White Denial

What is white denial?

White denial can be 1 of 2 things.

1. It can be the denying that someone they placed so highly on a pedestal can possibly be such a horrible person (such as a racist).
2. denying the the realities of racism.

But in this post I will talk about white denial in reference to the 1st definition. For a white person its extremely easy to look beyond someone's personality and to "forgive" them for it, especially when you are unaffected by their hateful personality.

You see, blacks and whites view people such as Disney, Ford, James Stewart, John Wayne, and even people like George Washington differently than whites for a reason. White people think blacks should "get over" the fact that such people were full blown racists. To white people, they were just products of their time. In a sense, they treat it the same way premarital sex and pregnancy is treated today, they pretty much find it socially acceptable and find no reason to balk at the horridness of it.

I once read a blog that talked about white peoples brand of patriotism and how its unrealistic and borderline nationalistic (like the Neo Nazis). In a sense, their idolizing people of the past is one in the same.

You see, the problem lies in the fact that they do not look at these people from a realistic point of view. They only want to pay attention to the good they have done. For a person of color, they are not afforded the luxury of "forgive and forget". Its hard to watch a movie with someone who pretty much would hate your very existence.

You can't get over something that you have to live with everyday. White people are often in denial about just how horrible of a person all these and many more are. They feel its not important because they came from an era in which it was okay to be that way. But that is who they are, and should we really be forgiving them for something they are not even sorry for? Shouldn't we hold them accountable?

The real question is, should people really be idolizing these people to the point that they see them as more than the human they are? Its because people view these people as such "greats" that end up causing controversy later on because people don't want to hear the cold truth that these so called greats were not so great in personality and life they were only great at what their job was.

In my opinion those who have to deny the truth or try to excuse it, more than likely condone such beliefs. I mean really, there are people who say John Wayne is not racist even though he had said full fledged racist things in an article of Playboy, I mean it was so clear that only a racist could possibly deny such a thing.

We all have a right to know if someone was dabbling with racism, I mean if you are going to make your views known, then why hide it years later?

It is still yet impossible to figure out what to do once you discover such horrid news. Some people of color boycott any of their things (but one would seriously be up a creek if they did, the soda Coca Cola was created by a stupid Confederate soldier, yep it was created by a bad guy).

Others though have learned to separate the item from the person yet at the same time look at it all realistically. And maybe that is where the answer lies. Instead of looking at someone for only the good they did and ignoring who they really are and putting them so high on the pedestal that you look at them as beyond human, maybe its best to start looking at them realistically. In otherwords, stop with those stupid countdowns of greats because the truth is these so called greats, really are not that great. Even Lincoln, the slave-freer, had a racist dark side to him.

In the end, rather than try to deny that these people were racists and in some cases worse (such as Lindbergh who was also an adulterer), its better to own to the fact that this is who they are. Most of them were vocal enough that to deny it is pretty much intentionally trying to shut out reality, they were proud enough to say it out loud then, so why hide it now? They made their beliefs known so why try to cover it up? It does no one good trying to hide who someone is. People need to get over trying to praise all these people for things in such unrealistic idolizing ways. You set yourself up for disappoint when you hold people over a pedestal.