Brittney Cooper — an associate professor of women’s and gender studies and Africana studies at Rutgers University, says that time is racist.
Yes, really.
During an interview with NPR affiliate WSIU-FM, Cooper explained that black people have a reputation for being late, therefore time itself is owned by white people.
Typically, we talk about race in terms of black and white issues. In the African-American communities from which I come, we have a long-standing multigenerational joke about what we call CP time or colored people time. Now, we no longer refer to African-Americans as colored. But this long-standing joke about our perpetual lateness to church, to cookouts, to family events and even to our own funerals remains. I personally am a stickler for time. It’s almost as if my mother, when I was growing up, said, we will not be those black people. So we typically arrive to events 30 minutes early. But today I want to talk to you more about the political nature of time; for if time had a race, it would be white. White people own time.
Remmeber, these people are teaching your kids!
