Racism

Tonight I was watching an episode of Survivor and an issue that the contestants were dealing with got me thinking. It was about racism and whether a white man is being racist because he calls a black man crazy (rightfully though) without meaning any racist connotation. Sometimes I think whipping out the racist card gets abused a lot because it is an easy defence mechanism. The history of African Americans and racism is really disturbing when you think about the way people (in this case whites) can treat other human beings that are no worse than themselves, in fact in the case of racism the ones that were discriminated against were the better ones by far. The fact of the matter is, it is history and it no longer exists in such great extent (obviously there is still racism) and it is unfair to try to threaten or defend oneself with the " I am black and you are white- and we are fighting so therefore you're automatically being racist" card even if it is absolutely irrelevant. I am not a racist and I do not consider any race better than my own, so it just upsets me that we still have to deal with such issues in the 21st century.

The painting is called Flagellants, by Pieter van Laer.

ps: Flagellants (the figures in the white hooded "dresses") were Christians that whipped themselves to repent their sins. I just find it kind of ironic and interesting at the same time that the Ku Klux Klan chose to wear the same costume (being so sinful and so on).