Hello, my name is FR, and I'm a racist.

I was watching an old episode of ER... it centered a lot on issues having to do with race.

Towards the end of the show, one of the nurses, a black woman, when asked by a (white) doctor who was concerned as to whether or not his actions were racially motivated said (something close to this), "We see the world in two different ways. White people one way, black people another."

The doctor proceeded to ask, "All white people?" and attempted to explain how he tries not to see race.

To which she replied (again, something like...), "To us, everything is all about race.

Although I'm not good at remembering things word for word, hopefully I posted enough to sum up the dialogue.

Anyway... her words continued to echo in my head, and then, in one of the next scenes, a woman was getting an ultrasound and wanting to know the sex of her baby...

Until the baby turned and the doctor saw the penis, they couldn't say.

The scene COMPLETELY pissed me off.

I then thought about how most people would have no clue as to what would piss me off about the scene... that they say they're not "sexist", even though I think they are, and that they'd probably just accuse me of being too oversensitive, etc.

I then changed what the nurse had said... replaced the word "race" with the words "sex, gender and sexuality"... and tada! I think that I learned something rather important from watching tv.

Lesson learned:

Stop seeing people of color as colorless. It is all about race. If you stop seeing color, you're just as much of a racist as someone who discriminates based on it.

Stop, SEE color, and then do your best to go out of your way to act in a manner which respects what that color actually means. Don't do what you think the world should do, do what you think that person would want you to do. To them, it is all about race. If you don't see that, then you're not blind to race, you're blind to their reality.


"Treating people equally" does not necessarily mean that you're not a racist. Not seeing someone's color, in today's society, is also racist. It means that you think all people are in the "same boat" as you are. You're still viewing "black" people as "white" people.

(I think) The "non-racist" thing to achieve?

Being able to see a "black" person as a black person, and treating them as such. "Such" meaning, taking both the "black" and the "PERSON" into consideration.