A Reflection on Racism

I've been thinking about racism recently, especially my own. I don't consider myself racist in any way. I have admired and looked up to many people of color over my life. I have some small amount of Native American ancestry through my great-great grandmother, but that doesn't usually count these days (though it certainly did in the 1800s), and the rest of my ancestry is from the British Isles in some way prior to the American colonies.

I have observed that every time I randomly imagine a mugger or a gang member, I virtually always imagine a person of color before I realize what I have done and change the image wilfully. The strange thing about this is that I did not grow up in an area where this should have even been a thing. I grew up in a very multiracial and multiethnic Orange County, CA where you would just as easily see an African American lawyer or doctor as you would a white or Hispanic one. You would just as easily see a white or Asian gang member as you would one who is African American or Hispanic. I was an early supporter of Barack Obama's candidacy for president largely because I respected the opinions of Oprah Winfrey who first promoted him highly.

So, why would I, of all people, imagine a person of color when I imagine a random thug?

The more I think about this question, the more I think it has to do with the media I consumed growing up. Television, movies, etc. Typically, in seventies, eighties, and even nineties media the roles of low level criminals, gang members, and thugs would virtually always be played by people of color. This stereotype was rampant in those productions which I, being largely homebound and having few friends as a kid, consumed constantly.

I have since grown beyond that subliminal programming, I hope, but that those associations remain in my psyche disturbs me. It also makes me think about how many other Americans received similar cultural programming through media and racial stereo typing just passed down from generation to generation. Whether we are consciously or actively racist, which I would like to think I am consciously and actively anti-racist, those associations which we were taught early on are still present in our psychological make up.

I think that if we, as a nation and as a culture, are to move past the cultural and societal racism which, let's face it, American culture was built on, we need to recognize this early programming for what it is and turn away from it.