I was playing “World of Warcraft” the other day (yeah, yeah, I know), and I was forced to acknowledge the disheartening truth of racial bias in today’s society.
I really had no intention of getting involved in the race debate, until one of my fellow players pushed me so far that I couldn’t help but say something.
You see, in the “Warcraft” world, where no one can see your face, the way you type is really your only representation of yourself. When one player typed the phrase “Fuk u guys r dum,” I felt the need to tell him/her just how terribly written that phrase was. The reply? “Just ’cause you’re all white…” the player replied in typed English perfection. I was proud at first, but then I realized the problem with that sentence fragment.
“What does being white have to do with being able to spell and write?” another player responded.
The non-speller then replied, saying something about how when he types the way he does, “colored ppl” can understand him.
I was taken aback. It angered, annoyed and saddened me to think that people feel the need to alter the way they speak or write simply because of the color of their skin.
As I thought about the idea more, I realized that this practice is more common than I thought. How many times do we hear that someone isn’t acting “black enough,” or that someone is trying to be “black”? On a CBS Web page for Jameka, a contestant on “Big Brother 8,” a fan posted a comment about how she didn’t like Jameka at first because she wasn’t acting “black enough,” but the fan changed her mind once Jameka showed more of her black side.
There is something seriously wrong with a world in which people are judged not only by other races for their actions, but also by members of their own race who don’t feel that they’re sticking to the “norm” enough to fit in.
Why should a black person actively abandon any attempts at correct grammar and spelling? For that matter, lots of white people are inarticulate; why should perfect spelling and grammar be associated with them?
It just doesn’t make sense to expect something from one race and not the other.
It should be equally unacceptable for black people and white people to go around saying “fuk u guys r dum,” and it should be just as OK for black people to excel at the English language as it is for a white people.
I guess I was naive enough to believe that we lived in a day and age in which society had finally moved beyond such issues. Of course, I was sadly mistaken. This passive-aggressive, imbedded racism may not be as blatant as racism was in the past, but it still signals a deep issue with race in our society.
But I promise you this: If I ever correct your grammar, it will be regardless of your race.