Why the "birther" phenomenon is racism.

I know you just rolled your eyes, and thought, "Everyone is a little bit racist. I do not want to listen to Alexis tell me why this is racism just because the president is black, because black people can be racist too."

Individual racism is not the issue that I am talking about. I think everyone should take the time to realize their biases and work to see people as people (No, I am not saying be "colorblind" that in itself is racism. People are proud of their heritages, and it is okay to see that. This is all another topic for another time, so moving on....) The point is I am NOT talking about individual racism.

First a lesson in White Privilege, (here is wiki's explanation) and Institutional Racism.

WHITE PRIVILEGE:

What is the white privilege? It is that the "white" culture is seen as the norm. If it is normal to be white then you have power of invisibility. That is not to say no one notices you, but more no one notices your race. Everything you do and succeed at is attributed to you personally, and everything you fail at is attributed to you personally.

Here are a few examples:

• When you are asked to describe yourself do you ever say "I am white."? Or is that not something that you feel identifies you because you do not understand that there is a white culture. When people ask who I am. I am always a Latina. It defines me, and I am proud of it, but it marks me as different from the "normal" culture. 

• When you get a job no one is going to say it is because the company had to meet their "quota." It is going to be because you were qualified, and the best fit.  Like the countless people that say, "Obama only won because he was black, and had the black vote." 

• It is the fact that donkey-punchers (the tea-party) could march around the capital with guns, and no one care. If any minority group did that they would automatically be seen as a threat, but the tea-party was seen as patriotic. How wonderful! 

• A personal example of "white" being seen as "right": When I was younger and someone would ask about my heritage (this happened more often than you think). I would say, "I am Mexican," and 90%(Remember I grew up in South Weber, Ut) of the time this person would respond back and say, "Cool! I am American." I would then say, "I am American too!"I was completely shocked that this person thought I was Mexican while they were American. We were all American, but my ancestry came from Mexico (Utah, Texas, Colorado, California, Arizona.... ya know, Mexico!), and theirs came from somewhere in Europe. They some how thought they were more American than me because my skin was brown, and my last name was Lopez. That was because an American to them was a white, middle class, christian..... person **cough, man, cough**(let's not kid ourselves). 

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM:

This goes hand in hand with white privilege....

Examples:

• It is the simple fact that Black and Latino males are 2-3 times more likely to have their cars stopped and searched, but white men are 4 times as likely to have the "stuff" in their car. 

• There was a study where job applicants with "white-sounding" names were 50% more likely to get called back than job applicants with "black-sounding" names. Even though everything else on the resume was the exact same. 

• White males with a high school diploma just as likely as black and latino males with a college degree to have a job. 

I will not drag on for too long, about the definitions. I am sure you get it.

I am hoping you can connect the dots, and see why all this birther stuff was really racism, but if not I am going to tell you why, so don't worry.

We have a black president whose name is Barack Hussein Obama, and black is not perceived as American, or successful, and his name does not sound "American" **cough, white, cough**.  So how would a political foe get others to fear him? Easy, all they have to do is use what is already engrained into people's minds, and enhance this fear. Ask yourself, why no other president was harassed and asked to show his birth certificate countless times. Ask yourself why a president would continue to be harassed  even after he did show it. If you don't see white privilege, and institutional racism as the answers then please explain it to me, because it is all I can see.

I apologize that this is a rambled mess of thoughts, but I am frustrated right now, and it is hard to gather all my thoughts. This has bugged me for a long time, and I think I am about to explode.