What is Racism in today's America

This is a post from my friends Facebook Wall - I thought this is a interesting topic of conversation to start the ball rolling on my new blog. I did respond back (see below) I would like to get your views on this topic post a comment what ever you are feeling would love the feed back.....

Hey everyone,

I've got something under my skin and I need help to try to wrap my head around it. I will try to word this as best I can, so as not to offend anyone. I'm apologizing ahead of time to anyone who gets offended by this. That is not my intention; only to try and understand.

First off, let me tell you I live in Southern Maryland. Things are different here than they were growing up in Pasadena. There's things I've observed living here that I just don't understand. For starters, I've observed sometimes there's "lines" where different races pretty much treat each other differently. Things seem segregated to a degree and it's like the civil rights movement didn't happen. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've seen confederate flag stickers on cars, and EVERY time, it turns my stomach. I'm like, "HELLO?!?! This is 2011!!! The south lost; get over it, and OPEN YOUR EYES!!!!". I've also encountered some African-Americans who despise white people, and it seems like there are some who don't like anyone who's Latino or Asian or Indian/Middle-Eastern or Gay, (which is a small population in this area). I'm not saying that everyone here is like that; I know of many who aren't "blind", and consider them good friends. I'm talking about those that ARE "blind" and think that it's perfectly fine to think this way.

Growing up in Pasadena, there seemed to be almost every ethnicity there is represented, and we all treated each other the same. We didn't say, "Oh this is Peter, my white friend" or "This is Lisa, my Chinese friend". We just said, "This is so-and-so, MY FRIEND". No tags, no lines. Just the common knowledge we were all the same. If there was racism, I never encountered it. I always have and always will see everyone as the same. The only differences were if someone was nice or mean to me. I grew up with alot of kids making fun of me because I was fat, but never because I was white. Kindness and friendship, to me, had no boundaries. If you were nice to me, I was nice to you. Case closed.

I guess I'm just asking for some insight, because I just don't understand how in this day and age, there is STILL this kind of behavior. I really don't understand how people can still be so blind. If you would share your view on this, I'd appreciate it, because I just don't get it.

My response:

I’m not offended by anything you have said because the simple fact is that we all have experience racism on some level it just depends on what you would call it. In my opinion there’s different type of racism examples Bullying, Sexism, Ageism.

I’m a 40yr black American woman (not of African decent because my family roots are from Australia) I was born and raised in SoCal and I like to believe that I’m well travel & pretty intelligent my parents are from the south Alabama. They participated in marching for equals rights during the 60’s.  I traveled to the south a lot as a kid & I never experienced racism. I would see restaurant that had signs colored eat here or colored drinking area or Negro restroom etc. My experience with racism happened when I met & married my ex-hubby who is Hispanic (Mexican).

His family doesn’t like black ppl or any nor white. I don’t know why but in his family the darker you are the uglier you are if you’re white with blond hair & blues eyes you’re the cream of the crop hints why we are now divorced.  You can imagine my surprise when my ex mother in-law would speak Spanish and say horrible terrible things about me & my family being black like we should be shipped back to Africa or black ppl should stay in their positions as slaves & the funny thing Dee is that she’s & her kids including my ex are here illegally. You would think that she would be more tolerant of this country’s diversity.

Unfortunately racism today is not only a black white issue, it’s an issue of gender (Gay marriage) issue of looks (being heavy) and of course heritage. Just look at our President and what he’s going thru compared to our previous President or look at the models the thinner models get booked and is place on this high authority of what American women should like vs. the heavier models that ironically are more like the average American woman in terms of weight.  Has racism gotten better I would like to believe it has, is it gone NO will it ever go away NO, as long as there are stupid ppl racism will continue to exists.  I think this country is moving at a slow pace when it comes to change and acceptance but we can’t allow ourselves to take 10 steps back from where we came from, we have to move forward so we won’t become blinded again (your words) & that’s my opinion.

this is what I seen as a kid visiting Alabama