself. My mom had a conversation about being black when I was younger too. She said people will look at you differently and you'll have to conduct yourself different than your friends. She was very insightful on the climate of race in this country.
I didn't fit in and the white kids accepted me for all my weird quirks. I was in fights with other kids for being bullied and I was pulled out and put in private school. I'm saying that kids are cruel but they learn it from somewhere, no matter how much you want to be apart of someone's world it might not work. How does this relate to the Sergeant? His own, police discriminated and profiled him for being black. That's a problem when "Blue Lives Matter" because even the police see colors other than blue in their own ranks. What about "Black Lives Matter" well that movement was sent to harm the people as a whole in Charlotte, not help. Do black people see color more than any other race or are they more racist than white people? There's a quote about who's more racist an old black man or an old white man? The old black man because he's been a victim of racism. I don't know how true this is but it's got to end somewhere. Maybe when all the baby boomers of all ethnicities croak.
Racism in dating: I had a friend, he would get on me about my preferences in women even though I told him this story. He was so racially charged it made me angry towards him even though he's Hispanic. I told him I'm not attracted to black women. I've written about this topic before but he would have me so fired up when he pushed my buttons. I feel a certain way because I've tried to date black women and I'm just not attracted chemically to them. He wanted to always make life about race. It was a constant conversation. Do I ever feel bad for getting mad about saying I won't date black women again, no but the way, yes. I own it and that's life. I have some black guy friends who are won't date black women, for whatever reason. It doesn't make me a racist, I gave them a chance despite the cruelty towards me in middle school. As an evolved being, I love redheads and green eyes and I have red hair in my beard. I think that little me's would be cute with straggly brownish red hair and green eyes. I think about my genetic composition and what different women would make my kids come out to be. Some of it is shaped by whom I find attractive and how I was treated a long time ago. Maybe one day I'll have kids and the racial climate will change for the better when they are adults and I want them to be able to live a life that there only concerns are whether or not they are the smelly kid in class, not the mixed kid that isn't cool enough for black kids to be friends with.
I have an ex that is pure Polish, she's was pretty cool but her parents are from Poland. Polish people as a group were racist as they aligned with Hitler in the World Wars. Her parents had such a distaste for me they would only speak Polish around me. Later on, in life, I learned that I am part Polish and part Trinidad. My bio mom wanted to abort me but her friend talked her out of it. Her parents were going to cut her off, while in school, for having a mixed baby. She inevitably gave me up for adoption.
I see color and it's impossible for white people to believe that they don't see color. It's naive to not see color. In the biology lab, we discussed biological differences that put that into perspective. The outside is the outside of our bodies till we no longer see an individual and only see an opportunity. Hence slavery here and in many other countries. The protests/riots here in Charlotte were people who were good and bad but people in power will capitalize on anything to push an agenda good or bad.
Well, sometime last year I was at a soccer watch party at Rooftop 210, a guy approached me and started an uncomfortable conversation about why I should ask the white people to move so he could have a seat in the VIP even though there were no reserved tables but based solely on our skin colors and my position.
He was brown and I'm brown but that doesn't make racism okay on any level. I would like to believe that 95% of the population isn't racist but we all have our biases.
My last thought: I don't really try to think about racism often that being adopted by two white people but during the climate of race in this country, I think about it more and more. It is a disease that needs to be stamped out. It starts at home and with open dialogues with friends and public forums, not brushed under a rug.
The show that I love is so light-hearted and that it is Black History month, I acknowledge many civil rights leaders who either gave of their lives for a just cause or went to jail. I wanted to share my thoughts on this subject.