Why is there always a ‘black table’ at Sodexho?

It has been 60 years since the movement for equality started. It has been 50 years since the Supreme Court declared in the Brown v the Board Education that segregation in schools was unconstitutional.
The legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and many others that braved and fought against discrimination lives on today. It is a reminder that because of them there is equal opportunity for anyone who seeks it.
Opportunity does not discriminate against race or beliefs. It can not tell between brown, white, black, red or yellow. It is the people that discriminate.
I may have been na’ve, but I did not expect to go to a college where there are still notable tables. Black people always seem to sit on one side of the dining hall. Of course, this problem is relatively minor, but it is a trend that can be seen in any campus across America with tables providing the racial divide and several cultural demarcations that should no longer exist but in memory.But it is not a memory and not another page from a history book. Its reality and it is what we have today.
Of course no one mandated this. There isn’t segregation. It’s unconstitutional. We just simply sat this way the moment school doors opened every first day of school. The amazing thing is that even as we promote diversity and acceptance, no one stopped us from doing it. The school didn’t try to break up the tables. Imagine if they did. I’m sure parents would complain and the race factor would inevitably fly out of nowhere and we would therefore be labeled racist.
When racism comes to mind most people think about the civil rights era or hooded members of Ku Klux Klan. They were painful remnants of that past that so many people fought to change so that we_ black, white, yellow, red and brown can go to the same school together.
But racism never ended, it evolved into 2007. While we no longer use the word “negro” or “colored” we have found replacement words like niggas, Twinkies, Oreos and crackers among many other racial stereotypes that have become in many instances, the very definition of our characters.
We have found new ways to classify ourselves without so much forethought that racial stereotypes accomplish nothing. This is all setting us back.
White people are not the only people capable of racism. In fact everyone is.
The first thing that comes to mind when the word “discrimination” is uttered is slavery or segregation. It has been more than a century since Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves but the word “discrimination” and its history still run deep when it shouldn’t be.
A few years ago the politically correct term to refer to black people was African-American, and low and behold just when I was just getting used to it, someone changed it to Black.
I honestly am confused at the wording I have to choose.
Why is it that we have historically black colleges but can not call any other school historically white?
If the word African-American is politically incorrect, and the words “colored” and “negro” if used today are unacceptable, then why is it called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and why is the prestigious scholarship called the United Negro College Fund? Why can I not call anyone a nigga without fear of offending anyone, yet I have heard this used liberally in other circumstances. Why is it that there is a scholarship for every other minority but seemingly few for specifically white people? It’s acceptable to have a group for the awareness of Asian, Hispanic and Black people but would that still ring true if a group called National Association for the Advancement of White People was ever formed? For some reason, that would connotate white supremacy, which we all know equals to something very bad.
However, I am pretty sure there are plenty of white people out there in need of advancement. I therefore propose that in all fairness and equality they should have a group to promote their welfares.
We stereotype ourselves. We are trained not to expect black hockey players or Asian Football players. We don’t expect John Mayer to come out dressed in FUBU, baggy pants and a do-rag while sweetly serenading us with his guitar. The list of stereotypes runs long. Are all Asians smart? Are all Mexicans construction workers or illegal? Do all black people love to eat chicken? Are all white people generally boring and uptight snoots?
Sure, if you’re Asian and you are stereotyped as “smart” I suppose that it is a positive stereotype. But are all Asians smart? Of course not. If we (Asians) were all smart, we wouldn’t have a list of third world countries. We’d be smart enough that there would no astounding differences between classes (But there is). We wouldn’t battle civil wars. We wouldn’t point nuclear weapons against each other like India and Pakistan, and now North Korea. Now, that’s smart. But I doubt that the Asians have seriously done all that, so now all of us are under pressure to uphold ourselves as smart, witty, technological whiz geniuses. I hate Math. I hate Physics. I don’t go to Harvard. I’m therefore, a bad Asian because I wasn’t a violinist, a master-pianist and certainly not a future chemist. When I am not the “smart” Asian, I’m the “rice-face” exotic girl, me-love-you-long-time fascination of the now popular movement of Asian fetish.
But what if you’re a Latino? I suppose you could be an illegal, kid-rearing Catholic rabbits, dirt poor, construction workers, maids, uneducated druggies and scandalously trashy looking. It doesn’t sound good to me or anyone who might want to associate themselves as Latino.
Even advertisers are abusing these stereotypes. Apparently black people stereotypically love fried chicken (and watermelon) and a new Church’s Chicken was just opened at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Milledgeville. The Dairy Queen’s and gas stations are owned by Indians, Middle-Eastern peoples are stereotyped as terrorists, Asians own laundromats. the stereotypes run long.
It is disturbing to see that certain groups of people separate themselves and act like they can get away with something because of their color. I hate it when skin color becomes a determinant of one’s lifestyle. It’s as if their color had its own personality and its own mind. It creates certain expectations. Character is overshadowed by color and their potential hidden by stereotypes.
In a country that lives by the motto: E Pluribus Unum, out of many one, we have not yet achieved togetherness. We are far from completing the dream. When the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous speech his goal was to end racism and inequality for all. It was not to create a black elite society, or any other racial societies, that would one day conquer the nation and outnumber the whites. He was more interested in a society free of prejudice whatever the color a person maybe. It was the kind of dream that out of many differences, one nation will stand united.
In general, I think everyone should enroll in one of those 12 step programs so popular in rehab programs nowadays. The first step to recovery, as they would say, is to admit the problem. Heck, we might even need Dr.Phil. This problem does qualify as dysfunctional and he certainly specializes in them.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just exchange fried-chicken, burritos, meatloaf, and Lo-mein over lunch? We won’t accomplish much but it’s certainly a beginning of something.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 16 2007. Filed under Perspectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry