My son “graduated” high school in 2020. I use quotes because his cap and gown are still in the plastic wrap. The trunk we packed for college is still full, sitting unopened in the living room. It stares at me every day and reminds me of what my son has lost to the overreaction to a virus he’s nearly immune to at his age.
Before the virus and overzealous Democrat politicians who were having a fun time playing games with our lives ended my son’s excitement for his first launch into adulthood, we were seriously considering finding him an overseas gig teaching English as a second language somewhere. He took years of Mandarin in school and has an affinity for Asian culture so we decided to look into Asian schools. Many of my friends took a gap year to teach ESL overseas and came home with enough money to pursue college. Maybe this would be something my son would like as well.
When I began searching for possible schools the stark reality of who we were as Americans and who we are as citizens of the world hit us both.
As Americans we are entitled to all the rights, freedoms, and mobility that have been granted to us by God. There is no vocation we are allowed to be excluded from, no school we can be denied entrance to, no street we cannot walk down by law. We take for granted our station as full participants in American life.
But the reality of life outside this country became clearer when the requirements for ESL teachers at school after school that I looked at consistently asserted the same demand: No black people. Often ESL schools in other nations want “typically American” teachers as part of their English brand. To them, the “typical American” is white, middle-class and often blond. Sometimes they would be a bit more diplomatic…”No African American applicants, please.” One school didn’t reveal their “requirements” until I called to inquire. They were very informal about their racism. It was spoken but they understood that these were not appealing things to put in writing.
After a few schools I simply gave up the idea and moved on to other avenues for my son. I was miffed but not upset. I recalled my cousin telling me how on his first trip to eastern Europe with the Navy, he left his vessel for shore leave and was immediately greeted with shouts of the N-word as soon as he set foot on dry land. It was his first trip out of the country, and only months after his first trip out of his hometown.
Langston Hughes and James Baldwin both found comfort in leaving their American lives for shelter in a much more tolerant Paris. 60 years later, Paris is drowning in culture wars and accusations of racism by the myriad of immigrant groups that have since streamed into the country.
My story of growing up as a little black girl in an all-white region of Canada is wrought with racial abuse which often manifested as physical abuse. In fact, I fled Canada at 18-years-old because my Canadian life had been defined by racism and racist abuse up until that point.
People who claim that the United States is the worst place on earth when it comes to racism are too privileged to know better. They have never made the effort to understand cultures outside their own, and in fact pride themselves on their ignorance. They are so immersed in American privilege that they assume everyone else on earth lives like we live and thinks like we think – the “we” being the intellectual Left, naturally.
The truth is, the United States is the most racist country on the planet, except for everyone else. Humans are tribal. No amount of shaming, canceling or legislation can thwart human nature, human sin. If you think America is the most racist place on earth I invite you to move anywhere else and begin telling the people of color who live there what a utopia they live in.
Check out my most recent video breaking it all down.