It’s been a little more than 40 years since the unofficial end of the Civil Rights movement. Today, many believe that the victories won between 1954 and 1968 have stood the test of time and that a society of equality has flourished and taken ground.
Since President Obama was elected, the myth of “post-racism” has been widely accepted as fact. Post-racism is the belief that our country’s racially charged past has been canceled out and replaced with a color-neutral nation.
On the contrary, this new concept has developed into a more insidious form of racism. Because our nation flies the “we’re no longer racist” banner high over our heads, we end up shielding our eyes to what happens right in front of us.
The Trayvon Martin shooting was definitely a wake-up call to many Americans.
Those who insisted on justifying the shooting ended up coming off as harsh and cold.
An unarmed 17-year-old boy was shot dead.
Oh, right, he was also black.
When someone says he or she believes everyone should be looked at equally, he or she is practicing their own form of racism. When one decides to wear monochromatic lenses, one denies the culture and the struggles of the person in front of him or her.
It’s similar (but not to the same extreme) as if you were to see an Italian and German and say they were one and the same.
You could easily list the cultural differences between the two; ignoring them would be a complete affront to their culture.
Denying a person’s skin color ignores his or her way of life and the battles that person had to go through.
A brown-skinned man is entirely different than a black-skinned man. Their views, ideals and cultures are different. You deny who they are by choosing not to see where they came from.
Racism can be classified as the judgment, stereotyping and discrimination of a group of people in based on skin color alone.
Becoming colorblind is the other extreme. You’re just removing the hues and vibrancy of an intricate tapestry and settling for a dull gray.
We’re not all equal. We should be, but as things stand today, there are still groups of people who are treated differently.
As a woman I get paid less, I get interrupted more frequently and have to combat the general idea that I can’t wield power tools.
I found out from my friend, who is African-American, that she deals with police eyeing her and her friends while they go out to lunch, officers questioning and searching them even if they run a stop sign and people looking uneasy around her boyfriend.
Other communities have their own struggles they have to deal with and their own stereotypes they need to combat.
I believe that the first step is to acknowledge that racism still exists.
Sweeping it away or turning a blind eye will only inflame the problem.
Once we’ve realized that the problems are there, we as a nation can work together toward a society where everyone is truly equal.
Michela Martinazzi is an art history junior at UF. (This is her last column for the summer). You can contact her at opinions@alligator.org.
