First, I’m a white guy, born late in 1972. 

I grew up in Silver Spring Maryland which was and is a very racially diverse area. Silver Spring is pretty close to Washington, D.C. I initially went to Brookhaven Elementary, then to E. Brooke Lee Jr. High School and then off to Sherwood High School. 

Looking back Brookhaven Elementary was racially diverse but not quite as racially diverse as E. Brooke Lee. If I had to guess (hopefully I’m using the correct terminology) E. Brooke Lee was probably 60% White and the other people were a mix of Black and Hispanic. In that 60% of White people there was a large percentage of Jewish people. I’m not sure exactly, but I would say a larger percent of Jewish people than most other places. E. Brooke Lee appeared to have “some” racial problems however it was pretty much under control. I did get in several fights at E. Brooke Lee and some seemed racially motivated towards me. I didn’t mind and never really thought much about it as I just thought this was school. It’s not like it was the ghetto however in hindsight there were many people from low income neighborhoods.  E. Brooke Lee was a tough school however I just thought fights were normal. It wasn’t really that bad, it was just a part of life. I do recall having a good friend named Carlos. Carlos was a Hispanic guy, spoke perfect English, had curly black hair and one of those dirty black mustaches that was basically peach fuzz. Carlos was from a different neighborhood than mine. I’m not sure where he lived. We did exchange phone numbers to see if he could spend the night at my house however we were never able to get that arranged. One day, Carlos didn’t show back up to school. He just never came back. In hindsight, I bet Carlos’s family was here in the United States and got deported. Who really knows? Maybe I’m just relating Carlos to the current issues that are happening in the United States. I think about Carlos from time to time and wonder what happened to him. I should look in my yearbook, get his last name and see if I can find him on Facebook. It would be cool to catch up. One of my great friends Jamal from my neighborhood taught me how to breakdance. Today, I’m still a pretty good break-dancer. At 46 years old I can still break it down funky style; as I call it in my old age. Jamal‘s Dad used to drive this purple Volkswagen Bug that had flecks in the paint. Somehow his family of 4 would fit in that thing. Jamal used to tell us that his Dad was going to get a Cadillac that talked! It would say, “Your door is ajar”. My friend Richard and I would laugh and say, “There is no way you are getting a Cadillac that talks!”. Sure enough, Jamal’s family got a Cadillac that talks and then moved up and out of the neighborhood. I lost contact with Jamal but reconnected later in life only to disagree about race relations.

After E. Brooke Lee I went to Sherwood High School in Olney, Maryland. Sherwood was not really racially diverse however I would say it was 80 percent White. In my memory I wouldn’t say that there was any racism in the school. I don’t recall any racially motivated fights; I don’t recall the school being bad per say. I would say that everyone blended in pretty nicely. Olney was definitely a middle to upper middle-class area. It still is. I think perhaps this is my own problem. I probably lived from 9th grade to 12th grade in a cocoon. There were no racial issues and certainly no perceived racial issues from my point of view.  Even one of my black friends from high school that I have spoken to has said we lived in an area where we were primarily isolated from racism. Perhaps we lived in racial utopia?  During high school I even had a band and my singer was black. I just looked at him as a person. I never thought of him as anything else but a person. Was I naïve? Did he look at me differently? Who knows, I have never gone back to ask him. 

After high school I joined the Marine Corps. Although not the current policy of the Marine Corps, in 1992 at Recruit Training, Paris Island, South Carolina (Boot Camp) we were taught there is no color. We are all the same. We are Green. There is Dark Green and Light Green. In other words, everyone is just the same. I felt good about this and I embraced it. Additionally, I thought everyone, all the new Marines embraced this same ethos. In my next phase of training I went to Marine Combat Training or, MCT. This is where I got my first real dose of straight in your face racism. In the field I had a young black man (from Mississippi) tell me to my face that he hated white people. I never understood. He was supposed to have adopted this value system of the Marine Corps that we’re all the same. At night, “The Soul Patrol” would go around beating on skinny White guys to intimidate them. I was in shock! I would drag the “Soul Patrol” off some kid and ensure no one would get hurt and let them know that I would not tolerate what was going on. Marine Combat Training lasted for about a month and culminated in a field exercise that lasted about a week. Just prior to the end, our platoon leaders caught wind that there were racial problems in the platoon. Our platoon Sergeant, Sgt Lyons was Black and the Corporal, I don’t recall his name was Hispanic. The day before graduation in the squad bay, Sgt Lyons and the Corporal lined us up and began saying that they heard there was a race problem in the platoon. They began yelling and saying what a disgrace it was. They said whoever had a problem with it, to take one step forward. I gladly took one step forward. At that moment, Sgt Lyons screamed to get into his office. 

I walked into Sgt Lyons office and he was standing behind his desk. At that moment he flipped one of those very large heavy government metal desks over in my direction as I calmly walked in. He got straight up in my face with the Corporal and begin screaming in my face “Do you have a problem with my color?”, “Do you hate my skin color?”, on and on and on. I calmly just continued to say, “No Sgt”, “No Sgt”. There was no need to yell. Sgt Lyons then asked, “Well what are you doing in here?”. I explained to the two platoon leaders that I had joined the Marine Corps and had embraced the ethos that as Marines we are all the same. I embraced this idea that we were taught that we were all Green. Then I get to Marine Combat Training and I find “The Soul Patrol” beating on skinny White kids. In short, I explained that I did not want to spend the next 4 years of my life dealing with racial problems. Later the Corporal explained to me that we are all brothers and that in the Fleet Marine Force we will not experience these types of problems. 

After Marine Combat Training and the School of Infantry I eventually went to the Fleet Marine Force. My unit was far from diverse. It was primarily White. We had maybe 4 or 5 Black people out of maybe 30 people. We also had a few Hispanics, a Native American, and a person from India. My unfortunate first encounter with racism in my platoon was against my Black friend. I’m not going to name names because I still talk to them and I don’t want to identify them. We were at 29 Palms in the desert of California training. We were staying in something called A-frames which is pictured below.

The floor was sand and we slept in sleeping bags on cots. When we were not specifically training in the desert and had time off at night, we would spend our time at a place called the Warrior Club. Marines would do what they love to do during their time off which is drink. In fact, one night at the Warrior club, in the middle of the California desert, the Marines got so drunk they ended up getting into a massive brawl that was so big the MP’s had to come and break it up. Luckily, I wasn’t there for that one.  

Here is the sad story of racism within my platoon. One guy, who I was never fond of was sleeping next to my black friend. We were all pretty drunk, it was probably after 1am and the guy I was not fond of started whispering nigger. He just kept saying nigger trying to mess with my black friend. All of a sudden, my black friend unzipped his sleeping bag really quickly, ran over to the guy doing the whispering and began trying to beat the hell out of him. Once the fight broke out the lights in the A-frame turned on and everyone ran over to the two Marines fighting and we began breaking the fight apart. I’ll never forget this incident and I’ll also never understand why people have to be racist, ignorant and just plain assholes. I was not brought up this way, it’s not productive and it just doesn’t make any sense! Why hate? Or if you’re not hating, why be an asshole? 

The next time we had an issue in my platoon I was not actually present however the story has a bit of a twist and it is a bit legendary. My platoon was at Guantanamo Bay Cuba and we were supporting a mission called Operation Sea Signal. When we were not guarding camps that were filled with Cuban refugees trying get to the United States, we were either drinking or working out. One night at a watering hole called the Barrel Club a fight broke out between the Marines of my platoon and some people in the Army. Of course, the MP’s came and arrested one of the Marines in my platoon. The Marine was taken to the brig and put behind bars. While drunk and behind bars he was screaming racial slurs. The guards at the brig then called our First Sergeant, woke him up and put the phone up to the Marine screaming racial slurs and said this is one of your Marines. As a result, the First Sergeant put the Marine on shit sucking duty for the rest of the time at Guantanamo Bay. Shit sucking was simple. You worked with the trucks that went around sucking the shit out of the porta johns. So, this guy spent about 2 months sucking the garbage every day out of porta johns. At the end of our deployment to Guantanamo Bay, the First Sergeant awarded this Marine some sort of Shit Sucking certificate for a job well done. Although this is kind of a funny story my question is why? Why do we have a drunk Marine yelling racial slurs while in jail. Let’s forget that he is drunk. He obviously learned the racist behavior somewhere. 

Today, I just try and understand. I try and read history, be sensitive and understand perspectives from all people. Not just white people, not just black people, but all people. I do believe the media is a problem. I believe there is paranoia out there. I do believe we have a problem with the police. I do believe movies and music have painted black people as thugs and violent criminals. I do believe people read information that fits their own narrative and blocks their ability to get new perspectives. I do believe people should read books and inspire their own thoughts instead of reading everyone else’s subjective opinions. I also believe social media is causing huge problems and gaps and people are taking advantage of social media to gain power, influence, money and create divide. 

It’s 2019. Haven’t we moved beyond this???

What do you think?