After reading Linda Chupkowski's column in your Feb. 19 issue, I feel I need to bring something to her attention. She wrote that "Racism ... only occurs when white people, consciously or unconsciously, discriminate against people of color." Essentially, if I read this correctly, this means that only white people are capable of being racist.
I don't think I should have to explain how ridiculous that statement is, but maybe I do.
Racism as defined by Webster's Dictionary, is "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race."
Now, why does Webster say nothing of this fact that racism can only occur when a white person discriminates against those of another color?
Because that's simply not the case. Any person of any color, be they green, blue or plaid, can hold the belief that his or her race is superior to another, and that simply is a fact. The racist would be wrong in believing this, but just because a person's belief is unfounded doesn't make the person believe it any less.
Remember Dr. Seuss's Sneetches who discriminated against one another on the basis of having stars on their bellies?
Racism is not a one-way street. It works in every direction. I have seen racism applied to me as a white man firsthand, so I know from experience that people of other colors can be racist. I was physically assaulted and taunted with racial slurs by several people of a different race than my own.
I was not robbed, I did not know the attackers, and I had not provoked them, so if race was not the reason for this assault, what was the motivation? If their act was not racism, then what was it?
Somebody please tell me because I want to know, just for my own personal knowledge. I don't wish what happened to me on anyone, and I hope it can be a lesson to all to show that racism can go in any and every direction. I know that my situation is nothing in comparison to what many many people have gone through based on their skin color, but to deny the existence of racism in places that it certainly exists does not help the problem.
