I am white and have witnessed uncounted racist encounters. For example, every time my Black boss took me out to lunch to discuss a special project, do my personnel evaluation, or other work function, I was brought the bill. No server EVER assumed she was my boss.
I cannot count the times I have been in line at Starbucks with a friend of mine who is Black and been asked my order before her even though she is in front of me. I always say she's before me but it's irritating.
A friend of mine and I went to Meier and Frank just to dilly-dally while waiting for an appointment. I said, let's go get makeovers! I've done that more than once. It's free. The clerk said we had to purchase something. That had never happened before.
I don't have a car, but my Black friends do. I've ridden with several of them in their cars. I didn't understand why they drove such circuitous routes instead of just going straight up MLK or 33rd. One day I asked why, it was all about not being caught driving while Black
I have gone to the doctor with Black and Latina friends because they are ignored when they speak for themselves. They ask me to go to ask the questions they want to be answered that the doctors won't respect them enough to answer.
I've gone out to eat with Black friends and watched people come in long after us and get waited on before us, as though we were invisible.
My friend's daughter was 12 when a Black man was shot in what the police called a "gang-related" shooting and publicly blamed the Black people of Portland for not identifying the shooter. Cops picked her and her friend (also Black) and told them to get in the police car. The
cops told the girls they need to tell them who shot the man. The girls had no idea of course, but the cops insisted they had to know. They drove them to an industrial area and left them there. They did not have cell phones
Another friend's daughter was forced to give a classmate a BJ when she was 13. There was a video of half a dozen boys surrounding her while she did it. They sent it all over. My friend brought the video to the police who told her if she pressed charges, they would charge her for
having child porn on her cell phone. So she did not press charges. I have seen her brokenhearted many times, but never so much as this.
My friend moved into an apartment complex in Gresham and someone defaced her door, spray-painting THE racist epithet on it. She was evicted.
Another friend, a Black man, didn't bother to get his DL just to reverse his car from his own driveway and park in front of his house to leave the driveway open for his wife. He was arrested.
I mean, the cops should not have stopped him for this. Nothing was illegal except what they could not see, not carrying his license. So, he should have gotten a ticket that would be thrown out when he sent a pic of his license in. Not arrested
My neighbor was arrested for taking a cutting from my rose bush. He had my permission, though when he asked it was the wrong time for cutting, so he came later in the year & took the cutting. I was not home. A neighbor WHO KNOWS HIM called the cops
And the difficulty of getting him unarrested. I mean. he called me. I called the station, they would not take my word for it. I had to go prove I lived in my house and gave him my permission to take a cutting
As to the neighbor WHO KNOWS HIM calling, she came over expecting a thank you for being so vigilant gratitude. I ripped her a new one, so she started calling nuisance complaints the minute my grass got a little high
Oh, and then there was the time I was training a young Black man, college-age, and we were in White Center, WA, door knocking. We opened the door to a guy who had all sorts of White Power shit. We left immediately. He quit the job then and there, didn't even wait for a ride back
Another Black trainee quit the night we were door-knocking in Gladstone. We were standing on the porch, rang the bell, & heard the woman through the door, "Get your gun, there's a Epithet at the door." I told him to go, I stayed, identified myself, made sure she didn't call cops
So off the top of my head, I have witnessed many racist things. I have Black and Latino friends, so it's not invisible.
Here is a racist/bigoted thing I did just to share the love. A Latina friend was struggling to explain something to me so I switched to Spanish. She was irritated and said, "Don't do that, don't assume I don't know, if I wanted to speak Spanish I would have said do." So now I ask
Please note I don't struggle with the idea of naming something I did as racist. I don't struggle with recognizing that I will inevitably think, say, and do something racist no matter how hard I try. I grew up in a country so steeped in racism it's in the air I breathe.
No one can grow up in America and not internalize the bigotry and racism that this country's political, economic, and social system was founded on. Recognizing that makes it much easier to recognize when I err and not get terribly defensive about it
