A young woman of color's says the fight against racism has to start with owning it

Every race and every walk of life are racists...period. If you say you aren't, you are wrong. May not be overt but stip and think the next time you are out in public and you walk by someone of another race and see what you do...you hide your wallet, lock your car, maybe move to another line, go another way to avoid contact, etc.
Whites on blacks...Blacks on whites...native americans on blacks...vice versa...native americans on whites and vice versa...Scottish against irish...british against blacks...british against other europeans...latinos against Americans...Americans against Chinese/Japanese/Koreans and vice versa...Koreans against Japanese (so much so they don't call it the sea of Japan, it is called the East sea and whenit is hot, they don't raise a Red Flag...they raise a Blue flag)...middle easterners against Jews and westerners and vice versa...and on and on and on. You cannot live without racism. As long as there are various races, religions and nationalities there will always be racism.
The problem with it today is that when you don't agree with an idealogy, you are immediately labeled a racist or sexist person when the idealogy has nothing to do with the color of your skin or your gender. We have started using that term so loosely that it is losing its root meaning of "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." Racism is ugly but if we keep diluting the definiton to make it fit our current situation so we can get our way then we have turned the wrong way and aren't addressing the problem...we are only making it worse in my book. IMHO.

Maj Marty Hogan
Lt Col Charlie Brown
1stSgt Glenn Brackin
Cpl Craig Morton
SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth
COL Mikel J. Burroughs
SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"
LTC Stephen C.
CPL Dave Hoover
PO3 Bob McCord
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
Sgt Wayne Wood
PVT James Strait
SFC Jack Champion
MSgt David Hoffman
MSgt Stephen Council
SGT Elizabeth Scheck
PO1 H Gene Lawrence

Excellent share brother Chip, she's speaking the truth.

There is a positive approach, and a negative approach. If I'm walking downtown, and see four men approaching me with "baggy" clothes, swaggering, loudly talking, etc...what do my instincts tell me? If I pass a single person on the same street, wearing a suit and tie...what do my instincts tell me then? If the former are all white, and the latter, black...does that mean my instincts should inform me differently if the reverse had been true?

The positive approach to dealing with racism is to realize that behavioral traits are not intrinsically linked to race, nor the judgement of individual behavior by necessity, linked to racism. The negative approach is to ignore logical judgements of behavior whenever race becomes part of the equation...i.e. presuming that the four men dressed like gang members, and gesturing wildly are NOT a threat merely because they are black, and thinking so would make me a "racist".

The worst version of this negative approach is when we begin looking for compensatory acts on the part of racial majorities to "prove" their lack of racism. Imposing "guilt" onto a majority, regardless of their personal views on race runs the risk of creating resentment where none need exist, and ultimately creating more...not less, racially-based decision making.