People actually believe electing a Black President means racism is over

They haven’t asked any black or brown people our opinions.

There are white people who believe the election of Barack Obama as President meant racism was over. Just the other day, a white guy said this to me. How does anyone believe a system that’s been in place for generations could be defeated by any one President — and in eight years? That’s not how it works, and I’m astounded any white person believes this.

Then I realized this is their way of saying they did their part by voting for Obama. They expected him to dismantle a system they fight to keep in place. Do white people have so little understanding of the pervasiveness of systemic racism? I don’t believe this for a second. Most white people simply don’t care. Racism doesn’t affect them, so they’re not worried about it.

They blame Obama. He didn’t do his job. He was too divisive… blah blah blah. If white people aren’t saying racism is dead, they’re saying it’s at least better because we had a Black president. But look who now sits in the Oval Office. Trump is punishment for the eight years we had Obama. White conservatives (and even some white liberals) lost their minds. They couldn’t believe a n*gger was President. That’s really the problem with much of white America. They hate to see us in any position of power.

I’m not surprised by this backlash. I’m not surprised by the trashing of Obama’s legacy. But white people can say what they want. Barack Obama wasn’t perfect, but I’ll take eight more years of him over Trump any day. The white people who believe racism has been defeated — where have you been these past three years? Trump doesn’t hide his hatred of marginalized people. He socializes with neo-Nazi’s and the Alt-Right. He’s clearly shown you what he believes. You just choose not to see it.

If the President of the United States supports hate groups, passes legislation to strip the rights of the LGBTQ community, approves Brown children held in cages and calls countries with mostly Black residents shit-hole countries…. well, racism is alive and well and sitting front and center in the White House.

I’m tired of white people asking me questions about racism that, if they opened their eyes, they could learn for themselves. I won’t converse with people who want to convince me that my lived experiences regarding racism are wrong. I don’t ever want to hear another white person try to define racism for me. It happens too often, and they go away feeling somehow superior even though the conversation never goes anywhere.

It’s not the job of marginalized people to educate white people. Let me say that another way: Stop asking us to revisit trauma because you’re too lazy to do your own homework. It’s selfish. And it’s racist. I’ve encountered these people multiple times, and it’s rare any of them enter into a conversation to learn anything. Mostly they want to argue with me, tell me to stop playing the victim and tell me I’m the real racist.

So no. Obama didn’t fix racism. If you believe this, you have zero understanding of how racism affects us. We experience racism in our daily lives. We feel it at the grocery store, in the office, at school, walking down the street, vacationing, and even in our own homes.

Maybe you don’t understand it because you can’t imagine someone bursting through your front door and shooting you as you sleep on your couch. Maybe you can’t imagine driving down the street and being shot by the police even after you tell him you have a permit for your gun. Perhaps you can’t imagine shopping in Wal-Mart and ending up dead simply because you picked up an air rifle from one of the shelves to purchase. Maybe you can’t imagine getting in a car accident and stumbling to a nearby house for help, only to be shot dead by the resident. Perhaps you can’t believe you could be murdered because you played your car stereo too loudly.

You can’t imagine it because you refuse to see it. And you can’t see it because you’ve convinced yourselves we deserved it. How can racism be abolished if you still can’t see us? I don’t know the answer, but I do know this: You can tell yourself racism is over or you can listen to us and realize we still have a long way to go. So far, you’re not choosing our side.