How my Hatred for Spiders Echos Human Racism.

I hate spiders. My hatred ranges from the nonthreatening granddaddy long leg spiders that can’t bite humans to one of the most dangerous spiders, the Black Widow. 

I had an insect problem in my bedroom. I liked to eat food in my bedroom. I considered myself a neat person, but sometimes I left opened food lying on my desk. One day I started seeing ants crawling on my floor. Not a whole colony of ants but enough to know that if I continue leaving food laying around then more ants would come. 

I was sweeping my bedroom floor then I saw a couple of spiders against the wall. Spiders are in peoples’ houses no matter how clean it is, so I know there was no amount of cleaning that would prevent all spiders.

The spiders that I saw were the most harmless looking spiders. They looked more fragile than aggressive. Their legs were longer than their bodies, but their legs weren’t strong looking. They were curly as if they were broken. They were not fast moving spiders. I swipe my shoe at one and missed. It crawled up the wall  and I easily smashed at a second swipe. 

Despite the benefits of having spiders in your home to eat other bugs. Despite how harmless some spiders can be I learned that I hate all spiders. When I see a spider outside my instincts tell me to get far away from it. 

For whatever reason my hatred of spiders caused me to think of the hatred some people have on other races particularly some white peoples’ hatred on black people. 

I thought of how some white people hate black people even if they are harmless, fragile, and have no threat to others. When some white people see black people their instincts tell them it is a threat. Or, their instincts tell them to run from the threat like how some white girls are told to cross the street when alone and approaching a black man, but that rule should be for all men if the woman is in a area where if something happens no one can see it.

I never had a negative experience with spiders. If I ever been bit by one then I didn’t notice it. My perception of spiders came from the media that showed only the interesting aggressive and large spiders just as the media mostly showed the entertaining aggressive black men on documentaries of gangs, and in movies that showsd black men as either gangsters or womenizers. 

I know not all large spiders are aggressive like the Tarancula, which people keep as pets. In fact, most spiders are more scared of humans than we are of them. Most species of spiders will run and hide at the sight of humans. White people will come to find that black people (black males in particular) are more cautious of white people than they should be to us. If white police officers believe they should be cautious of black males then they should know that black males are more likely to “run” from cops because of our fear of them. 

I know that not all spiders are aggressive but I will continue to kill them if I see them in my room because my room is not where spiders belong. I don’t need the benefit of spiders eating other bugs because I can take care of that myself. If I let one spider live in my room then eventually another spider will come along, those spiders will mate, and I will have too many spiders in my bedroom to be comfortable with. 

Just as racist people know that not all black people are aggressive, but some of them will continue to kill us and judge us because they feel we do not belong in their small world. And, if they let too many black people live in their small world then the black people will overpopulate to an amount that is not comfortable for racist people.