Echos something I wrote a few years ago:

The perceptions people of color have of white people are based on direct experience.

In contrast, white prejudice against people of color is rarely based on direct experience — for one thing because few white people are surrounded by people of color.

Rather, that racism is usually based on stereotypes passed on via culture (and parents, and whoever), most of which they have never actually encountered themselves because they don’t really know many (or even any) black people at all.

But the fact is, most white people will interpret the actions of a person of color based on those stereotypes (such as black people being criminals, lazy, promiscuous, etc.).

That quote is somewhere in the middle of my article, “I am not a racist” but I have thoughts I am told are racist: But…I don’t SEE color!”

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Retired professor, feminist, writer, photographer, activist, grandmother of 5, overall Wise Woman. Phd UIA School of Journalism & Mass Communication, 1994.

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Georgia NeSmith

Retired professor, feminist, writer, photographer, activist, grandmother of 5, overall Wise Woman. Phd UIA School of Journalism & Mass Communication, 1994.