America — Mending A Nation Divided

Introduction

Whether you like Trump or hate him, there is little doubt the historic significance of the 2016 presidential election. The political bomb went off; after the dust settled it was clear we now have a nation divided. It’s not a division down the center but in several radical factions racially, politically, and ideology all over the United States. What concerns me most is the tensions between the black and white communities. I feel this is a tension brought on by a lot of different aspects; people with political motives, people with racial/racist motives, and most — people who are ignorant to the problems each face, and to be truthful it’s white people who aren’t opening up their ears and listening. Luckily because we are all civil human beings and this hasn’t reached a physical fever pitch. I think if we as white people can just stop reacting to what is said and listen to what is said, we could start sowing the divisions of misunderstandings and misunderstandings always stems hate. We are all people who have a right to be in this country, we can be so strong if we understood one another better, so strong we could all be unstoppable and immune from the corruption and lies that divided us in the first place and this why I have written this article.

First and foremost I want to make a few things clear up front. I am white and I will never understand what it is like to be a black person in America, so I will not pretend that I have lived through anything a black person has. However, I am not a white apologist, I don’t believe in white privilege as such, meaning; not every single thing in life as a white person is automatically easier because we are white. However, I would be a damn liar if I did not admit our American history has shown over and over the playing field was created more for white success than the black person’s success. I do not think the majority, the vast majority actually, of white people are evil, racist, or both. I just feel that they aren’t remotely trying to pay attention to learn how it is to live in this country as a person with color. I use the term Black and not African American, this is not to insult anyone it’s quite the opposite. I see black people as Americans because they damn sure have earned the title, more than anyone else has. I think the term African American is a term meant to keep us separate. To me, it is a slick way of certain people to say that black people aren’t completely American but almost. It’s an ignorant term anyways, just because someone is black doesn’t make their genealogy have a damn thing to do with Africa. I want to try to explain to white people the positions and feelings of the black American, as best as I can anyway being a white person. I have spent many months researching black history, hours of thinking “what would I do if I were confronted with the different atrocities the black person has gone through?”, I have tried very hard, in every way possible, to put myself in a black person’s shoes. I want to explain to black people the feelings of the white American and why we do the things we do and show that besides popular misinformation stating most white people are racist that you will find after this a lot of our actions doesn’t have anything to do with racial oppression.

I am writing this article purely from my heart. With honesty, integrity, and using facts not social justice warrior pseudo fact white apologetic bullshit, which is the most insincere actions that white and black people see right through which is a big part of our tensions.

First I want to explain to white people why black people feel the way they feel about the past, present, and future (again as best as I can). White people have to remember that the feeling of how a black person views white people isn’t only from what is going on currently. We have to understand it is a generational upbringing with the atrocities from the past handed down generation to generation. This isn’t for hatred of anyone who is white so much as it is for a way to protect themselves and to appreciate what they have, they have to know the sacrifices made by black people in the past. As a white person you have to try and understand that while yes, we have come a long way and try to see people equal to us. I truly think, and I am being completely as sincere as I can, most white people wouldn’t dare racially oppress anyone. Of course, until recently it wasn’t like that. Because we as white people are embarrassed about our past we want to forget about it. It’s not that simple. Feeling guilty for things that happened in the past is insane, no one can carry the load of something our ancestors did. It is that guilt that is keeping us from trying to understand the feelings, emotions, and fears our black counterparts feel because of the past. We have to recognize the fact black people have had it bad in this country longer than they have had it good. It is simply the truth. How I put myself in the black person’s shoes, AGAIN as best as I could, is to look at the historical record of how black people have been treated in America. Each situation and historical event, I put myself in that situation, what would I do, how would I feel, etc.

Let’s start with the civil war. There was a lot more to civil war than just slavery, however, what white people have to understand is that besides other motives that fueled that war it is the fact the bottom half of the country did not see a black person as their equal. Imagine it like this; think of yourself being happy, enjoying your family, and some people bust in and you go from human being status to farm animal status in a blink of an eye. You have no rights, your family has no rights, your family gets ripped away from you and sold as cattle with absolutely NO human decency behind any of it. You are put into a boat in ungodly conditions for 3 months at sea, having to stay in your urine, feces, and vomit all while chained to the person next to you. The chain rounds are so tight they cut into your skin, the cuts get infected because of the poor living conditions on the ship. It’s a very vicious cycle. If you were lucky enough to survive the trip, you find yourself being sold to the highest bidder, get shipped off to a plantation where you are forced to work 14–18 hour days in the hottest southern heat you could imagine. If you don’t abide by the rules, and with a smile, you will get whipped with a tanned leather whip until you have 1" wide, 2" deep, 16–24" long cuts down your back, oftentimes beaten so severe that you just pass out. But then one day you hear the north is coming to get you, you’re thinking “Oh praise God and heaven we will be free from this tyranny, we will be free from these monsters, we will be our people. Then the Civil war happens, you become free… but you can’t vote. You can’t own land. You can’t walk into any white establishment. You can’t fight in our wars. You can’t open a bank account. You can’t live in white neighborhoods. You find yourself still having to work for the same son of a bitch bastard that you were freed from because you can’t get work anywhere else to feed your family. That is called “getting the shit-end of the stick from every angle conceivably possible”.

The fight black people had to endure was a long one in America and wanting nothing more than to have the same human liberties as everyone else. I just wanted to be able to vote, fight alongside white people in wars. When a few chosen black men were able to fight they fought with extreme courage and honor, every black unit ever to engage in combat outperformed almost all-white units taking on very dangerous missions. Most never even got the medals they deserved and got treated again less than human when they returned home. The 60’s black people in the south found themselves being blocked from voting, not able to go to school or eat with white people. Just think how horrible that would feel that all you want to do is go to school and when the law was passed saying you could, the National Guard had to come in to escort you to school. You want to have lunch at a lunch counter just like everyone else, but because of the color of your skin, you aren’t allowed. That would feel pretty god damn horrible. We as white people have to understand that black people weren’t able to stretch out and strive until the start of the ’80s. Yes, it progressively got better but it was a very slow progression. You need to dig deep and do some real research on black history and take the time to put yourself in the black person’s shoes dealing with each injustice, not having any protection from harassment of white people and when people finally did go to trial they weren’t convicted because it was a kangaroo court. Think about trying to live in a society that you had to watch every step you took, everything you did, every word you said or you could easily find yourself in jail or worse.

When a certain race of people has had to fight for basic rights for so many decades a story is going to be passed down from generation to generation, to a generation of each injustice done. So even now black people feel very strongly for things that happened in the past. When we as white people (and I’m as guilty as anyone until I woke up) try to ignore this or pretend the past isn’t a big deal because it’s the past, it’s like being slapped in the face. This is why I say the plight of the black person is a generational belief system. I don’t think black people want us to feel bad I think they just want us as white people to recognize that: Yes these atrocities were very wrong, we take responsibility in recognizing that, and apologize for it. Like the plight of the black person has been generationally been handed down, the white person has been generationally handed down the habit of ignoring it.

All these things in the past would shape anyone’s view if not just a little bit towards the negative towards white people. Just keep in mind these things have been told generation to generation. We as white people, and just take a minute to think about this, have been taught generationally to ignore it for the most part. We recognize it as history but we don’t recognize the generational effect it has on the black person in America. We as white people feel these things are being brought up to rehash the past but we aren’t recognizing the true effects and emotions behind it. We all need to try and understand this better.

There are a few events I want to try and explain from both sides. I sincerely hope this helps us all unite together and work together to fight corrupt political race mongering to achieve their goals while we all suffer as a result of it.

Black Lives Matter

I don’t like the upper management of Black Lives Matter. I don’t blame black people what so ever for joining this movement because the media has lied so much about some police shootings, Michael Brown is one of the most atrocious lied about police shootings in the history of this country and every news media should be ashamed for peddling such a horrible basket of racial dividing LIES. But of course, black people who are with this movement are going to believe the media, hell most white people believe the same media. The media is supposed to be trusted for factual news stories so we have to understand why the riots happened after the trial. You’re not supposed to have to fact check media stories and when all the major mainstream media news outlets are saying a black man was shot with his hands up trying to surrender, of course, black people would be upset. Unfortunately, it was a ploy for racial division in this country and for people to hate cops. The political scene is trying to create civil unrest for whatever the motives are I don’t know, all I know is it’s true.

After these slew of lies were told white people were asked “Do black lives matter’ and everyone answered “all lives matter”. Ok first off the white people saying this has the absolute best of intentions and are trying to be super unbiased. I think that was a mistake because after hearing all these lies I think the black person just wanted to hear one white person say “yes, a black life matters to me as a white person”. I thought about this as best as I cold from a black person’s perspective and it is then I realized that saying “All lives matter” would be a way to get out of saying that “black lives matter”. This was not the white person’s motive though, it wasn’t. But white people have to understand with all that going on at the time and with the generational stories passed down why this upset black people so much. In this day and age, I do want to say to 99.99999% of white people that black lives do matter to us, black lives matter to me as a white person.

Election Of Donald Trump

Right after Trump was elected, Van Jones who is a CNN black reporter there stated that America just had a “whitening”. That is the most stupid thing I have ever heard in my life. I can understand that if one candidate was black and one was white MAYBE I could understand that statement. But what people have to realize is that we had two very hard people to choose from and not a damn BIT of it had anything to do with the oppression of black people. We had the choice of Hillary Clinton whose platform was “We need to hate trump because he is racist” and Trump’s platform that was about jobs. The news media lied about his racist views, everyone needs to research this and you will be surprised. So we all had two people to choose from. Clinton who just got caught lying about Benghazi under oath. Lied about her e-mail server under oath. Destroying evidence and a myriad of other laws that she broke. This isn’t the first time the Clintons have been suspected of shady stuff either. It goes back to Arkansas with the White Water scandal and the American people simply didn’t trust her and that is why Trump won. Look I’m not saying Trump is a boy scout and I’m sure any billionaire pulled some shady stuff here and there, BUT, given the two choices no way was anyone going to vote for Clinton. It wasn’t racism it was just simply the choices of her campaign platform and scandals. It is as simple as that.

The Rebel Flag

Ok, this is a tricky one. I want to explain to white people why the rebel flag is such a big deal. Imagine your ancestors living through a civil war where that flag was flown to try and keep them, not as humans, but as cattle. Then from the early teens to the early ’70s every white supremacist group using that flag as their moniker to spread the hatred of black people. As a white person try looking at it like this. Your grandfather or great grandfather worked hard and was one of the first black people to live in a certain neighborhood. This was a happy and proud time for this family. After a hard day’s work, all this man wants to do is get home to enjoy his new house and spend time with wife, children, and have some dinner. As you are your family are eating dinner you hear “Hey N****R you aren’t welcome here” and you and your family all go to the window and see a burning cross with some coward pussy ass men in white hoods running away with the rebel flag flapping in the breeze is the last thing this poor family sees. Your wife is scared and crying, your kids are scared and not understanding why their family is being harassed. You as a man not being able to fight back because you know the repercussions if you do. That would be an awful feeling that being a man I couldn’t defend my family from this type of crap because if I did I would come up missing. I would have to deal with being harassed for nothing more than wanting to prosper like any white person. This flag was flown at each one of these horrible things that happened. Now fast forward years later and the state capitol where you live is flying this flag on the same building that you have to pay taxes for. You have to understand that would be a problem.

Ok, now black people have to understand that in today’s day and age people are not flying this flag for racist reasons. Yes, there are still stupid ignorant shit heads that are flying it for this reason, but 99.99999% are flying it for different reasons and let me tell you why I can speak for this because I used to fly one in the hay day until I realized why this is ignorant to the feelings of black people.

The rebel flag became a thing in the ’90s and it was about southern pride. Not southern pride against black people but southern pride against northern people. You have to understand that Dukes of Hazard had a big influence on the General Lee car and the big rebel flag painted on the roof. This is where our generation got our first real exposure to the rebel flag. The show never showed racism towards black people, it was just a cultural thing white and black people grew up with and a show we all watched. In the ’80s-’90s because of comedians like Jeff Foxworthy, the southern people got a reputation for being low IQ, ignorant, and looked down upon by the North. This is where the southern pride thing came in and why the flag was flown by many people. It really and truly wasn’t a sign of racial oppression as much as just being plain ignorant to the feelings of black people and never thinking about the Klan and how it was used to intimidate black people. Just like I keep pointing out that Black people were taught generationally about the plights of the past, we as white people were taught to ignore it. When I keep saying that I don’t mean our parents sat us down and said “You need to ignore this because it wasn’t our fault” I mean the significance of it wasn’t taught to mast white people because of the guilt and wanting to forget it.

Police Profiling Black People

This is an area I have a lot of experience in. First off to black people I want to say that racially profiling someone to pull the over would be harder to do in practice than you think. I’m not saying there aren’t shit head cops out there that do racial bullshit but for the whole, if you ever get pulled over it has NOTHING to do with your race because, to be honest, we don’t know the race of the driver until we get to the window. If you go by the theory that black youth drive the same cars as black rappers do and that’s how we would spot a black person to pull them over you would be wrong. 99.999% of the time those types of cars are being driven by white people. You have to understand that A LOT is going on inside a cop car. You have the radio traffic to pay attention to, laptop data coming in, and you have to pay so much attention to your driving not to accidentally hit a civilian because if you do it is a total royal shit storm. With all that it’s harder than you think to see the race of a person as they pass by you, especially going highway speeds. So if you ever see a cop turn around to pull you over the chances of that officer knowing your black is very damn little. A cop always asks for your license and registration before anything else. They aren’t trying to harass you it’s just the common practice before they let you know why you been pulled over.

With that being said, as a cop, you have to understand that most black people are legitimately scared of the police, seriously scared and that will dictate the actions of any human being. As an officer de-escalation is the best thing to avoid everything. If you pull someone over and you find when you get to the window they are black just tell them right away why they are being pulled over, be polite and understanding, and get them out of there as fast as possible. I am not saying turn a blind eye if someone is breaking the law do your job and always protect yourself from EVERYONE but if you just try and understand a black person is scared and keep that in mind things will go a lot more smoothly for everyone.

In Closing

This is my advice to everyone to overcome racial tensions and it’s very easy. Never judge a person unless you meet them. Judge EVERYONE on a one on one basis regardless of their skin color or religious beliefs. If that person you meet is cool, chalk them up as being cool and then extend friendship to them. If they are an asshole then chalk them up like an asshole and don’t talk to them anymore. If we would treat everyone on a one on one basis and not group black or white people in a stereotypical fashion, then we would all beat this racial division.

Just remember if you are white and see a black person looking at your with a scowl or you’re black and see a white person looking at you with scowl don’t immediately chalk this up as racism from either side. Things are tough right now for EVERYONE and a lot of people black and white are under a tremendous amount of stress trying to support their families and to just get by. So if this happens don’t scowl back, extend a hello and politeness from one human being to another. You would be surprised regardless of your skin color how a friendly gesture from a stranger can go a hell of a lot farther than giving one another the evil eye.