African American

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts) Tue Apr 10, 2012, 10:27 AM Apr 2012

What To Do When The World Feels Too Racist

MONDAY APR 9, 2012 – BY SARA BIVIGOU
There was a lot of racism on the Internet last week. But there is always a fair amount of racism on the web – peep the comment sections of any mainstream website when it puts up a piece on race or dares to talk about a person of colour – but it seems as though a particularly wide hell mouth was cracked open. What with George Zimmerman apologists, the anti-black vitriol of the Hunger Games tweeters, the responses of despicable nerds to Awkward Black Girl winning a Webby, the Liam Stacey fallout and reactions to yet another account of Metropolitan Police-on-black crime. It is difficult enough processing these events individually but when they pop up in clusters they hurtfully highlight what a mess we’re still in when it comes to getting along.

Unless I’m feeling deliriously masochistic or in the mood to give my blood pressure a concentrated boost, I do not read about race and racism online, pretty much for the same reason I wouldn’t pitch up to a complete stranger and begin discussing the finer points of my menstrual cycle. The arena of racial discussion is too fraught and personal to enter with just anyone. Unfortunately as much as there was going on last week I couldn’t help but stumble into race on blogs that I frequent, fall into it in comment sections, bump my head on opinion pieces, I came away battered and bruised and very upset. I refuse to link to the article that sent me into a tailspin of sighing, weeping and playing Zuma with the curtains drawn, but by early Thursday afternoon I’d had enough. I switched everything off, unplugged everything, took to my bed and full-on cried myself into a nap. I woke up a half hour later, lay very still in the daytime dark of my bedroom and thought about coping mechanisms. Things people of colour can do to help them deal with living in a world that has racism in it, things that can provide comfort when it gets to be too much.

http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2012/04/what-to-do-when-the-world-feels-too-racist/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002540604

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What To Do When The World Feels Too Racist (Original Post) Blue_Tires Apr 2012 OP

Those coping skills could only apply to certain people. Neoma Apr 2012 #1

Neoma

(10,039 posts)

1. Those coping skills could only apply to certain people.

Reply to Blue_Tires (Original post)

Tue Apr 10, 2012, 02:06 PM

Apr 2012

I mean, you have to have friends to hang out with them, and shopping as a coping skill... Yeah, they're called shopaholics. From being through the woodworks in therapy, here's mine:

•Meditatate. If you can't seem to, try drawing. But ignore the perfectionist in you. Always make the mistake your advantage.

•Exercise. You feel better and it gives you energy. And nobody needs a heart attack. It's particularly good for when you're restless.

•Learn how to play an instrument. Harmonica and ukuleles are the cheapest instruments at the moment. If you don't have the time of day, listen to more upbeat music.

•Drink tea! Avoid energy drinks, coffee, and soda. They will make you crash straight to bed in the middle of the day. Tea is generally more soothing also. Here's for people who doesn't know how to make it properly:

1. Go with loose leaf, throw out the tea bags. They might have pesticides in them. Don't worry if you don't have a strainer, loose leaf generally floats to the bottom of the cup and ingesting tea leafs won't kill you if you reach the bottom.

2. If the tea is bitter, you burnt the tea leaves, try again at a lower temperature. Especially green tea, which is actually really finicky. You don't have to have the water boiling to make tea.

3. Brewing it longer will not make it stronger, adding more leaves will.

4. Black tea, green tea, and white tea, comes from the same plant. So, strictly speaking, everything else isn't tea. Herbal teas with no caffeine is just for falling asleep by.

•Being mindful of your surroundings. Basically this means to always live in the moment more than in the past or future. Today is what matters. History books don't (or shouldn't) count by the way, it's someone else's past, not yours.

•Never say, "I should do ___." If you say "I will do___," then you're a lot more likely to do it.

•One step at a time, never try to do 3 major things everyday. Set reasonable goals to handle.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

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