Racism_All_Grown_Up

Racism All Grown Up I swear to the Lord I still can’t see Why Democracy means Everyone but me. -Langston Hughes, The Black Man Speaks When my father was younger, handlebar moustaches and bellbottoms were in style. In fact, he was wearing an all-white, bellbottomed tuxedo with a gigantic gold chain slung across it on the day he married my mother. This was top-notch attire then. When my mother was younger, hot pants and mood rings were in style. She refuses to show me any photos from these days, but I know they happened. When Racism was younger, outright bigotry was in style. Complexion-based hate was just another one of those things. Since then all three have grown up, and since then it is no longer fashionable to dress one’s self in a bellbottomed tux, or hot pants, or bigotry. Racism is certainly still around however, it has simply taken on a more socially and politically acceptable form. In “The Possessive Investment of Whiteness,” George Lipsitz lays out, in a series of statistics quoted from numerous social studies and surveys, what modern-day racism looks like. Modern-day racism, what the bigots of the past might have referred to as “the racism of tomorrow,” lies in a hypocritical acceptance of freedom-loving racism, less, hate, about, younger, white, style, minorities, however, fact, whites, ways, since, simply, racists, racial, proactive, past, pants, outright, often, obvious, numerous, mother, modern-day, minority, issues, hot, doesn’t, defined, bigotry, bellbottomed, because, ambivalence, yesteryear, word