"Ewww, she's got cooties!!!!"

George Washington once said that "true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to appellation". What's unfortunate is that many of us tend to dismiss the possibility of a friendship with someone else because of mere tribulations. We judge them for who they are. We judge them for what they believe in. We judge them for what they may become.We judge them for being better than us. But this is what makes who we are. The experiences that we've gone through with these oddballs is what shapes our perception of everything that surround us. Whether it be the one you just met, the one you share your secrets with, the one you consider your best friend, the one you've grown distant from, the one you can't stand, the one who puts down everything you propose, the one you have a crush on, the one you dated, the one who hurt you, the one you deceived and the one you took advantage of, all of them. So can you tell who someone is by who their friends are? No. You can tell who someone is by the mutual relationship that they have with their friends in that sense. We always hear the common gossip as it goes, "OOh, she's friends with so and so. She's probably a slut just like her!" The "I heard this" and "I heard that" only amount to misconception and a strong feeling of empowerment over the other person. Whether it be positive gossip or negative gossip, evaluating someone's worth along those lines just screams for the concept between right and wrong to be shot to shit.
The mentality here and the mentality in Haiti are quite different. Going back every summer made me realize how I've changed from the friends I hung out with down there to the ones I had and have since I moved to New York to the ones I've made in college. This is noticeable for anyone as they move on from high school onto college, or moving from one town to another. Several of us look back in our yearbooks and we ask ourselves, "What did I ever see in this kid?" or "God, I miss her!". Change happens. We just have to make sure it's for the better. We just have to remember that who we're with may be too weak to be someone of their own and the best we can do is be their Shaggy to their Scooby-Doo.

"Look, mommy, bwack people!!!"

A recent discussion that broke out on the dinner table at home revolved around the severity of racism today. Now how does one define severity in these situations? Is it by the number of cases presented, by the number of people affected, the number of countries, the amount of involvement or what exactly? What exactly brought this up was Marion Jones' conviction. She was sentenced to 6 months in prison and 2 years probation for the use of steroids. This comes after she was stripped of all her medals. Apparently, humiliation is just not enough. Now, I am not promoting drug use but what baffles me is Lady Justice's reaction to this particular case while it is not unknown that our baseball favorites are not just shooting up their batting averages. It's a wonder that in all those cases, I honestly don't remember any Yankees in jail. And this doesn't just apply to sports. A few weeks ago, US News reported that the police were re-opening a rape case of a white female that happened over 30 years ago due to new evidence. Last year, barely anyone heard of Megan Williams, the woman who was raped and tortured and raped by six individuals and never even made the sidelines of the papers. Instead, Britney was covering the headlines for two weeks strong. Megan Williams was also black. To some, I may sound like those irrational black men, constantly attributing the color of my skin to everything that's wrong in my life. But those who know me, know that this is quite the contrary. What I'm advocating is a concept though reduced, is still quite existent. But can one honestly say that it is on the rise? And can one take it a step further to say that it may come to the way it was before? I think about the other times such issues were presented to me and I often brushed them off, thinking that these are just some instances of racism that are insignificant, like the threatening letters being distributed in front yards, that single colored family in a predominantly white neighborhood singled out and oppressed, etc. But my nonchalance has brought anger and disappointment towards me from my fellow African-American peers. I've been called ignorant, clueless, oblivious to an inevitable truth. I realize now that my nonchalance had absolutely no foundations. But what I haven't failed to realize is the difference of the racism that exists today.
The flow of racism between black and white lately has shifted, raising the racism from blacks towards white. Is this because of what was done to us in the past? Probably so. But with today's generation, it becomes something else. As humiliating as this sounds, it becomes part of pop culture. The concept of the "cracka boy" which has been developing in the past 50 years has escalated to a new form of bigotry, that has even escalated to crime, as we have witnessed with what happened in Jena, Louisiana. Now, a white supremacist group is being allowed to march on Martin Luther King Day to protest the Jena Six march without posting bond. One step just leads to another. There is a point to this. One cannot fight racism with racism. Fact of the matter is, both black and white are supremacists against one another. Whether it be the white saying that they are the pure race, or the blacks associating many blames to the white race, all this serves as catalysts for what we're trying to destroy. I may sound as if I'm takings sides here, but I assure one and all that I am not. Yes, slavery did happen. Yes, the Jim Crow Laws were instated. Yes, lynchings destroyed families and futures forever. But we have seen the pain that it has caused to us. Does this then not counterpoint the validation of actions of black on white? My point is both parties are wrong. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth only amounts to barbarism and the demeaning of human intelligence. So what is the solution? To be optimistic, the solution would be that the black people talk to their own and the white talk to their own about what is wrong with what is happening. It's no secret that people feel more comfortable with their own kind. But realistically, what are the odds of even that happening?