Surely you jest, why do you think you have the ability to anger me especially when all you've done is demonstrate your complete lack of understanding?
Can you see the air we breath? No, but you know it's there right?
Can you see the wind blowing? No, not the actual wind but the movement of the trees means it is blowing right?
What about the germs that cause us to get sick? We can't see them but if we could we could avoid them right?
There are two reasons that you don't see/agree with the amount of racism there is in the world around us in the United States.
Number one is because you don't want to see it because you don't believe it exists, so it could be dangled in front of face and you'd close your eyes or turn you head or walk away, to plug your ears with your fingers and blab 'lalalalalalalalalalalala' so you don't have to hear about it.
Number two is because you don't possess the ability to recognize racism except the most blatant, in-your-face type because in addition to reason number 1 above, it's not something that you are familiar with.
When I first started school at Embry-Riddle, I could identify every commercial aircraft that was flying at the time. I'd spend time with my friends and fellow classmates, lounging at the beach both at the end of the runway at LAX and in Daytona. We could identify them by first of all knowing what types of aircraft each of the airlines had in their fleet, the engine configurations, such as the T-Tail on the Boeing 727 with the engines in the back versus the wings, or the Lockheed L1011 which could land itself but also had a rear engine that went through the empennage in an S configuration with the engine intake on top of the fuselage and the exhaust on the bottom rear. These days I probably wouldn't recognize anything other than a 747 which I'm sure are even flying anymore or a 727 and particularly since Airbus has a significant share of the market these days but I digress.
I and some others have taken the time to learn more about African American history to better understand our laws, how and why they came to be, and through the process have uncovered many other things. For example, most of my instructors since I've been in Washington State have been white males. Learning about the concealed carry laws in the United States began with the discovery that gun control in the U.S. was implemented for the specific purpose of criminalizing the taking up of arms by Black people in defense against the Klu Klux Klan.
My white instructors taught me this, with no bias in one direction or the other, just simply this is our history, this is how we got to where we are today, with you not being able to live in the state you were born in and grew up in, because you needed to be able to protect your life and the state of California response was "too bad so sad".
At a prior point in my life I was sent one summer to temp at a very interesting company while still during my university years. The (white) gentleman, from Charleston South Carolina no less, when he discovered that I had an interest in aviation and was attending Embry-Riddle, would take the time to explain things to me regarding his investigations, how he founded his company and how he lost part of his leg in a plane crash and as a result vowed he was going to do whatever was necessary to find out why his plane crashed. He also told me about a case they had investigated where they simulated the conditions under which an aircraft lost power and crashed in a thunderstorm. The investigators took the exact same model of the aircraft that crashed and they simulated the up & down drafts that the aircraft would have been subjected to during a thunderstorm which the pilot had been unable to get out of. Amazingly, at least to my eyes, they discovered that when the aircraft was put into an extremely nose high attitude, that the fuel began running from the engine, due to gravity, and that the engine would eventually die of fuel starvation. The pilot being unable to get the engine restarted, lost his life when the plane crashed.
All of this information came out during the hearing when my boss gave testimony as an expert witness on airplane crashes and aviation safety. Their findings were sent to the FAA, the aircraft was grounded and an Airworthiness Directive was issued to the manufacturer of the aircraft, with instructions to correct this defect in the design so that the fuel continued to flow to the engine irrespective of adverse nose high attitudes.
One of my current mentors, another white male, gave me a start in one main area of my current line of business. It will be 10 years next year that company has been in business and when we talk we talk about a lot of general topics but pretty much always include work things, business things, family things, just like friends do.
I don't know what they perceive when they view me because I've never asked them except for at times they have acknowledged that the "good old boy network" was probably in my way on various occassions. Other people that I have worked with who may not have been able to elucidate what they witnessed and how or why it may have been racism or race related, but knew that what they witnessed was disturbing enough that they asked "what can I do? how can I help?"
I have a very low opinion of individuals who will lie about facts, or pretend that things are anything other than what they actually are and this whole gaslighting thing that goes on these days, I suspect that this has been going on forever, it just didn't have an adequate name previously but now we know.
The flip side of not having the ability to see racism when you encountered it is the ability you all have to take the Black people who are communicating with you on this site and perceive us as anything other than who we actually are. We've told you who we are but you all for some reason either think we're lying or that in your minds it's just not possible for us to be who we say we are. And it hasn't escaped my attention that you will often refer to me and IM2 as "success Black Americans" but then add that it's because we have benefited in some way or another from something that was allegedly not available to others (yes I mean white people by others).
Actually it's a bit beyond ironic since he has his own plane (Mooney) and claims that I was his inspiration for getting his pilot license oh about 18 years ago. Oh yeah, he's white (German).
