Part 2 - Why are whites considered racists when they openly share their opinions and black people are at liberty to speak freely without being labelled a RACIST?

Posted by ~ Sheldon Redditt on 10/04/2014

I got a lot of emails requesting that my first blog become a series.  I don't know how many of these I have in me, but I am so happy to have broken through that age old monologue and started a real dialogue. A lot of people shared the blog on their Facebook pages and I tried to read all of the comments, but for some reason, one comment stood out from the rest.  A woman named Rachel commented, "someone finally writes how I really feel."  That was the general consensus, but again, most won't speak up because they'll be called a racist.  I know most of you guys saw the personal attacks that I took on Facebook and my father-in-law even suggested that I should tone down my blog for the safety of myself and my family.  Multiple black people have messaged me asking me, why I would choose to share certain personal "black secrets".  Black people, at least in my generation, were taught that you had to be twice as good as any white person at anything, in order to even be on the same playing field.  We were taught to speak one way in front of white people and were allowed to speak another way in front of each other.  Black people, let's be honest, the derogatory terms that we use amongst ourselves to describe white people, are no worse than the words, we believe, they are choosing to describe us behind closed doors.  To this day, this is how it is and it is time for it to end.  The whole point is, that I want to bring into the light what goes on behind closed doors, so that there can be change, growth and a coming together, of all people regardless of their backgrounds.

So, in answer to the original question, it seems that it became a war of words on Facebook.  But the gist of the feelings was that black people are going to think and call a white person a racist if they express themselves because they feel that all white people, by birthright, must pay the price for what some white peoples' ancestors did to some black peoples' ancestors.  You have people like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh who do speak their minds and are almost always labelled racists by black people.  I personally don't believe that they're racists and I think that they often have very valid points, although I don't agree with everything that they say.  I believe they're not even given a chance because of the simple fact that they are white, on Fox News and they don't back down, when they feel that they're right.  Ultimately, I believe that everyone could take a page from their books.  I think that people should stand up and vocalize what they believe in.  No longer should the only ones to speak their mind be TV personalities, Al Sharpton's and Jesse Jackson's.  I know that some white people think they are racist or opportunists.  And while I may or may not concur, I commend all five men for speaking their personal truths and not being ashamed or ever backing down.

No more should anyone say that they don't have an opinion on a subject because we all have an opinion.  If everyone would share their opinions, there is no limit to the conversations and learning that could take place.  People always say that they want better for their kids and the next generation, but how can things get better if we don't talk about and understand our differences?  Speak your mind, say your truth. Yes, it may offend some, but it'll start a dialogue.  You never know what you may learn or what someone else might learn from you.  If everyone keeps everything bottled up then nothing will ever change.  It will always be, black people think this way, white people think that way.  And you may never know what someone that you sit next to day in and day out actually thinks.  I was blown away when someone that I worked with for years commented, that in all his life, he had never met a good hearted white person.  This man is almost forty and just imagine that there is a possibility that many other people think and feel the same way about either race but haven't voiced it.  I believe that racism can actually be cured by just simply sitting down and starting a conversation.  Speak to the people in line at a coffee shop or the supermarket, you never know what you may learn. What he stated should not be something that anyone should ever think, feel or believe.  Life is too short to walk around with so much bottled up hate.  One should not go around suggesting, that the only way anything could ever be solved is if whites were to go through the same thing our black ancestors went through.  That is just reverse racism.  How will that ever solve anything?  This is my truth.  What's yours?