A friend posted a video on Facebook of a drunk, older White man pushing a Black teenager off of his skateboard as he cruised by.
The teen confronted the older man, who quickly chest-shoved the kid and threw a drunken punch that he easily dodged. The man then picked up the teen’s skateboard and threw it on the ground while continuing his intoxicated rant, then called the police on his outdated flip phone.
Two policemen showed up minutes later and arrested the man.
“Maybe he’s just an asshole who’s tired of kids skateboarding on the sidewalk,” was the comment from another older White guy in the Comments section of my friend’s post.
I’ve been that Black teenager, so I knew it wasn’t just that. He was the only dark speck in his group of White friends that were also skating on the sidewalk. I commented that it was no surprise he chose the Black kid as his target.
As expected, the usual questions came next. The same ones that always get asked:
Why do you assume it’s about race?
Why is that the first thing you jump to just because one person’s White and the other’s Black?
I could’ve finished the rest for him:
Let’s not jump to conclusions.
Let’s wait for the facts.
I gave him the benefit of the doubt for a minute. I like to gather as many facts as I can before reaching a conclusion, even when my intuition and experience knows what the facts are.
I searched YouTube for the entirety of the video to see if the older guy made any racial comments towards the Black kid or if there was any hint that he was specifically targeted. It was an easy find — 3:11 to 3:18.
“I’ll remember you, you motherfuckers. Especially the Black dude who accosted me and threw your skateboard at me,” the older man slurred.
I posted the link and timecodes in the comments and tagged the guy on my friend’s thread. He didn’t acknowledge what I found, instead he sent some statistics about the increase of skateboarders on sidewalks in that area.
When I asked him what that had to do with the incident he replied, “I just found it interesting.”
I find it interesting how this type of arrogant dismissal is the reason there can’t be a civil discussion about racism in America. Even when the facts are presented that prove the racial bias of a situation, there’s no acknowledgement of it.
When I was a grad student, I went shopping in antique store for props needed for a film. A Hispanic woman who worked there followed me the entire time— every aisle I moved to, she made sure to tag along on the opposite end. I remember the look on her face as she tried to conceal her spying until I took my items to the counter for purchase.
Later that afternoon, I visited a classmate at his condo and told him what happened. His initial response was, “People follow me around sometimes in stores too. It’s annoying.”
“It’s not the same,” I snickered.
I changed the conversation because I didn’t want to bother explaining it. As I was talking, my classmate did something unexpected— he stopped whatever he was doing and stared blankly into space for a moment, pondering a thought.
“You know what, you’re right. I shouldn’t discount your experience. I’m sorry.”
It was that simple. He‘d never experienced it, but he acknowledged it.
Believe it or not, some things are only about race.
Yes, race is a social construct, but it’s a construct that causes certain people to have life experiences that others don’t — a very simple way of putting it.
A lot of people don’t want to accept it but that’s the reality we live in, especially in this polarizing era where people feel empowered to showcase their racism without fear of repercussion.
I know that people are tired of hearing about race in America and want to move past it, but it’s embedded in the fabric of this country and continues to be the reason for a lot of biases and injustices. Again, a very simple way of putting it.
One of the main purposes of life is to learn about people that are different from you and share your experiences with one another.
Sometimes you find out that we’re more alike that different.
But when it comes to race, there’s always an eye-roll and brush-off because it’s brought up in so many situations people don’t expect or want to think about. So we remain ‘different’ and pretend that we’re in a post-racial utopia while hate continues to perform center stage.
You’re tired of hearing about it, I’m tired of dealing with it. Imagine how much extra brain power I could devote to just being human if I never had to deal with situations that occur solely because of my skin color.
Well, let me not jump to conclusions. I’m sure race was never a reason for any of those situations. I need to step back and look at the facts again.
I’m sure I was just dealing with an asshole.
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