I See Color

"Sanity may be madness
but the maddest of all is to see life as it is
and not as it should be"
-Don Quixote


Of course I see one's color, race and/or ethnicity.
It's probably the first thing someone notices.
But it's rarely the only thing one notices.

These reductions to "race only" exclude many worthy partners (and include many who should have never been) in relationships of personal, professional and social matters.
But please remember. My opinions are just that - My opinions.
Not necessarily fact.
Sometimes in need or refinement or a new perspective.
Limited to my experiences.

If I see a group of white guys in a room - is my first response to fight, run or flex?
Nope, I just say "What's up?".
If I see a group of white guys in a room who are wearing sheets and robes and carrying a noose - is my first response to fight, run or flex?
Maybe...
Probably.
Hell, YES!
Is this being racist?
Nope.
It's just judging people predicated on my limited knowledge or perspective.

When I walk into a room of Black guys - is my first response to fight, run or flex?
Nope. I just say "What's up?".
If I see this same group of guys with guns standing in front of a liquor store - is my first first response to fight, run, or flex?
Maybe.
Are they drunk?
Do I know the guys?
Are they finna' fight?
The familiarity enables me to ask more questions and judge based on more variables.
Is this racist?
Nope.
It's just judging people based on my limited experience or perspective.

Race is only one of the many factors someone uses when assessing others.
Mannerisms, speech, dress and even physical attractiveness can, in many cases, play a bigger role.

Fiddy would be deemed "low-class" by many while Obama would be deemed "high-class' by those same people. Even though Fiddy's net worth is reported to be as much as one hundred times that of Obama's.
Does Fiddy care? Probably not. He has his Hustle down.
Does Obama care? Probably not. He also has his Hustle down.
So how would many justify being afraid of a multi-millionaire entertainer, who was a shooting victim, who lives in Beverly Hills (or Holmby Hills or Bellaire or whatever).
But not being afraid of a Black man who grew up moving from place to place, played on the high school basketball team, raised by a single mother and made his name on the streets of Chicago?

This is where mannerisms, speech, dress and physical attractiveness come into play.
Fiddy cultivated an image, mingled with his past, to create a marketable entity.
Obama did the same.
We all do the same.
Race is just one of the many factors we use in judging others (or when others judge us).

Even Oprah - the grand-slam of unfortunate situations (fat, ugly (c'mon, you saw the Color Purple), poor, molested, and Black) - made it.
I know that she's anomalous - but that's a whole lot going against somebody.

In many cases;
looks matter as much as race,
being able to conjugate the verb "to be" and/or apply an "N" before a vowel matters as much as one's race,
knowing what you're doing matters as much as race,
having game (superior social skills) matters as much as race.
RACE - is rarely the sole determining factor in any situation.

When I say that I'm sick of race - I don't mean that we should ignore it.
(It's something obvious, we can't ignore it.)
But can we at least put it somewhere on the list closer to where it belongs?
Maybe a little above having red hair but below having good manners or a good education.
Otherwise we're just fighting imaginary dragons that turn out to be windmills.