KEVIN ASKING THE REAL QUESTIONS
Added 2022-04-25 04:00:03 +0000 UTCGrowing up as a black kid in a predominantly white town, race was mostly only discussed as a curiosity. As kids we didn't understand racism or race relations much. It didn't make any sense to us back then. We simply didn't see why it was so important to some folks. But just about any person of color will tell you there was a moment when they realized they were "different" and that things were never the same after that. One of my favorite things about this comic is revisiting the years before that time.
Comments
Unfortunately that’s the case for a lot of Americans. Racial bias has way of setting in pretty deep when you’re not expose to people different than you. That’s one reason why representation in media is so important. I once knew a lady who, until she was 19, thought black people weren’t real. That they were a Hollywood special effect no different than aliens on Star Trek. She certainly wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box but I have a very hard time imagining ANY person of color making it that far in life with a similar misconception about white people.
Tauhid Bondia
2022-04-25 17:02:29 +0000 UTCMy mother didn't teach me to hate. As a result, I tend to get along with everyone. I grew up in a town with very few non-whites, then moved to a small town with none. I had no opportunity to learn by example.
Carl G Knoblock
2022-04-25 16:58:28 +0000 UTCThis happened a number of times to me. And it’s fucking weird. You almost get the idea that that’s how friendships work until someone explains it to you or you put it together.m. One day people just ghost you for no reason.
Tauhid Bondia
2022-04-25 15:51:07 +0000 UTCIn some ways kids are so much smarter than adults. And this thread reminds me on the song, I think from South Pacific, “we Must Be Carefully Taught.”
Ann Snuggs
2022-04-25 15:16:06 +0000 UTCMan, I remember two kids I was friends with whose parents wouldn’t let us be friends: 1. Because I wasn’t the right race. 2. Because I wasn’t the right religion. So weird. I’d never do that to kids. It still upsets me because I didn’t know why we couldn’t be friends at the time (we hung out a lot until their parents met me) until much later when my parents told me when I asked.
Brian
2022-04-25 14:40:05 +0000 UTCYour Pulitzer for "Crabgrass" is coming, Tauhid. Thank you for it in the meantime.
Yer pal Mikey
2022-04-25 06:00:07 +0000 UTCIt's weird to think back to that time as a kid when I was first learning that there was some supposed difference between white people like myself and "everybody else"... At first, for me, and most of my friends, it seemed, was that "the other people" - black, brown, yellow, red (using color names didn't have any derogatory inclination when we were so young) - seemed like something exotic and extra special. It was very confusing as I grew older and, more and more, that perception seemed to twist in the minds of people around me into something dehumanizing. I'd like to believe I managed to maintain an unbiased attitude in the years between then and now, but I'm quite sure I succumbed to the attitudes around me more than once or twice. Nowadays I'm much more confident in my ability and willingness to police myself on those attitudes, and to call it out as B.S. when it comes from those around me, rather than just remaining silent and letting them be "entitled" to their opinions. Sure, I've lost a couple of friends that way, but I don't really miss "those people".
Yer pal Mikey
2022-04-25 05:55:12 +0000 UTC
