A Conversation in Black and White
A debate between Whoopi Goldberg and Michelle Tafoya typifies the state of American race relations.
Today on The View, Whoopi Goldberg and Michelle Tafoya had a conversation that ably demonstrated a stark disparity of perception regarding American race relations.
During a debate on whether Critical Race Theory (also known as Honest American History) should be taught in schools, Tafoya disagreed that it should be taught by recounting how her son and his multiracial friends eventually separated by becoming friends with children of their same race.
She went on to say
“Why are we even teaching that the color of the skin matters?” Because to me, what matters is your character and your values.”
Whoopi quickly reminded Tafoya that while many Whites make these statements, their actions belie their words:
“Yes, but you know. You live in the United States, you know that color of skin has been mattering to people for years.”
Tafoya tried to argue that it was time for skin color to cease to be important, but Goldberg correctly countered
“Well, we need white people to step up and do that!”
Tafoya then argued that White people have been attempting to change the race narrative since the Civil War.
Whoopi wasn't having any of it. She replied:
“No! No, no, no they haven’t. Listen, when you have a country, or let’s talk about a state — where somebody can be hung from a tree and it’s OK? Well, it was OK. It was OK in the South, people did it all the time, people would run you down. Not that long ago.”
America has had her reckoning. It continues to happen because unless we can say ‘This is what the country was like. This is what we don’t want to be anymore,’ we have to teach the little ones to respect people, because you’ll be around people, you’ll see people, you’ll hear people say things that won’t make sense to you. This is what happens in the country because we’re not past that.”
People are constantly decrying about "woke" culture, but that's because so many White people like Michelle Tafoya are in blissful, ignorant slumber.
The only reason race is a social construct is because White people invented to justify their racist actions.
As Whoopi alluded to, White people have to take the lead in dismantling racial prejudice because they have led the world in perpetuating it.
For Tafoya to claim that White people have pursued racial reconciliation since the Civil War, here are a few of their reconciliatory tactics:
The 13th Amendment which allowed for penal servitude for convicted "criminals"
Jim Crow laws enacted throughout the South
The emergence of the Ku Klux Klan and other domestic terrorist organizations who systematically and randomly lynch, torture, and murder Black people up to the present day.
Enacting racist "fair election" laws designed to stymie and outright deny voting accessibility for People of Color.
Critical Race Theory would help White children to think critically, as in "the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment."
Not to just continually make poor, racist assumptions and decisions based on centuries of ingrained, systematic behavior.
Which is how we got to where we are in the first place.
"White people have to take the lead in dismantling racial prejudice because they have led the world in perpetuating it." Exactly! That is the whole point, white people have perpetuated racial prejudice for generations and this sudden "concern" with Critical Race Theory (or truth as sane people call it) is just a new iteration of racial prejudice. God forbid white children should be taught that our country's history is fraught with racial hatred but what is important is that we learn from the past so we can continue working towards the day when white people aren't automatically given privileges just because of the color of their skin but rather everyone has a fair and equal chance to succeed. The past can't be changed but unless we learn from it, we will continue to relive it. If that is being woke then I can't wait for all white people to wake up and start respecting others based on who they are on the inside not what color their skin may be or their racial makeup may be.