Oprah's Incident
Apparently Oprah went to a high end store in Switzerland and asked to see a very expensive purse. She asked to see the bag repeatedly and the sales clerk said "No" and tried to lead her towards other less expensive ones, until finally Oprah walked out. Oprah felt badly that this incident got so much attention but I am glad that it all came out because it is a statement around where we still are in the world. We are still in the race battle and in my opinion we are still dealing with people who profile people of colour as ones who cannot afford to buy in stores that are higher end or buy an item that they deem reserved for the elite class, that elite class not being us. Although Oprah wanted to let it go and not focus on it being of real importance (nice of her), she truly brought a point forward by simply being at the right place at the right time to show us all that race is still an issue and that the battle is not over.
As a man of colour I have to say that my own experiences around profiling and racism have continued even though there has been some improvement. My experience has even hit very close to home and involved people I would not have imagined would be prejudice and judgmental simply based on my culture. It is surprising but true and there is nothing I can do about it. One of the things I did was work too hard on getting those same not so enlightened people to like me. What I learned is that nothing we do will make any difference with people who never experienced cultures outside their own and who think that being open-minded is "eating various ethnic foods." These are the same people who claim to be "easy going" and who still tell ethnic jokes, using an Indian accent.
Racism is not over with and frankly it looks like it is being practiced inside the closet. I often say to people that the gays came out of the closet (me included) and that the racist got in. It has become either a very public display of ignorance or a very sneaky one where it is being practiced in secret. What needs to happen is for people to come out of the closets and be honest about the fact that they are scared, jealous, uninformed or angry about something that they have attached to people of color. What needs to happen is an open dialog between all of us and a new form of education where kids in our schools talk openly and honestly about race. As a former teacher and educational program manager I must say that there is a serious need for integrating race into the curriculum and that every teacher should be talking about it with their students. The truth is that I felt as though we were uncomfortable with these kinds of dialogs and we still are.
This incident with Oprah happened because we all needed a reminder about what needs to be healed in the world. It is a reminder that we are being lulled into believing that racism has gone away never to be concerned about. In fact it is alive and flourishing. It is a message that we have a lot of work to do and that people like that clerk in that store are still living in the darkness of their own minds. We cannot change everyone but when things like this happen we don't need to minimize it or maximise it either way. We just have to be honest and address it as something that we need to talk about and change, starting with our children.
As a man of colour I have to say that my own experiences around profiling and racism have continued even though there has been some improvement. My experience has even hit very close to home and involved people I would not have imagined would be prejudice and judgmental simply based on my culture. It is surprising but true and there is nothing I can do about it. One of the things I did was work too hard on getting those same not so enlightened people to like me. What I learned is that nothing we do will make any difference with people who never experienced cultures outside their own and who think that being open-minded is "eating various ethnic foods." These are the same people who claim to be "easy going" and who still tell ethnic jokes, using an Indian accent.
Racism is not over with and frankly it looks like it is being practiced inside the closet. I often say to people that the gays came out of the closet (me included) and that the racist got in. It has become either a very public display of ignorance or a very sneaky one where it is being practiced in secret. What needs to happen is for people to come out of the closets and be honest about the fact that they are scared, jealous, uninformed or angry about something that they have attached to people of color. What needs to happen is an open dialog between all of us and a new form of education where kids in our schools talk openly and honestly about race. As a former teacher and educational program manager I must say that there is a serious need for integrating race into the curriculum and that every teacher should be talking about it with their students. The truth is that I felt as though we were uncomfortable with these kinds of dialogs and we still are.
This incident with Oprah happened because we all needed a reminder about what needs to be healed in the world. It is a reminder that we are being lulled into believing that racism has gone away never to be concerned about. In fact it is alive and flourishing. It is a message that we have a lot of work to do and that people like that clerk in that store are still living in the darkness of their own minds. We cannot change everyone but when things like this happen we don't need to minimize it or maximise it either way. We just have to be honest and address it as something that we need to talk about and change, starting with our children.
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