It Doesn't Matter if You're Black or White...Right?

Michael Jackson posed this question with his song recorded back in 1991.  In his video, he is seen dancing with people off all cultures, including African American, Caucasian and Native American, just to name a few.  Without knowing Michael Jackson personally, it is evident that he had a genuine love for people, regardless of skin color.  20 years later, I would argue that in fact it does matter if you’re black, white, brown, purple, pink or yellow.  Equally so, it matters where you live. 

Take the state of Arizona for example.  In 2010, the state Senate passed a bill that would make it legal for law enforcement to verify a person’s immigration status if there was “reasonable suspicion.”  Without directly saying so, the bill targeted people that appeared to be Hispanic and Mexican, considering the 460,000 illegal immigrants in the state and the fact that Mexico is only a hop away.  Parts of the law have been blocked and now it is up to the Supreme Court to decide if the state can uphold this legislation.

Additionally, the House of Representatives passed a bill banning ethnic studies in public schools.  The consequence for teaching ethnic studies would be the loss of money for a school district.  I had the opportunity to watch a documentary on Northern Arizona University’s campus entitled Precious Knowledge.   The documentary followed students participating in the Mexican American studies courses at Tucson High School.  The fight to ban courses such as these were lead by state superintendent (currently attorney general for the state) Tom Horne who believed that students were learning how to overthrow the United States government.  His idea is that students should be taught American values and the courses they were in were teaching oppression.  Horne also argues that race does not matter and that schools should be teaching individuality.  The funniest part of his argument in my opinion is his use of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, the part where he dreams of a day when his children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.  If Dr. King were alive to hear his words used in this context, I would imagine that he would look with a side eye.  Just saying. 

If students were learning about all types of people in regular American history, besides slavery and oppression, maybe there wouldn’t be a need for these courses.  The crazy part is that these courses at Tucson High School, where this whole debate began, was open to all students at the high school.  It makes sense that Chicano students would represent the majority of enrollment in these courses, but it is self-imposed exclusion on the part of the non-Chicano students is they don’t see the benefit. 

I say all of this to say, color, race, and ethnicity do matter.  On the other hand, it matters how much power we give to the thoughts and perceptions people have about our particular cultures.   It is evident that we cannot depend on public education to teach us about all people, so we must do so on our own and in our private lives.  It is hard to combat state legislation such as House Bill 2281 and Senate Bill 1070, once they has been passed, but it surely makes you think twice during elections.  My personal philosophy is that we should accept what makes us individuals and for me, being Black is apart of that individuality.   A person’s race doesn’t make them better or worse; it is simply apart of who they are and yes Michael, it does matter.