Friday, January 25, 2008

AM I WHITE ENOUGH? SEE? RACISM IS IGNORANT!

If you need another reason to understand how STUPID and assinine the subject is. The US media moreso than anyone else, is responsible for keeping the subject on our televisions as often as it is. The concept of racism is at best, immature and self serving. People who have issues as far as race, have to look JUST a tad deeper than skin-deep.

When I was in Washington DC, I noticed a trend that happened in EVERY race, and it is based upon the concept of each race helping itself out. You can be in a parking lot and physically WATCH someone putting their purchases into their trunk, get into the front seat, their lights come on....and...NOTHING..that is...until you continue driving. At that point, they pull out from their parking spot RIGHT after you leave and allow the person behind you who is from their SAME race into their spot. Now I am not sure how their vision is SO adept that they can see a couple cars down, but if this happened only once or twice to me, then I wouldn't say anything. Unfortunately it happened SEVERAL times. I am NOT going to cry racism. I don't know WHAT provokes that kind of activity. I don't know if it is based upon racism or they just decided to eat something in the car or sorted mail. I cannot say why that happened with the frequency that it did. I just know that it happened a LOT.

There are African Americans who are discriminated against because they are NOT dark enough. Well that is, unless they are Halle Berry or other ridiculously hot celebrities where they MAY have faced these things in their youth, but not as much in their celebrity status. There is racism/nationalism in Asia where if you are from one country or another, you are NOT as good of a person as someone from THAT country. The nationalism that occurs in Asia is somewhat paralleled with the classism or class issues in Latin America where the problem is NOT so much racism, but is based upon rich vs. poor. They don't care about somebody's race in Latin America as much as they care about a very rich man marrying below himself to a poor woman or vice versa. If I were single, I could NEVER, even as an American, marry a rich Brazilian Victoria Secret model. I am NOT single, and I am NOT looking. My Brazilian wife is what makes me rich! That said, I don't make enough for a rich latina to marry me. I don't make enough and the class status DOES matter.

There are people from ALL RACES who are DETERMINED to keep marriages within the race. Often we see issues from parents in the Baby Boomer generation who have SERIOUS issues with interracial marriage and often their support HINGES conditionally upon who they feel is best for their kids. A young man or woman cannot marry someone that their parents are set against? Why can't I marry this girl/guy? Is it because they are a different race? They are a different nationality? What year is this?? What CENTURY is this? Isn't this MY choice? Ahhh but I don't know what I am getting myself into...right? And you, who have married several people from several races....you know? Ohhh no, wait, you haven't...so how do you KNOW this from a first account? This is my point. We are NOT in the 50s or 60s. Segregation is over, slavery is over. Racism is FAR overdue to end as well.

This country is SUCH a brewing pot, we have people from every country speaking over 100 different languages. We NEED to call people for what they are. They are illegal or they are legal. If they are Illegal, they are deportation bait. If they are legal, they are AMERICANS. I don't care which community they belong to, the latino, asian, native indian, african american...I don't care. They are AMERICANS., if they have their citizenship, then they are US Citizens! We as a country need to recognize as well that Americans ARE from North America, Central America and South America.

The concept of having a political race which continues to deal with gender and race is an insult to this whole country and the media drives as hard to the hoop as they can to keep the subject on the front page.

It is rumored that,"to the caucasians, race means nothing and to everyone else, it means everything". While I can definitely understand how and why every race continues to reach back to their ancestors and their roots, and are proud of their forefathers for the sacrifices that were endured for over 500 years. I feel that race IS as important as WE make it in our own lives. We can make it the center of everything and use it as a scapegoat or as an excuse for everything we do, or we can just live our lives and ONLY talk of race when it is challenged or discussed. We all have to decide how our race will play in and to what degree depends on how sensitive we are about it as well as how our family has been impacted possibly DUE to our race. I will ALWAYS hold several Americans as heroes regardless of their race. I will also hold some Americans as heroes based upon how their civil right efforts. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was MUCH more important than ANYTHING that LBJ could have created. He was the political piece that HAD to be there, but it would have been any other President had it happened before or after he was in office. Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey revolutionized how sports would end up today. The African American community had the homerun record LEGITIMATELY cornered with Hammerin' Hank Aaron and Willie Mays for decades! While Mr. Bonds is on trial, he STILL holds the record. You may think that THAT was all Jackie, but he just started everything off. I can't forget Dr. King's wife Coretta King, Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Thurgood Marshall, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, or Booker T. Washington. Walter White was the FIRST LEADER OF THE NAACP and was OFTEN criticized as not being Black enough. Condoleeza Rice is viewed as not being Black enough because she is a Republican. Where does that kind of stupidity end? Of course, the absolute stupidest thing ever stated was that Clinton is the first balck president...Really? Ask Martin Luther King III if he respects Clinton for sleeping in the background? Seriously, Barack Obama is not yet President, but he WILL be if elected.

But, no matter what, look to people for who they are, if the ONLY thing you do in life is look to the character of people rather than the color of their skin, then you are only cheating yourself.

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