LETTER: Prejudice exists in this country

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Race

Prejudice exists in this country

A recent letter writer wrote that Jim Crow is ancient history, that we are not a racist nation and white privilege doesn’t exist. (School’s racial equity policy is misguided, Dec. 15). He said that those who consider this society racist must do more than arm waving. Here are some facts:

My Russian wife was surprised how much we focus on race in our documents after immigrating to the United States in 2013. The first few times, she simply didn’t understand the question. She incorrectly replied “Russian.” I am not sure where the letter writer has lived, but if he traveled to the South, he would see blatant racism. I worked as a medical photographer at the Memphis VA Medical Center. Ninety percent of the janitors at the VAMC were black. Ninety-eight percent of management was white. I was told by my co-worker that this part of town where I just rented an apartment was turning the wrong color. A black co-worker told me she knew her place regarding her friendship with this old white co-worker. I was told by a rural firefighter that “some nigger started the field grass fire.” An old man in our music group told me my black girlfriend was trouble. When I had lunch with her and her four mixed-race children at the VA cafeteria, an old white man stood next to us and stared at us. I naively took her and her children to a Mark Twain historical re-enactment event. It was all white, and everyone obviously was not happy about her presence. In rural Mississippi, I confused black homes with chicken coops not far from white-owned large, elegant homes.

I think teaching awareness of white privilege names what the child is up against furthers the conversation on how to mitigate the negative effects of white privilege and as a society, rise above this injustice. It is a seed for conflict.

— Dave Pekarek