Sounds about white

I got up this morning and thought, “I need to check one thing on Facebook real quick before I start my day.”

A few friends have liked posts related to Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s, and Land O’ Lakes. I end up reading comments on those posts, which are from places such as Snopes and CNN. As I read through the comments, I see so many people who don’t get it.

If you are 68 years old and have never seen the racism in these products, you’re white.

If you don’t see what the big deal is, you’re white.

If you can think of better things to worry about, you’re white.

If you make your case by saying the brand has been around for a long time why make a big deal about it now, you’re white.

If you think the country is going backward by removing racist brands and logos, you’re white.

If you were never offended by racist stereotypes, you’re white.

If you think this is all ridiculous, you’re white.

If you somehow managed to tie this all to the democrats, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton you’re white.

If you think this is getting out of hand, you’re white.

If you think this is destroying America, you’re white.

If you resort to ad hominem attacks, you have lost your stance.

if you think there’s nothing wrong with any of this, tell people to quit whining, and leave the nice black people alone, you’re a racist, too.

If you think the people depicted are beautiful, congratulations, you succumbed to marketing techniques.

If a company can admit they were wrong and change, you can, too.

Society changes and we change with it. That’s what growing and learning is about. It’s also just common decent human courtesy to not make someone else feel like a lesser human being. We learned this in kindergarten.

For the record, I will be 50 in a few weeks. I’ve known my entire life these products had racist logos. From American football to products on store shelves, I was taught these things.

If you did not know these things were racist, but have now learned the history of the products and think they should go, good. You have proven you can learn and change.

If you still think these products are okay, you do not understand the pervasiveness of racism in our society. Please do try to learn and not stick your head in the sand with whataboutism, ad hominem attacks, and general ignorance.