| A few days ago, I copied a comment that I had made on a friend's xanga site. It talked about how I believe that racism is learned, often by adults who make it a point to talk about skin color and differences, trying to explain that we are the same. Often, something happens, or is said and people ascribe motive to the actions or words without having the complete story. Al Sharpton I believe, got involved in a case a few years back, where an African American girl claimed to have been gang raped by a group of white men, and they then wrote on her and dumped her in a trashcan. Sharpton went on a crusade, because of this situation, and it was eventually learned that she had written on herself and made up the story. We as a people, seek justice, we want to see the bad guys punished. We root for the good guys in the white hats, as they line up 20 paces in front of the bad guys in black hats, right before the shootout. But often with certain subjects, we tend to jump the gun and rush to a judgment. Most recently, this happened mere days ago, in Dallas, Tx. One of the caucasian cheerleaders for the Dallas Cowboys football team, donned on black facepaint and went to a halloween party as rapper Lil Wayne. I do not listen to rap, so please forgive me if I misspelled his name. Pictures were leaked of her in this black facepaint posing with some friends, and a couple sports blogs latched on to the story and it went national. She was critized for wearing this black facepaint. People called it insensitive, and talked about how years ago, white comedians evidently dressed in black facepaint to make fun of African Americans. I am sorry, did I miss something? I thought she dressed up for a halloween party. Aren't we supposed to dress up as other things at a halloween party?I have never done halloween, but I am pretty sure that is part of the "fun" of halloween. I had a mission partner during my 2004 mission trip. She told us one night, that when she was 5 or 6 she told her parents the costume that she wanted to wear that year for trick or treating. They tried talking her out of it, but she was insistant that she wanted this costume. Her parents had better things to worry about, so they let her do it. So the night of halloween, she put on a fake beard, and put on her costume and went trick or treating as Jesus. No one maid the claim that she was making fun of the male gender, by putting on a fake beard, or that she was making fun of Jesus. They may of thought that trick or treating as Jesus was a bit odd, but they chalked it up as childhood fun and gave her candy. We don't have any inkling that this cheerleader, was doing anything more than dressing up as a rapper and going to a halloween party. Why do some people want to automatically ascribe negative feelings or emotions on her? My church, recently did a "harvest" party, and we had a girl dressed up as Noah, we have a kid dressed up as a duck, we had one girl in a really cute butterfly costume. These are all harmless costumes, if this cheerleader had gone as a nurse, or a hooker, no one would have batted an eye. She choose to dress as someone that she liked, and because she went all out and donned facepaint, she is being called names and has her motives called into question. Where have we gone wrong? How did we go from wanting justice, to thinking there is a racist or an insensitive person behind every bush? If racism is truly alive, does it really help to end it, by accusing people of it without facts? If racism is truly alive, does it help end it, by making someone's life miserable for dressing up and going to a costume party? Have we all gone mad? |
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