I live in a mostly POC community, and I’m Irish with a very, very rough family past. Like, the reason my last name is so uncommon is because we were literally all slaughtered for “treason” because the Brits wanted our crops so badly that they decided our lives weren’t worth it.
And people take one look at me and think “White. That means they must be descended from slave owners! I have a free racism pass now!”
I’ve seen people spit in, take extra effort to find the smallest pieces of, or give me less food than I had bought.
And if you think “That’s because you must be a jerk”, another time a black man was in front of me in line and the cashier was a black woman. They chatted for a while and, while they were definitely strangers since I overheard an introduction, seemed quite friendly toward each other.
…then when it got to me, mind you I didn’t say a word or give any bad looks or really anything. I was extremely tired at the time, so I didn’t have the energy. And she started sassing me and I heard her mumble “why do I have to deal with these kinds of people”.
I’m just so tired of people being racist toward me and calling it “Reverse Racism” when my family came to America long after the Civil War, long after POC had freedom, and long after slavery was almost nonexistent. Plus, the Irish were treated horribly for “stealing American jobs”, and they still have the audacity to assume, just from my pale complexion, that I’m a decendant of a British slaver. I’m one of the furthest things from it.
I think people shouldn’t assume based off skin color or tone and treat others differently upon it. I don’t assume every person from the Middle East is a terrorist, I don’t assume every black person is a gangster, I don’t assume every white person is a slaver, I don’t assume every latin person is a drug smuggler.
Yet it’s socially acceptable for them to assume what I am and treat me depending on what they take just from a glance at my skin. My. SKIN.