LIFE

Dear Carol

"Dear Carol, am I racist?"

Dear Carol,
I am white. Sometimes I don't like black people. It isn't because they are black. It's just that black people have a certain personality, I think, and I don't like it. All of the black people I know have the same type of personality. So it really doesn't have to do with the color of their skin. But does this make me racist?
-Bad Person

Dear Person,
Well, if an African-American person said, “I don't like white people,” would you consider that racist? I would. What if the person said, “White people have a certain personality,” would you whole-heartedly agree? I wouldn't. Consider some famous people, I don't think of Samuel L. Jackson as a wonderful black actor or Tiger Woods as a great black golfer or Oprah Winfrey as the best black talk show host. I think of them as fabulously talented individuals. African Americans don't have a “certain personality” anymore than whites do, to be honest. It's much better to get to know individuals rather than generalize about groups. Stay open-minded and you may someday make friends whom you don't think of as black or as white but as true-blue. You signed your letter “Bad Person.” You aren't a bad person, but prejudging others is a bad habit. Deep down, you know this and that's why you wrote me—so you've already taken a step in the right direction.

For more on Carol Weston, visit her website: carolweston.com or like her Facebook page. To order Carol's newest book, Speed of Life, click here.

We want to hear from you! Go here to submit questions to Carol about every sticky sitch life throws at you.

POSTED IN ,

by Carol Weston | 11/23/2017
share