Racism is Like Corn
How racial and ethnic bias is created
In the midst of an important election season that some people believe will test the very foundations of democracy, it’s still good for our collective mental state to get distracted with laughter.
I saw a meme last week that made me smile:
“OK. So I understand that my body can’t digest corn and that’s fine. My issue is that I fuckin’ chewed it! How the hell is it coming back out in the shape of corn! What are they not telling us?”
It’s a joke most of us heard or told as kids in one version or another.
But it got me thinking. Isn’t that how we form our biases?
Over and over, we’re fed false ideas about our Black brothers and sisters.
The Black man as a dangerous criminal. The Black woman as a loud, unhinged complainer.
It’s been on our news screens, movies, TV and books for generations, even if it finally is starting to change some. Some.
Worse than that, we’re also denied a complete picture of the contributions of Black people.
While Black History Month is nice, let’s face it: the rest of our educational system omits important contributions of Black people. Sure, we were taught about a few civil rights giants and slave…
