Here are some things that have been said to me, in front of me, I have overheard, or that I have witnessed in my lifetime that are acts of covert racism (and sometimes overt). This is not an exhaustive list, just top of mind stuff. These are all bad. They are wrong. They are part of the cog in the structural racism wheel. Recognize if you have heard or said any of these things, and change them straight away. This is not okay. It wasn’t okay in 1987, it is not okay now.

• They are good athletes
• Don’t date a Black boy
• I would hate if my child had a mixed race baby
• We look like Mexicans headed to El Paso (in reference to a loaded truck)
• It’s a very “dark” place (meaning a lot of Black people frequent it)
• All Lives Matter
• That is reverse racism (that is not a thing that exists)
• They are “thugs”
• I have a Black friend
• They are probably smuggling drugs
• I can’t tell my husband I dated a Black guy
• My family never owned a slave, so we aren’t racists
• I don’t see color
• They smell like rice and beans
• She’s a Welfare Queen (said by a white woman who was on welfare, discussing her Black neighbor who was also on welfare)
• All her kids probably don’t even have the same dad
• The only way we will move forward is to stop talking about the past! (Then one moment later) We can’t take statues down, we can’t just erase our history!
• I hear they eat their own dogs
• It’s heritage, not hate
• They should just go back to where they came from
• They get a Black History month, we should get a white history month too!
• Black women use abortion as birth control
• What are you?
• “Kung-Flu” (I think we all know who said that)
• But I was discriminated against too, we all are
• She’s really pretty for a Black girl
• I just don’t understand why they are so angry? I grew up poor too.
• Rap music is too explicit
• (People whispering the word Black)
• BET exists?! What about White Entertainment Television? Why can’t we have our own channel?!
• I just think the way they dance is gross
• I say just let them all kill each other
• How can they see through those slanted eyes?
• Black on Black crime

Yeah, that’s a thing.

Also, I Googled Susan Smith because I remembered how she killed her children then blamed a Black man. That sent me down a long rabbit hole on the internets and I came across this video from 2012. The creator is Calvin Michaels, and he shared things he’s heard white people say. It’s pretty spot on. It’s only six minutes and totally worth a watch.

And while we are at it, in The Long History of Racism Against Asian Americans from PBS, you can read about how Asian Americans have always been discriminated against.

And you can educate yourself about how Latino Americans have been and still are treated in our country with The Brutal History of Anti-Latino Discrimination in America.

Thanks for stopping on by. Hope you learned something. Read on, y’all.

M.