Racist America

Another week at UNC has come and gone, and here I am sitting at my computer trying to come up with a good blog topic. It’s comical how cyclical things can be in one’s life. My week tends to be quite busy from Monday through Wednesday. After that, the weekend is practically there for me, since I only have three classes on Thursday and Friday combined. But before I know it, I’m slammed with Chemistry and Spanish homework. I usually dedicate my entire Sunday to Chemistry, and then I compose my blog post. Anyways, I’ve decided to discuss the issue of racism in the modern United States of America because of an incident I encountered over the weekend.
We all know it’s there. There is an unspoken truth about racism and racial preference in this country, as much as we would like to deny it. Each group has there stereotypes and understood societal roles. Unfortunately, our historical roots dealing with racism are deeply embedded in this country and it will likely be years before it is ever erased.
This weekend, my suitemate hosted a friend from high school who now attends Clemson University. Apparently Clemson students are quite racist. While he was visiting, he was in my room with a bunch of friends. One of our friends happens to be an African-American. While we were all talking, the Clemson visitor managed to call our friend the “n” word. I am almost positive that he did not have a hurtful tone or intent behind his words. However, I found this appalling. How can someone say such a deeply hurtful thing without even thinking twice about it? And this is why I say that racism is still a problem in the U.S. People throw this word around like it is nothing, especially African-Americans. To me, this only promotes and sends the message that calling an African-American the “n” word is okay. The visitor seemed completely okay with his statement and never once apologized. I later talked to my suitemate about it, his host, and he defended him by saying, “well, they are a little racist at Clemson”. As if it were okay! Our friend is his friend as well and it did not affect him either! And the issue extends far beyond black and white. The general animosity among immigrants and other ethnic groups are present as well.
Of course there is a major sense of improvement among our generation. Interracial relationships are becoming more and more common and minorities have full citizen rights. But unfortunately, each tends to congregate by race and stick together rather than associate themselves with the other groups at hand. People still identify themselves by their skin color rather than who they are and where they come from. It is easy to categorize people in such a way, but that does not necessarily justify it. Our society as a whole needs to make a full effort before any progress can be made toward this issue.