This week, in Wandering Truth, I’ll open by answering a question I received on my column regarding marijuana legalization. I was asked how I thought tobacco and alcohol regulate themselves. My answer is the answer to how any product regulates itself in this country, the free market. Cigarettes and alcohol have their dangers, which play a part in how much they’re consumed regardless of the law. However, to expand on my “self regulation” answer, I’ll say the law naturally must play a part in protecting consumers. Prohibition of alcohol didn’t work, but the law has to step in when people repeatedly drive under the influence.
At the same time, as cigarettes fall farther out of style, electronic cigarettes and “vaping” are in fashion. The law can and should dictate morality but only so far. The line tends to fall on one person harming another, while the most heated discussion revolves around how much we should let government protect us from ourselves.
Moving on to this week’s topic, I’m going to wade my way through some thoughts on this country’s racial tensions. A few months ago, I was out with my sweetheart, Amanda, and remarked on seeing an interracial couple, saying it was good to see. She chastised me saying that pointing them out, even in a positive light, is part of the problem. She felt maybe I was being condescending. Is celebrating diversity always a good thing? Does the struggle to minimize racism fall in celebrating diversity or separating cultural diversity from race? I feel prejudice over race won’t truly disappear until the color of one’s skin is as about important as the color of one’s hair.
So is it time for positive stereotypes to be denigrated along with the negative? Not all Asian people know calculus as not all Irish people are alcoholics. At the same time, I can’t say honoring the Tuskegee Airmen and Jackie Robinson is somehow counterproductive.
As a white person, I won’t try to speak for other racial communities. I don’t know what it’s like to be stopped by police for apparently no reason or feared when boarding a plane. I do know what it’s like to feel like the “bad guy.” I’ve never been profiled as a drug dealer or had a white female friend profiled as a prostitute, but I do know what it’s like to be associated with bigots or racists or any of the negative connotations attached to “white America.”
I don’t have the history of being abused, but the sins of the past fall on white people today. In that, I feel many of us across colors share common ground, and maybe that’s a good starting point. I don’t even feel like I’m a part of a “white America.” My stomach may be, but my arms are a little too dark to be considered white. For that matter, when will we elect a president with red hair?
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Will skin color become as important as eye color?