Story time because my dash is all Ferguson, as it should be.

So I got to study abroad in London back in 2005, which was the best 3 weeks of my life.  Now I went to Iowa State University, which is a predominantly white school, so I was the only black person in the group, which whatever, I was used to it by then (I had been going to the school since 2001).

Anyhow, one day, one of the guys in the group (I should preface this by saying he was American so you don’t assume it was someone overseas) was talking to everyone. I was coming into our place, and I don’t remember what I had been doing, and I don’t know how the conversation even started with him, but I heard him say something that I still remember, to this day.

“There’s hardly any racism since 1950.”

Now I’m not the kind of person who snaps, as you’ve seen from my rants on here they’re usually calm, and thought out, and I’m a pretty nice person. But man, all I remember feeling is fire, and anger, and just… the NERVE of this man to say this.  I remember coming into the room like a hurricane, like, “WHAT?!”  

And his response was, “Well people aren’t being hung anymore.”

And the scary thing is that it’s 2014 and racism is still huge and people are getting killed because of the color of their skin, and as scary as these killers are I find it even more horrifying that people, honestly, believe that it’s “no big deal” because “it’s not how it was in the 50s.” We’ve had our civil rights movements and we have black history month and Martin Luther King Jr., so now people think, “Well it’s better because of that stuff, yes?”

The fact that people believe that since history happened, things have improved, disgusts me.  If you can’t open your eyes and see the ugly that’s going on all because “improvements” have occurred, then you need to wake up.  History doesn’t mean the problem is solved.  History was a step. You have to keep making those steps, not standing still.  If you think racism is dead because of history as there are people being killed because they “look suspicious (are black)” then you need to put that beat up old book down and take a harder look at the world around you.

There’s hardly any racism?  Oh please.  There’s hardly any excuse for such blindness.