Creeking More In The ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore) Episode #56

I'm not from Atlanta, but I live here, and (because I live here) people who don't live here ask me, "Creek, what's Atlanta really like?"  I don't know what Atlanta is really like, but if you'd like to know what it's like for me, I invite you to sit back and enjoy another episode of "CREEKING MORE IN THE ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore)"!!!

[It's Hard Out Here For A Racist]

In the city of Atlanta, you may find, from time to time, that you've disappointed yourself.  Here's what happened...

I was riding in the service elevator in one of those tall buildings between 11th and 12th street on Peachtree in Midtown and there was an older, Asian man in the elevator with me.

He said something to me about the weather or the Falcons or something.  But here's the thing, when he opened his mouth to speak, I was surprised that he didn't have a thick, Chinese accent.  He just had a regular, barely-there southern accent like anyone else.

It made me think about why I would be surprised and why my expectations would be what they were.  It made me think I ought to should probably try and expand my friend groups to include a wider variety of people.

And it made me think about the term racist.  Who should be considered racist?  Does the label only apply to someone who refuses to rent his properties to persons of color?  To someone who supported the Chinese Exclusion Act?  To someone who compulsively uses the word n*gger in the comment section of every article he reads?  My preconceptions were clearly idiotic, misguided, and disappointing, but did those preconceptions make me a racist?  Can a person be idiotic without being racist?  Can a person be racist without being idiotic..?

What does it mean to be racist?  Does it include basic ignorance?  Or does it only apply when you've decided to hate an entire race of people?  For me, the second definition is best.  It means I can rule myself out entirely.

But maybe that second definition is a little too simplistic.  Maybe racism is more subtle than that.

You know all those times during the day when you do something crummy, like when you cut someone off in traffic...

...or steal a roll of toilet paper from the restroom at work...

...but, because it's you doing it, you always come up with an excuse to justify it?

But then you see somebody else do the same things and you have no patience with him at all?

Maybe racism is the same thing.  Like, if you're a Norseman and you hear about some other Norseman who got arrested for getting into a fight, you probably give the guy the benefit of a doubt.

But if you're a Norseman and you hear about some Hun who got arrested for getting into a fight, you assume the worst.  

Maybe racism is whenever you assume the worst about everyone who doesn't happen to be the same kind of race as you.  Maybe racism is, essentially, a lack of empathy and an abundance of suspicion.

If that doesn't quite define what racism is, it at least defines where racism comes from.  If one allows his casual lack of empathy to fester and suppurate into suspicion, his constant suspicion will begin to look suspiciously like racism.  And racism always ends up making people look ridiculous.

Let's think about this.  Say you're a Hun and you've reached a point where your suspicion of Norsemen has turned into virulent racism.  It'd be easy for you, Hun, to hate a Norseman if he does something odious, like not noticing when a light turns green.

But what if a Norseman does something that makes it harder for you to hate him?  What if he pulls forward as soon as the light changes?

Or what if a Norseman actually helps you in some way?  

Now you're just being ridiculous.

In like manner, suppose you're a Norseman and you've reached a point in life where your casual dislike of Huns has grown rather less casual.  It's easy for you to hate them when they do something rude.

But suppose that same Hun turns around and does something unexpected...

Still feeling hateful?  Or are you feeling something else..? 

Maybe if you can give yourself a second to stop and think before you switch things into I Hate This Guy mode, maybe if you offer the people around you the same amount of empathy you offer yourself, maybe you'll find yourself being less and less selfish.  Because maybe racism is just another form of selfishness.

Being racist, really maintaining your racism, is hard work.  You really have to do no thinking at all.  Otherwise your whole system starts to fall apart and the next thing you know you've married into a different race and you're down at the farmers market buying turbot, holding your mixed-race child and wondering what in the world happened.

There you have it foks, another exciting episode of "Creeking More In The ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore)"!  Be sure and come back for the next installment wherein I make a bunch of tired jokes about how it feels to be biracial.  You know, ones about trying to fill in the race bubble on a census form.  *sigh*  I'm a hack.