Racism is Taught

We've all heard the expression, "racism is taught". I see this crystalline when I take my kids to the mall or to the local park. My kids zip off into a whirlwind of color. There are kids of all ages and kids of every race and every mix thereof all playing to the hierarchy of the playground; not to some antiquated notion that that one race is better than another. No child, not my own, not anyone else's sees color. All they see is another kid. There is no single notion that they are any different than say a zebra butterfly or a monarch butterfly.

I recently had this notion proved to me yet again.

In anticipation of having one of my beloved Dodgers games on TV, I was flipping through the stations trying to find the channel it would be on and I stumbled on an ESPN special on Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. I loved the, "Showtime" Lakers when I was a kid. Magic brought something to the court I had never seen before and haven't since. I was captivated by his no-look passes, finger roll layups and sky hook shots. I was a die-hard Laker fan by the ripe age of 8. To this day I can find VHS tapes that I recorded, as an eight-year-old, of Laker games from the mid 80's.

What I never realized in the heated Laker/Celtic rivalry was the racial tension; that the Lakers somehow represented black America while the Celtics represented white America. I even heard Magic acknowledge it in a clip during the program, an entire segment was devoted to this. I must say that I was completely oblivious to this both as an eight-year-old when the Celtics were getting the better of that rivalry, and as a 12-year-old when the Lakers began to get the better of the rivalry.

I had no concept that these teams and these players by proxy represented racial tension in this country at the time. Being a gringo, I guess I was on the wrong side of that racial divide. I liked the confident, swagger-heavy Lakers that ran the floor and posted triple-digit scores every night. I hated the Celtic players and performed caricatures of the lanky, slack-shouldered Kevin McHale, the rigid and unbending Larry Bird. I hated that Robert Parish got to wear two zeroes instead of just one.

However, my disdain for the Celtics and my affinity for the Lakers had absolutely nothing to do with race. It had to do with the style of play, perhaps the personalities. The only colors I saw were purple, yellow and green. How sad that this otherwise great rivalry, arguably the best in pro sports, was tainted by racism perpetuated by grown ups. What a shame to introduce racism to a child that doesn't see it. We grown ups can learn a lot from children. We should tear a page out of their book when we think we know best how to handle things. We are corrupt. We teach this corruption to the younger generation. We need to stop doing this.

My son was born in the afternoon prior to Game One of the 2010 NBA Finals where the Lakers took down the Celtics down 101-89. The Lakers would go on to win the series in seven games. I still paid no thought that Phil Jackson was white and Doc Rivers was black. I didn't care. All I cared about was that the Lakers had finally drawn even with the Celtics at 16 championships apiece.

Racism is taught. Let's stop teaching it.