Or, at the very least, he's aiming himself in that direction.
How did I come to this conclusion? Well, a couple of weekends ago, I decided to look at his Facebook to see what he had been up to lately. That's when I saw a picture that he had shared:
Of course, this is in response to the national coverage the Trayvon Martin case is getting.
Not only were there racist comments about black people made in response to this post and attached with it, but my ex-classmate decided to contribute one of his own, regarding the five black people who killed the couple:
"...tie them up in the desert and pour honey on their balls while sitting on a giant fire ant nest in Africa, take the bitch and stick her pussy on a tailpipe and floor the gas petal until the exhaust flows out of the rest of her openings, then give it more gas"
I looked at this and I was like, "hmmm...why does the fire ant nest have to be in Africa? Couldn't it just as well be anywhere else in the world?..."
I was still surprised, because although I know there are a lot of bigots in Kentucky, I honestly didn't expect him to be one of them. It kind of--kind of--broke my heart. I knew he wanted nothing to do with me, but now I at least know why.
I showed this to my sister, too. She was like, "why does the black woman have to be a 'bitch?'..."
I cried a little bit over it as I discussed it with her. She didn't understand why I was crying. This revelation still hurt me in spite of its predictability. This was someone I worked on class projects with. And the whole time he didn't like me because I was black?!...
Honestly, when I first saw his comment, I was like, "why doesn't he just tattoo a swastika on his arm?" I was pissed. Maybe it's not that bad, and maybe it was just a poor choice of words on his part, but that's how I felt.
I mean, even when I know it's out there, even when I acknowledge that racism and bigotry have been present in America for hundreds of years, how do I approach something like this? I don't feel like I can just look at this and go, "meh, it happens." It always bothers me.
People are people. I've always felt that way. It upsets me that something like this has come up, especially when it involves someone I've had some kind of physical contact with.
I'm hoping and praying that he's not really a prejudiced asshole, that it was just a poor choice of words. But for now, I don't feel like I should have very much respect for him.
As for the couple the picture refers to, I'm sad for them. What happened to them was terrible and shouldn't happen to anyone. But the five killers got convicted. Justice was served. The reason Trayvon's story went national was mainly because his killer, having shot him for no reason, claimed self-defense when there was no evidence of it, plus it took several weeks for him to be charged.
If someone wants to rant about something not getting enough press, that's fine--we can just agree to disagree. But the racial slurs and insults are unnecessary.
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