I recently watched a YouTube video that I feel deserves a response.
This video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRfjLfyXYlA
I'll give you the gist of the video. It opens on a black man and a white woman in an elevator. The black gentleman narrates the video, saying how much he hates it when he gets in an elevator with a white woman who moves away from him and clutches her purse all the more tightly, just because he's black and she thinks that because of this, she is in danger.
Let me say, to begin, that I do understand where this video is coming from. I have seen this behavior, and to have it be a knee jerk reaction has got to be annoying. However, I think I speak for most women when I say, this is not a behavior that is limited to black men.
If I am in an elevator, by myself, depending on the time of day, if a man who is a stranger to me gets on the elevator with me, I will be a little more on edge. Black, white, Hispanic, it doesn't matter. As a woman, I have to protect myself and if that means becoming hyper-aware when a stranger gets in a small confined space with me, I will assume a defensive position, racism be damned.
And you can't tell me that black people feel completely comfortable in all situations with white people. I am sure if a black person was walking down a country road in the south and saw a group of white men standing by a pick up truck, holding a piece of rope and a banjo that they wouldn't feel a little uncomfortable. Well, that was just the Southern Men's Jump-Roping Chorus, and they were on their way to a competition. Yeah, and their truck was broken down, and you could have stopped and helped them on their way, and they were sure to win that show-down, but because of your inferences, they lost.
Who's racist now?
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