La La Land Mommy: Dealing With My Own Prejudice Thoughts
Sometimes I hear or see something and realize what I’m hearing or seeing is a message to me. So yesterday morning I was up after making sure my kids were up and getting ready for school. I usually spend that time going through Facebook. As I was scrolling I happened to see a post about a woman leaving a group I’m a part of because of some members’ prejudices against Caucasian people. She said that even an act of kindness is turned into a subject about race. So I went into the group to see if I could see what she was referring to. I found a post about a Caucasian cop who pulled over a Caucasian woman and found that her daughter was not in a car seat. Instead of giving the woman a ticket he purchased a car seat for the child. For the whole story you can read it here. Now when I saw it I just saw it as a act of kindness. However others started speculating on whether or not the cop would have done the same thing if the woman was black. I couldn’t figured out why that mattered.
Then it donned on me that I have been the person who have made those same speculations and it made me wonder when I became that way. When did I become the person that speculates what would have happened if a person were white or black? When I hear about a crime on the news why do I mentally pray that the suspect involved isn’t black and then thank god when they aren’t? Yet for a long time I didn’t see myself as having any type of prejudice. Then I looked prejudice up in the dictionary. It is defined as having an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed without knowledge, thought, or reason. I have decided that someone was evil or wrong. I’ve watched the news and decided someone was guilty without having all the facts. Well honestly in the media do you ever get all the facts. All you can do is go on the facts you have. I’m positive that I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I think that history makes us bitter toward certain things. I think it also makes us distrust others and makes us blind to even things like kindness. However we should not place the same label on everyone because they are a cop, same religion, or race as someone else. I’ve never thought I was this person until my children have repeated some of my views. Now I have to make sure that they understand that not all cases are a matter of race. Sometimes people are wrong. Also to make such statements are unfair. I can be just like those women tearing the cop down in that Facebook thread making all those assumptions. Frankly I don’t want to be like them. It doesn’t serve any purpose what so ever. So I’m going to work on that part of me. Try to read and listen to a whole story before I assume I know .
I guess what I am saying is that a simple act of kindness should have been just that a simple act of kindness. However it was tainted by all this speculation on whether or not this cop would have done the same thing if the woman were black or not. Have we become so obsessed with our prejudice ways of thinking that we can’t see the beauty and kindness in acts such as the one that this police officer displayed. Yes the police have gotten a bad reputation in the media lately but what we have to realize is that just because one person is one way does make everyone that way. I do have to admit though with all the stories of police blatantly misusing their power is difficult. Especially being an African American person and raising African American children. However I hope my kids realize that you can learn something about yourself and change it. I plan on working on changing the way I think and stop assuming.
