Cadillacs

I was recently watching a documentary entitled "Whitewashed, Unmasking the World of Whiteness" about the privileged experience of being white. I feel like throughout these blog posts I've done a lot of reflecting on what it means for me to be white so although that aspect of the documentary was enlightening, it's not what I want to talk about. One of the people interviewed in the film referenced a quote by Malcolm X that hit me hard. It was, "Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year."

This. This is it. These words make sense of everything in my head. They give logic to all the times I've stumbled around attempting to explain to people how today's society is still racist. Just because we don't see the high school history textbook definition of racism in everyday life does not mean that racism is not around. It is fundamentally embedded in our society's systems and structures, it just takes on different forms and methods as time goes on.

Now I know this isn't necessarily insightful. Nor is it exceptionally revolutionary. But it seems as though once you hit a certain point in studying a subject, the light bulb just doesn't illuminate for you anymore. You don't have those instant revelations anymore. And for awhile I've felt that way about studying racial matters. I am by no means an expert or a scholar or even a mildly experienced researcher. I've taken a few classes, read a few books, but I still always feel stuck when I talk about race. Maybe it's because the vocabulary in place is rarely all encompassing of the major social issues they try to describe. Maybe it's because since I'm white and have never really had to think about race on a "real life" level until now, I'm working from an exceptionally low point of understanding so a simple analogy like Malcolm X's really enlightens things for me.

Well I guess all of my entries do end up about me being white. My whiteness never made me have to truly consider race. My understanding of race began as so elementary that such a simple quote (even after about three years of being finally fully conscious of race issues) could suddenly help things make more sense. It's like I'm learning a new language after already having had a language ingrained in me for quite literally decades. I'm learning a new understanding of race after years of being ignorantly under the impression that there was really no greater understanding to have. It's sad. And I think my experience is something a lot of other white people can relate to.