Racism Bothers Me, and I'm Alright With That by Kevin Crtichlow

 

            Racism is a big problem.  It annoys me.  The way things are is obviously not right, but no one has figured out how to improve anything.  It frustrates me that there’s no traditional problem or even a solid definition of what it is that annoys me.  It frustrates me that people still look for traditional answers like reparations and forced integration.  It frustrates me that I lose enthusiasm for trying to deal with that which annoys me.

            Earlier this year I got so frustrated with racism that I turned to a smaller problem.  I was distraught by my lack of personal identity.  As a mixed person in a new setting, I had no clue where I belonged.  After a while, I found something that fit, and so now I don’t worry about that.  But even after I figured out who I was, I still had no wish to get frustrated with futile attempts to thwart racism.  Is that cowardly?  Then again, maybe my lack of enthusiasm is worth something.  Maybe it’s a sign of how to deal with racism.  Once I figured out who I was, racism no longer mattered as much to me.  It no longer loomed as an important problem that merited concern.

            Considering that I have no clue why racism is so stubbornly pervasive, it is at least plausible that my views on racism are correct.  Maybe racism would be a little less annoying if more people came to peace with who they are and realized how little their “race” has to do with what makes them different from everyone else.  Then again, I don’t see how knowing one’s self is going to help fight economic stratification by race.

            At the same time, I am annoyed by my inability to figure out if god exists, and why, for that matter, anything exists.  In a sense, my view on racism is a little like faith.  People get anxious about religious matters, so they find a story and believe in it.  It’s a personal issue.  People should find a personal explanation for who they are and then accept it.  Just like racism, religion can cause a lot of harm to a lot of people all over the world over silly discrepancies among faiths.  So the key to fighting racism through identity discovery then, is not just to find your own view, but also to let others find theirs.  Either way, if the answer to the problem of racism is to find personal peace, then I should probably just accept that I’ll be annoyed for a long time to come.